Archive for January, 2008
Small Beginnings…
January 21st, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in » Christian Living, Devotions / Bible Studies
Just a few quick thoughts tonight before bed, all arising from our Sunday School lesson yesterday.
First, a couple Scriptures, both from the New Living Translation.
Zechariah 4:10
10Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.
Matthew 13:31-32
31Here is another illustration Jesus used: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. 32It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.â€
I don’t know about you, but often times when God has laid things on my heart to do, the task has seemed so large that I haven’t really known where to begin. It’s not necessarily even that the task itself is necessarily huge, but sometimes simply because I see that the task has huge potential. Either way, I often find myself a bit overwhelmed… finding it hard to eat the proverbial entire elephant.
What to do?
Too often, I simply put off the task for a while, trying to figure out not only how to get my arms around the entire thing, but how to swallow the whole thing in one ginormous bite. The result? You’ve probably already guessed… I either become tired and frustrated with the amount of chewing required, and eventually spit it out in failure, or, in some cases… I struggle through to the end to find success. It’s not a futile effort ALL of the time, thankfully!
So what am I getting at? Certainly not that mode of attack for tackling God-given tasks.
Check out Matthew 13:31-32 and Zechariah 4:10 and be encouraged.
For God to be pleased, we don’t have to do everything all at once! Sometimes, we just have to start the work, tackling small items, bit by bit. We don’t have to do BIG things for God to be pleased. Moreso… often the little things in which we are faithful grow into something far bigger than we’d ever imagine!
Think about it. What events in your life have been most meaningful to your walk with Christ?
Odds are, they’re not big items. Maybe it’s simple words or notes of encouragement offered to you by a friend. Maybe it’s those few minutes spent in prayer each morning. Maybe it’s a single Scripture passage God has laid on your heart to remember. You tell me… what has it been in your life?
Little things make a huge difference. Be faithful in tiny tasks or small beginnings, and let God take care of the big stuff.
Sledding Fun!
January 20th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in » My Life / Family, Pictures
Today, we spent a bit of time with one of my favorite winter activities… sledding. While a bit cold outside, we had a blast!
You’ll enjoy the following video (click on the picture below), and the photo gallery from the day.
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Coincidence or Reward?
January 19th, 2008 | 4 Comments | Posted in » Christian Living, My Life / Family
This morning, I’ve got a true story and a quick question. Story first.
Yesterday afternoon, I dropped by Cabela’s in Kansas City to return a gift I’d recently received. It was a fine gift, but simply something I really didn’t need (don’t tell me you’ve never done the same!). Anyway, after returning the gift and receiving store credit, there I was, stuck in Cabela’s… forced to figure out how to spend $118.36 in store credit. Let me tell you… it was a rough task, but somebody had to do it.
I wandered through the store for quite a while, but eventually settled on two items… a new winter coat for Nancy (she had needed one for some time), and a nice replacement fishing reel for me (I had one wear out last summer). The total? About $160, before tax. More than I had on my gift card, for sure, but I had a bit of extra Christmas cash left over, so it was no big deal. I proceeded to checkout… and things got interesting.
After ringing up the items, the cashier gave me my total… about $130. Pleasantly surprised, assuming that something must have been on sale, I paid with my gift card and a bit of cash. The cashier handed me my receipt, and I looked at it to see what was different.
I found myself smack-dab in the middle of a moral dilemna.
You see, the cashier had made a mistake, ringing up the fishing reel twice… missing the coat completely. The error was obviously in my favor. What to do?
It’s amazing what rushes through your mind in that situation.
“WOOHOO! Free money!”
“No one will ever know.”
“What kind of trouble will that cashier get into when they discover she goofed?”
“I can’t just walk out of here without setting this straight… it’s not right.”
“Leaving now would effectively be stealing from the store.”
“God won’t ever let me forget if I take advantage of this situation.”
“How will I ever return Nancy’s coat if it doesn’t fit without a matching receipt?”
Yeah… I had the cartoonish devil on one shoulder, angel on the other thing going on. It felt like several minutes had passed as thoughts flitted back and forth in my head.
I turned back to the cashier.
“Um, miss… I believe you’ve made a mistake ringing this up. I don’t mind paying less for this stuff, but I don’t want you to get in trouble.”
Handing her the receipt, I explained, “See? You rang up the reel twice and missed the coat.”
With a puzzled look on her face (I think she thought I was nuts for asking to pay more for the merchandise), she mentioned something about not knowing how it happened, and she went to get her manager to get the issue straightened out.
So I stood there, in line, with several impatient-looking people lined up behind me.
Several minutes later, the cashier and manager returned. The manager pointed her in the right direction to straighten things out, and after cancelling out the previous transaction, she rang up the coat.
$49.99… 50% off the coat’s tagged price of $99.99.
Now, maybe I was just blind, but there was nothing in the store where I found Nancy’s coat indicating there was any sort of sale… much less a 50% off sale. But there it was… 50% off.
My jaw dropped. 10 minutes earlier I was about to walk out of the store dancing for joy that they’d goofed in my favor. Now, here I was… looking at a correct total that was less than it was when I was all ready to walk out with my dishonest gain.
I must have simply been standing there with a stupid look on my face, as the next thing I know, I hear the cashier say, “Sir? Here’s your receipt and your change.”
The gift card had covered my purchases completely. She handed me my receipt… and two pennies.
Yes… the gift card ended up covering my purchases… with two cents left over.
Coincidence, or right behavior rewarded by a God in control of everything?
I know what I think. How about you?
Friday Photos — By Request
January 18th, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in » Pictures
Yeah yeah yeah… I know… it’s been too long since I’ve posted pictures of the kids.
Here’s a few of the better ones from recent weeks, just for their Aunt Debbie!
Pray for the Halley Family
January 16th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in » Prayer Requests
To be honest, I’m not quite sure what to say tonight, so I’m simply going to tell it like it is.
The Halley family needs our prayers.
You see, Brian Halley has melanoma, and doctors have recently informed them that despite all their efforts to combat the cancer, there is nothing more that they can do… Brian’s cancer is expected to be terminal. Jenni Halley has shared their heart-wrenching story as it has unfolded here.
Brian, Jenni… whatever words I could offer to you from my own heart would clearly be inadequate, so tonight I simply pray that the promises found in God’s word in Romans 8 would bring comfort, peace, and hope to you and your family:
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He 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? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? 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. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
”For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither 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.
May the love of Jesus Christ be clearly evident to you through these trials, and may faith in Christ sustain you and bring you hope.
(In case anyone wonders about the relation here, it’s through my sister. She is a close friend of Jenni Halley’s sister, and shared this with me tonight, asking me to post it here.)
Circumstantial Faith
January 10th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in » Christian Living, Devotions / Bible Studies
I was listening the radio the other day, captivated by the testimony of a Christian musician who was sharing the story of a time in their life when they felt distanced from God due to a number of things, primarily due to an inability to “feel” God’s presence, probably driven by difficult situations they were going through in life. As you might suspect, they captured the time and their struggle with music. I don’t recall all the details, but they’re not terribly important to the topic at hand… circumstantial faith.
All of us go through difficult times in our lives… sickness, financial troubles, difficulties at work, deaths of those close to us, marriage problems, frustrations with our children… need I go on? Suffering is an unavoidable part of life.
In those times, God doesn’t always “feel” so close at hand. Our mountaintop faith experiences, ones where God’s presence is so real we can almost reach out and touch Him… well, they’re temporary. Back in the “real world”, those valleys in our faith journey where we commonly live, God often seems distant… even almost non-existent or completely unreachable sometimes.
John writes in his gospel of this in the account of Thomas:
John 20:24-31
24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Circumstantial faith is like that of Thomas… having to see the marks and feel the holes… needing to experience God first-hand on a regular basis… dying slowly when those experiences simply aren’t present.
While it’s natural for our faith to wax and wane some related to our personal experience with God, what kind of faith do we have if it’s wholly based on our experiences? Is circumstantial faith real faith? What happens when we rely on feeling to determine our level of faith?
The answers to those questions aren’t all that pleasant, if you ask me.
So how can we grow our faith beyond the circumstantial, that we might remain strong when God does seem distant? We know that it’s almost a certainty that difficult times in our lives will come and that God won’t always feel right there beside us. How do we cope?
Perhaps belief is simply a matter of will sometimes… trusting what you know to be true, and remaining determined to stick with it to the end?
Any thoughts?
Out of the Overflow…
January 8th, 2008 | 4 Comments | Posted in » Baptist Issues, Christian Living, Devotions / Bible Studies, My Life / Family
I was looking back over some of the things I’d written from various times of Bible study over the years, and ran across a devotion on Luke 6:43-45 I’d written almost five years back. In thinking over what I’d written, it occurred to me that this passage might be somewhat applicable to much of the rhetoric, debate, and conflict in Baptist life recently. Or, maybe it’s just applicable to me.
Regardless… here’s the passage:
Luke 6:43-45
43No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
I’d originally written the following:
I don’t think this passage needs much explanation. Think about it a bit, then ask yourself the following:
- What’s coming out of my mouth?
- What are my most frequent topics of discussion?
- What do these things reveal about my heart and what’s most important to me?
These questions are still applicable for self-evaluation… it’s clear, beyond a doubt, that what we talk (or write) about reveals a lot about what’s important to us.
The question I find myself asking tonight is simply this:
If a blog primarily focuses on the conflict in Baptist life, what does it reveal about the author?
If you look at the categories in my left sidebar, you’ll notice pretty quickly that “Baptist Issues” is my number one topic. Worse, were you to look at my bloglines feeds, you’d find the majority of blogs I read deal with Baptist conflict.
While I feel I’ve been civil (for the most part) in the discussions in which I’ve partaken, and I’ve moved away from this almost completely in the last couple months, tonight I simply find myself ashamed of the fact that this has been what has consumed my blogging interests in the past… foolish and stupid arguments (2 Tim. 2:22-26).
No more.