Category Archives: Obedience

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The Art of Sacrifice

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“But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.  For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,  who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.”   1 Peter 2:20-25

This past weekend I served at a Christian event.  I knew that I would need to give up some of the normal comforts of life, that I would need to push my body beyond what I would consider a wise pace for my health concerns and  that my diet would also be compromised.  However, I was not prepared for what I would consider unnecessary risks for myself and others due to disregard and lack of effort.  I’m not talking about malicious acts by evil people, but rather inadvertent decisions and actions by genuine godly people whom I have come to appreciate over the last few days.  The perceived lack of safety put me in a mode of questioning my decision to serve, counting down the hours until I could leave and started a running discussion in my head regarding what is “reasonable sacrifice”.  Thankfully, God quickly took me to the example of Christ which caused my issues to pale in comparison and allowed me to serve to the best of my ability and develop new friendships.

With respect to sacrifice, consider the following elements: preparation, opportunity, people, sacrifice, and reward.

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Where is Your Focus?

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“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.  For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  Colossians 3:1-3

In high school, I was a member of the Speech Club.  After a few competitions, one realized that it was much easier to evoke fear, anger and sorrow than happiness.   Consequently, with a bit of skill and practice it was fairly easy to do well with darker prose and drama.  However, anyone choosing comedy had to really work to get the judges attention quickly and employ good timing to score well.  This is true in life also.  Because of our sinful nature, our tendency is toward fear, anger and sorrow rather than joy.  As a result, we tend to focus on our problems and losses rather than what God is accomplishing through them and looking to Him for sustaining grace.  Further, we often get so caught up in daily life that we neglect our relationship with God.  That’s why Paul encourages the Colossians, the Romans and the Philippians to focus on “the things above” rather than our earthly circumstances.

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Avoiding the Darker Side of Kindness

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“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  Colossians 3:12

Some of the definitions or synonyms of kindness are:  benevolence, humanity, generosity, charity, sympathy, compassion, and tenderness.  As indicated above, scripture calls us to be kind and engage in charitable acts.  However, there are times when our best intentions may not be charitable at all.  For example, the Sunday after I was released from my last major hospitalization, very well intentioned people, who truly cared about my well-being, greeted me with a hug…many of which were quite firm.  The problem was that I had just had a PICC line inserted and every hug involving my left arm was painful…so much so that I had to start doing body checks to protect myself.  Another example was while I was caring for my father.  In the last months of his life, visits from people became difficult for him and anything more than about five minutes would cause stress to the extent that he would beg me to send them away.  Some people graciously accepted the request, but others insisted on staying which created an awkward situation leaving me no choice but to demand that they leave.  My point is that there is a darker side to charitable acts that can, in fact, harm rather than help or encourage.  As in all things concerning godliness, we must be intentional about in our compassion to avoid having a negative impact. 

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Loving Well

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“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.”  I Peter 1:22

We have two daughters and two grandsons.  I paced a good bit at each of their births and was rewarded by having a newborn placed into my arms.  At that moment, there was nothing but love, joy and thankfulness.  It was easy…all reward and very little, if any, sacrifice.  After all, they didn’t complain, didn’t exert their will, and didn’t ask for much except to be clean and fed.  However, as they grew older, that love would require a fair amount of patience and sacrifice.  It is in the choosing to have sacrificial love, that relationships and bonds are formed.  As Christians, we are called to love well.   Not just within our families, but both in and out of the church body.  Further the call to love is not just when it is convenient.  We’re called to love during our trials as well as our times of ease.  We’re called to love not only the lovable, but the difficult, including our enemies.  Let me be clear, I struggle with this as much as anyone and, as with many of these posts, I’m writing to myself and using this as an opportunity to start refining my own behavior.  However, the fact that loving well may be difficult or inconvenient is not justification to ignore or take likely this direction.  When we’re tempted to take love for granted, put little effort into it because it seems too demanding or we just refuse to love someone that we find despicable, we would do well to consider the following. 

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God in His Mercy

Part 1 Forgiveness

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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ”  Ephesians 2:4-5

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”  Ephesians 4:31-32

This series of posts is dedicated to my mother Ruth as she is the inspiration.   She was not a perfect person and certainly did not have an easy life, but she loved well, loved her Lord and clung to His promises.

Sometime around 1945-1946 while my parents were dating, my mother stopped by her home to pick up some belongings.  Due to a previous altercation, she attempted to do this while her father was not at home.  Sadly, he was.  After a loud argument and in a drunken rage he pushed her down the steep flight of stairs between their apartment and the outside entrance.  My father, hearing the argument, ran into the house and up the stairs in time to catch my mother from behind while her mother grabbed her skirt from the landing above.  Roughly eight to ten years later, my grandmother filed for a legal separation and her attorney made this incident the basis of his case.  Having to relive this event would upset my mother and haunt her for years.   But in the midst of that pain, God in His mercy caused my grandfather to be so horrified by the details of this event that he stopped drinking and asked my mother for forgiveness.  God in His mercy gave my mother the ability to forgive him and allowed the relationship to be restored.  It paved the way for my siblings and I to know our grandfather.

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Checking Our Baggage

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But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  1 Corinthians 11:28

Some of my family members tease me about the amount of luggage that I take on a trip.  In my younger days before the health issues took center stage, I used to be able to pack rather efficiently.  However, things are a bit different now.  Because I no longer tolerate cold weather or changes in weather well, my luggage often contains everything from shorts to winter sweaters.  Further, in addition to a case for my toiletries, I have another one just for the medicines that I need or may need.  Consequently there is some concern when we’re flying as I’m worried about the weight limit for checked luggage.  It requires a bit of scrutiny to make sure that I take what I need but not so much that I’m over the limits.  I am most efficient and discerning when I have time to lay everything out that I think I need and then carefully examine it and evaluate what I truly need versus what I can leave behind or risk going without.  If I’m not careful, it’s easy to go over the limits and find myself weighed down with luggage and additional expense.  Life is like that too.  If we don’t examine ourselves and sort out our lives, we often carry around a lot of unnecessary and even harmful baggage.  In the book “The Emotionally Healthy Church, Peter Scazzero compares us to an iceberg.  “About ten percent of an iceberg is visible to the surface.  That is the part of our lives of which we are consciously aware.  Note, however that the Titanic sank because it collided with a section of the submerged 90 percent of an iceberg.”  In other words, many of our problems with other people and how we handle difficult situations is greatly impacted by the 90 percent of which we are unaware.  That is why several passages in scripture, including the one above, call for us to examine ourselves.  It’s not intended to make us feel bad about ourselves, but rather to deal with negative issues so that we can walk more closely with our Lord, enjoy better relationships and, in general, have a better quality of life spiritually and emotionally.

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I Don’t Feel Like It

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 “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”  James 4:17

For those of us who live with chronic illness and/or pain, it’s often a real balancing act trying to figure out what we can or should do and what we need to avoid.  We must be careful not to exacerbate our problems by being reckless, but we don’t want to stop living either.  Unfortunately, too many times, it’s easy to avoid doing something we are called to by saying that we don’t feel up to it.  However, this isn’t just about our illness.  It goes much deeper to our attitude and what’s important to us.  Whether we are ill or not, we all face life’s challenges, physical limitations and mood swings.  Too often we find an excuse not to do something and that’s what James is referring to in this passage.  Today is one of those days for me.  I need to write to be faithful to God’s calling, but I don’t feel like rising to the occasion.  Between the weather changing and traveling over the weekend, my body has been crashing and I’m just worn out.  It’s not that I am unable to write, I would just rather not do anything…and there’s the rub.  I’m able but would rather not.  To write will not threaten my wellbeing or overall health so there really is no risk.  So here I am, writing, because it is the right thing to do.   In that light, let’s consider overcoming laziness, using discernment, facing risk, and looking for strength.

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The Words That We Speak

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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.  Psalm 19:14

I just returned home from a week in New England visiting my mother-in-law and doing some work for her.  I took Monday afternoon to visit Rockport…a place that my wife and I have enjoyed for many years.  It was a beautiful day and, because it was mid-week during the off season, it was not overcrowded.

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Bond-Servant of God

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“Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, ‘You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’”  Mark 10:42-45

I find it interesting that Philippians, Titus, James, 2 Peter, Jude and Revelation all begin with a description of the writer as a bond-servant of God.  Culturally, the concept of servitude is undesirable.  We are told that independence, self-service and personal comfort should rule our perspective.  Yet this is not God’s design for civilization.

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Acceptance – Part Four

On Earth as it is in Heaven

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“Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Matthew 6:9-10

Like this one, the previous three posts have been on acceptance…specifically on acceptance of God’s plan for us as individuals.  When we study the concept of acceptance, our concerned is usually a particular circumstance.  We tend to lean in that direction because it is easier to deal with things separately and the more monumental issues tend to come one at a time.  However, the truth is that we rarely deal with one any trial in a vacuum.

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