Tag Archives: Obedience

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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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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 2 Encouragement

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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

“In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.”   Titus 2:6-8

My mother was an unassuming woman who was quite intelligent and gifted.  As a surgical nurse for roughly 30 years, she had to be precise and accurate.  As a student she excelled.  She was valedictorian of her high school graduating class and graduated with honors when she had to return to school as an adult while working full time to maintain her nursing licensing after a move from one state to another.  She was also an excellent seamstress and cook.  All of this was done without calling attention to herself as that was never her goal.  For me she was a model of how to live a quiet life minding one’s own business and working with one’s hands (1 Thessalonians 4:11).  Three specific areas that readily come to mind are stewardship, hospitality and integrity.  God in His mercy put her in my life as an example and teacher as well as in the lives of others for their benefit.

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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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Honor and Respect

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Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.  Romans 13:7

I had some medical tests done today by men and women I had never met before.  They exhibited concern for me as patient and I trusted them for their knowledge.  These were brief exchanges, but despite the fact that these medical professionals were literally inflicting various levels of stress and pain on my body, they passed pleasantly and with rapport.

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Acceptance – Part Three

Not My Will, But Thy Will Be Done

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“He knelt down and began to pray, saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.’ Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.  And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”  (Luke 22:41-44)

Imagine Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He has trained the disciples.  He has concluded His ministry.  I was time to return to the Father, but there was one last task…His death and resurrection.  In preparation, He is coming before His father in prayer.  However, it is a prayer like no other that He has offered…He is asking “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me”. 

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Acceptance – Part One

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good”

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“I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.  For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.  God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.  Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”  Genesis 45:4-8

When trials hit, our lives are often turned upside down.  What once was, is no more.  We mourn our loss, we wonder how we can continue, and we are anxious about both the present and our future.  In our frustration, we often focus on survival and the disruption of our plans rather than godliness.  We think that knowing what God knows will help…that somehow our small finite minds can adequately evaluate the vast, all knowing mind of God.    In the end, if we are honest, acceptance is really about giving up control.

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Looking in the Mirror

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“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;  for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.  But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”  James 1:22-25

Mirrors are quite useful in our lives.  We use them to make rooms brighter and look more spacious.  In gyms and dance studios they help us improve our form.  Most commonly, we use them to make sure jewelry and ties are in place, hair is properly styled and generally everything is tucked and straightened to present the best possible appearance. 

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Dancing With God

Trusting Him

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“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

My wife and I like to dance.  Considering all of the choices, the waltz is our preferred dance.   I’m not talking about the basic box step, but rather moving down the line of dance with whisks, weaves, turns, etc. 

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Making Our Days Count

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“So teach us to number our days,  that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”  Psalm 90:12

My wife and I are at that age where we seem to be attending significantly more funerals.  Very recently a dear uncle has left this earth to be with his Lord.  His wit, humor and compassionate spirit will be greatly missed for the duration of our lives.  While we are happy for those receiving their eternal reward, we truly miss those that have had a significant impact on our lives.  Psalm 90 is one of those psalms that really puts life into perspective.  A very brief summary is; “life is short; live it well.”  Oh how short our lives really are and the comparison of life to grass in verse five drives the message home!

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