"practical (práktik'l) adj: facts based; plain, functional, and suitable for everyday use. Christian (kríschin) n: a person who believes in Christ and lives by his teachings."
"practical (práktik'l) adj: facts based; plain, functional, and suitable for everyday use. Christian (kríschin) n: a person who believes in Christ and lives by his teachings."
I grew up in a time when church frequently included special gospel meetings that featured a guest preacher imploring over the course of a week to get right and reap the rewards of heaven or certainly go to hell. Night [...]
My dearest cousin’s husband is dying. How odd that phrase when , in fact, we are all dying, just at different times. For an atheist the idea of death must be one of great loss and despair. To have as [...]
Picture God in your mind… If you’re like most of the people I’ve asked, you probably thought of some combination of a man in a gray beard floating on a throne in the clouds or a scowling judge glaring down [...]
Recently I discovered a wonderful poem entitled “ The Universal Prayer” by Alexander Pope. In the tenth stanza Pope writes: “Teach me to feel another’s woe, To hide the fault I see; That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me.” [...]
Lost, a terrible word. Rhoda, my lovely wife, was separated from her parents years ago at the Madri Gras parade in New Orleans. Years later, that memory is still poignant. If you have ever been lost, you will never forget [...]
“Jesus wept.” (John 11:35) The shortest and perhaps one of the saddest verses in the bible. The occasion was the death of a dear friend, beloved brother of Mary and Martha. Weeping for a friend – the human face of [...]
In past years the dinner table at our house frequently rang out with the words “eat your peas!” We had the same plea of parents everywhere for our young ones to eat healthy food. Things changed on the occasion my [...]
I’ve never felt okay ignoring people who are putting themselves out there for my protection. Several airplane flights ago I gave in tomy unease and started watching the flight attendants during their safety brief. Along the way I began noticing something peculiar…they never make eye contact.
This was confirmed when during a very rare first class flight (I’m usually in coach) I was clearly the only one among the 16 passengers watching. The attendant acted like a husband who wants to make sure his wife knows he is not looking at the attractive girl walking by. He looked in every direction but mine.
On the night of the last super bowl, we had just left church services when it began to snow. Large, lazy flakes were floating to the ground and soon it was covered, Before I went to my house, I went to my daughter’s house to build a cheery fire for her in her lovely fireplace. Then I hurried home to catch the rest of the game which was now at the half. As you know, the game outcome was not certain until close to the end. At approximately two minutes before the end of the game, our picture blurred. In the next few seconds the screen displayed a rather cryptic message. It simply said, ” You have have a complete loss of signal”. The condition continued until about five minutes after the game was over. As this malfunction was occurring, I scrambled for a radio and just as I got it tuned in, I could hear congratulatory remarks being made to the winner. The snow had covered our dish and cut off our signal.
Thousands of years ago someone else lost their signal. King Saul became so out of touch with his God, he finally lost contact. He kept distancing himself from God, a fatal mistake for a human to make. Saul is a tremendous study in lost communication between the Creator and the creature.
” He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3: 11 (NIV)
” Draw near to God and He will draw near to you….” James 4: 8 (NIV)
Every once in awhile, my swimming pool turns green. Algae comes in force and takes command. 
What was once lovely, clear, and blue becomes ugly, green and a haven for unsavory looking creatures. Disheartening indeed is the pathetic appearance of the water. No one cares to venture into the pool, or certainly spend any time in it. In order to “save” the pool, I must add a multitude of chemicals and expend time and effort. If all goes well, in a day or two, the water will return to a beautiful, pristine, healthy state.
Sometimes our lives become messed up, slimy and green with filth, like my pool. Without God, humans tend to the green and slimy. The only thing that will change humans from ugly to beautiful is the blood of the Son of God, nothing else. When the purifying blood of Jesus comes in contact with the wretched slime of the sins of humanity something marvelous happens, it changes people to something beautiful, something wonderful.
“…..And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7
Several years ago, I had occasion to open the top of the cavity that contains my water meter. The cavity is five or six cubic feet in volume and is usually dark and dank. Sometimes there are a few little creatures scuttling about, disturbed and wary. As I opened the lid, I noticed a hapless grasshopper that had wandered into this sinister subterranean chamber and had become entangled in a spider’s web. He looked rather pale, perhaps his vital juices already being withdrawn by this arachnid assassin.
The thought came to me that maybe I could save this creature by pulling him out of his entanglement. But, wait, maybe the spider might bite me too. Throwing danger to the wind, I plunged my hand into the abyss and lifted the unfortunate creature out. I placed him far away from the edge so he would not fall back into the spider’s trap. I thought how Jesus did that for us. He plunged Himself into a nightmare to rescue hopeless, hapless creatures and then placed them into a path toward eternity, away from eternal death and destruction.
“ Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them…….He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” Hebrews 7:20-27
“ So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many….” Hebrews 9:28
The New Year is a time of renewal reminiscent of the fresh starts each school year brought when we were children. Starting fresh is intoxicating to those of us encumbered with a litany of bad habits and regrets we would like to leave behind. Overwhelmingly those who resolve to leave baggage behind each new year fail. Most can make it a couple of weeks, a few for a couple of months, and a small minority past six months.
As the habits and regrets each day mount, we trod along hoping for another fresh start fix. Like junkies we crave a fix and decide to move, or change jobs or one is forced upon us through the tragedy of divorce, fire, or death. With each start we once again resolve to change only to fail again. Our hope for the next new year renews and the cycle repeats.
There has to be a better way.
“Energy follows thought ”
These three words were my take-away from three days of leadership training. Not that everything else wasn’t good information is was just more of the same from previous training events. I probably even heard these three words in training before but it never struck me the way they did that day.
What a simple rule for Christians.
When we take stock of what occupies our thoughts we will likely find an inventory of passions, fears, interests and distractions. These thoughts are the ones that determine what we do. A necessity of being human
But, when we consider what consume our thoughts we will discover our idols. The idols that consumes our energy will guide who we are not just what we do. Here we will find the birthplace of addiction and depression unless we allow our energy to be guided by love for God.
Make quick count of the things we humans tend to idolize: ourselves, people, family, food, things, abilities, money…all of which are destined to fail us in a temporal world. No wonder we are a depressed society. When our idols fail our energy also fails.
“Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Jesus of Nazareth ( Matthew 22:37)
When we allow our thoughts to be consumed with the love of God and love for God our energy will never fail.
Shalom
A warrior is a person experienced in or capable of engaging in combat or warfare, literally or figuratively. Most leaders are figurative warriors, those who show great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness in everyday challenges. Merely acting like a warrior is insufficient, a warrior leader must become one by consistently walking the path of:
1. Integrity – honest and sincere 2. Impeccability – faultless character 3. Outrageous – excessively bold 4. Personal Power – ability to act
The leader shows that style is not more important than substance, and that creating an impression is not more potent than acting from one’s center – Lao Tzu (500BC)
NOTE: For those who have followed this blog I apologize for a delay in posting. On March 10, 2010 we had a devistating fire that completely threw me off my routine. I posted the following article on my personal blog days after the fire. We hope to be fully back to posting articles in the coming weeks. God Bless.
It began with the emergency call code from Angie to me. [ NOTE: If you don't have one of these I recommend it. When I'm in a meeting or otherwise unavailable at work I press "ignore" when she calls which sends her call immediately to voicemail. She then redials and I know to answer because it's an emergency.] During my Wednesday morning meeting in Austin I answered to hear that our house (in Merkel) was on fire. Considering the situation she was surprisingly calm, frantic yes…but definitely not hysterical. Once the front windows broke and flames with smoke rushed from the house we both knew it was best for Angie to go next door to her parent’s home and wait instead of watch. As she was walking in I could hear through the phone the horns blowing for firefighters to evacuate and let it burn.
The fire department was on the scene within minutes of Angie’s call to 911. We found out later someone passing the house had called earlier so they got a head start. Even with the quick response there was nothing that could be done. Our house burned from a mix of accidental ignition of a heat source warming the dogs and 35 mph (with gusts to 50) winds. Even with seemingly initial success in controlling the blaze, the fire and wind created a blow torch effect that would require more water to extinguish than the two Merkel trucks and seven Abilene trucks could possibly pump. The responders fought until exhausted and made the correct choice to retreat, there wasn’t one thing in the house worth even an injury. Thank you to the Merkel VFD and Abilene FD for their efforts, you just can’t beat nature.
I have thanked God every day for Amie’s presence at our house on that day. She only periodically helps Angie clean the house but without screaming for Angie to come downstairs when she saw the smoke, Angie would have been in the shower on the second floor and endangered at best. I’m thankful Angie didn’t open the door to the back porch where the blaze was raging, the wind would have certainly blown the flames into her and Amie and I would be typing this from the hospital She could have thought she could save the dogs (they got out anyway) or put the fire out with her kitchen extinguisher (too late for that) but she had the presence of mind under pressure to just evacuate.
The community of Merkel is phenomenal…I will certainly write more on this in the coming weeks, we would not be as strong right now without the hundreds of our friends and neighbors who showed up to help.
Service to community and help to fallen comrades are tenets so engrained in the ethos of the Texas Army National Guard that we were almost overwhelmed with support. It took direct orders and a promise of future help to keep these Great Americans away. I will always be grateful to God for the blessing of working with such a great organization.
So we find ourselves at zero. Even with the donations of clothes and essentials from the community we still can fit our earthly possessions into the back of my truck. We have always talked big talk that we don’t put any stock on earthly things but the talk falls flat when we actually lose everything. An inventory runs in our minds of all the things we lost…
It’s not so much the loss of stuff that causes sadness but the loss of the memories connected to the stuff. We are saddened to think of losing Angie’s wedding ring, wedding dress, childhood doll “Susie,” cookbook collection, and high school cheer uniforms (into which she still fit!); Chelsea’s impressive collection of books, cheer and dance gear, senior scrapbook, and American Girl dolls; Chera’s sports medals, cheer gear, scrapbooks, snow globe collection, and artwork; The Bible I carried through combatin Iraq and my Jeep (it’s a jeep thing you wouldn’t understand) [Note: Monkey is safely secured at my parent's house because my mother rightfully decided years ago I wasn't responsible enough to have him yet] .
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [and fire] destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust [and fire] do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:19-20 (NIV)
On Wednesday night we had a family meeting in our hotel room to discuss the importance of the day. I believe that with every life changing event there WILL BE change. It’s up to us to make it positive. After a family hug we all confirmed that stuff didn’t matter and our memories will survive without the stuff. More importantly, we had each other.
The GREAT thing is we are only at zero in terms of possessions. We are blessed beyond description in so many other ways.
We are thankful and at peace…Shalowm
