“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

Once upon a time a man lived in a little village that was overrun with skunks. This man was a good hunter and trapper and knew how to entice the skunks into cages. People would ask him to come and remove the skunks that denned up under their houses. He became known as the “SKUNKMAN”! He eventually charged a small fee for his services and most people were happy to pay him to take away the odorous little creatures.

One day, after removing the fifth skunk from a home, the homeowner asked what would happen if he didn’t pay. The SKUNKMAN said he put captured skunks into little cages and gave his clients thirty days to pay. If on the thirty- first day he had not received his money, all the skunks he had collected from under the non-payers home would be returned to the front porch. Needless to say, this policy was seldom enforced.

Our sins are like skunks, they seem to hang around and stink. Satan likes to bring them back to our door, over and over and over. He wants to shove our faces into our mistakes and shortcomings. He wants to keep us captive, ruminating over old failures. It is one of Satan’s biggest tricks, to get people to despair and think there is no way they can be “good enough” to be acceptable to God. The good news is that the price of our “skunkey” sins are paid for by the blood of the Son of God, Jesus Christ! Satan cannot bring back our sins for payment, they have been paid, in full!

“ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“…and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” I John. 1:7

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 after night the message and volume would escalate until a satisfactory number had responded to avoid the punishment of hell.

As a result, my upbringing most of my Christian life has been spent figuring out what “get right” means.  My relationship with God was shallowly based on a set of rules based more in the tradition of my recent ancestors than the Word and Spirit.   It took a couple of family tragedies and a tour to combat for me to reevaluate and search for a deeper foundation [Christ] for my relationship.

The struggles of my God relationship search came flooding back as I read Daniel Pink’s book Drive:  The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us in which he presents a compelling case for a deeper method of personal, peer, and subordinate motivation.  I was struck with how closely the history of motivation parallels the Bible story and my story.

H. Belloc, in his essay, “The Little Old Man”, said, “ that of everything which runs or creeps upon earth, man is the fullest of sorrow”. Sometimes, the events of life send Belloc’s observation about sorrow cascading deep into our psyches. We may feel overcome, even overwhelmed by the loss of loved ones that seem almost impossible to bear. But, over time, great sorrow is replaced by joyful confidence that God is with us and all is well.

Jesus was described once by the prophet Isaiah as “a man of sorrows”. A being that could have had anything He wanted, and died on a cross, how strange that would seem to a person who didn’t know the greatest story ever told! But, now, He does have everything, eternity in heaven with His loving Father! From Calvary’s misery to heaven’s glory . He’s home, home at last. And He calls us home too. Little sheep, come home to Me, and be safe at last, safe at last.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair…, struck down, but not destroyed… For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Selections from I Corinthians Chapter 4 (NIV)

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)

Have you ever been on the “outside” of things?  Remember when certain ones were chosen last to be on teams in their childhood?  It was usually the same person all the time.  We all want to belong, sometimes desperately.  How sad it is for those who want to be on the “inside” and are held on the “outside”.  Wouldn’t it be grand if there were a place where who you were didn’t make a bit of difference to those who were there, and there you would be accepted, loved and even adored?  There is!

It’s the family of God, a community of believers, who because of what was done for them, would do anything for you.  People want to be valued – to know they were here for a reason – that is what fellowship is all about – to bestow honor upon those who expect it the least – a community where one is treated and treats others better than any place on earth.

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” I John 4:11 (NIV).

A Child of the King

By Lou David Allen

I stumbled and fell right down,
Silly me, I hate to be a clown.
I was hurt, I knew, really bad,
They all laughed and I was sad.
Mocking, “ You can stand if you try!”
But, all I could do was sit and cry.
So completely embarrassed by it all,
Why did I have to go and fall?
I hung my head in shame,
And thought, “It’s all me to blame.”
Then I heard someone sweetly say,
“Have you hurt yourself, are you O.K.?”
No, it couldn’t possibly be true!
The most popular girl in my school,
Sitting here, by my side,
Unwounding my broken pride.
Afterwards, all agreed she had done me a kindly thing.
But I think more.
I think they had seen a child of the King.

I can still jump as high as I always could, I just can’t stay up as long, my cousin once said.  He was making humorous commentary on the fact that he was getting older, and knew it.  That little funny statement has a great truth embedded.  That is, facts are often overrun by fiction.  Coming from emotional sources rather than logical ones, fictional, emotional ones sometimes seem logical.  I once worked with a man who would hold his hand over his heart and say, “Dave, if it feels good in your heart, it must be right.”  Really? If that were true, the rich young ruler that Jesus interviewed would have been completely O.K. because he “felt” he was O.K. But the one thing he lacked and needed to do, was not in his mindset to do.

Some people today have a great feeling about their acceptance of Jesus, but little regard for what He commanded for full obedience, baptism. Like the rich young ruler, they refuse to finish their acceptance. Movie stars desire to be described as famous, not nearly famous. People should desire to be described as saved, not nearly saved.

“ I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” John 3:3 (NIV)

“ I tell you the truth, no on can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of the water and of the Spirit.” John 3:5 (NIV)

“ Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38 (NIV)

“ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:3-4 (NIV)

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”, according to a Chinese proverb. How true! People sometimes hesitate to start long journeys of all kinds because they perceive the difficulties they may encounter along the way. I have also noticed that people who do make journeys love to tell of their experiences and may have some photos to enhance their story. Some of my friends have visited many countries, I have only been to one other than my own. Some of my friend’s trips have cost them quite a bit of money. There is a journey that all will make and that is the one into eternity. No one will be able to say that journey is one they won’t make. We all will, unless Jesus returns first. If one believes God’s Word, the journey will end in heaven or hell. The price of the ticket is vastly different for each destination. The price to hell costs nothing and a person can purchase the ticket by doing absolutely nothing. Satan will take care of the ticket and be one’s personal conductor. The price of the heavenly ticket is awesome. That ticket cost God His only begotten Son. Your ticket is paid in full – the blood of Jesus on a Roman cross.

“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” Matthew 20:28

A Glimpse of Eternity

By Lou David Allen

Stars floating on an endless celestial sea,

A glimpse of eternity.

Arching rainbows in the clouds, gifts from Divinity,

A glimpse of eternity.

Mary, bouncing her baby on a knee,

A glimpse of eternity.

Romans planting crosses high on a hill for all to see,

A glimpse of eternity.

“Christians are horrible, they are so mean.”

Not only is this sentiment too common today, but these were the words I heard from one of our varsity basketball players this morning.  We had just finished a win over a Christian school who’s crowd began a personal verbal attack on the player over perceived rough defense.  The 15 year-old player was left reeling from a crowd of adults screaming at her. As I overheard her talking to her mother on the phone, the words of dissappointment stung with each syllable.

“Christians are supposed to be the best, but they are the worse.”

Unfortunately this was the second Christian school in as many days who had behaved in a similar manner.  I must confess my own behavior has not always been exemplary during close and heated games.  The words this morning stung because it brought home how much my behavior represents Christ, too often in a negative way.

The United States went through a phase of t-shirts, bracelets, and other Christian merchandise that challenged us to ask”What Would Jesus Do?”  or “WWJD?” when confronted with a decision.  Apart from the superficial nature of t-shirt Christianity, I wonder if we would have been better served challenging believers to “LLJD” or “live like Jesus did.”  I’m sure there was no room in Jesus’ life for screaming at a 15 year-old basketball player no matter how hard the foul.

Most stores have a lost and found department. It’s usually the last attempt to find a lost possession. We go there hoping that some kind, honest person has turned our lost item in. I call Luke chapter 15 the lost and found chapter. There resides three stories of things lost, one about a little lost sheep, one out of a hundred. “Then Jesus told them this parable. Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it. And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ’Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” One of the most beautiful poems I have ever found was written by a lady by the name of Ethel M.C. Brazelton entitled, “POOR LIL’ BRACK SHEEP”. It depicts a conversation between a shepherd and his hired servant , the “hirelin”.

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 your only hope, “like the little dog rover, when you’re dead you’re dead all over,” would not be extremely comforting.  I suspect most atheists don’t remind themselves of death very often.  Yet, we are surrounded by it.  Every day the local paper reports them in the “obit” section.  I am very happy to report that my cousin’s family are not atheists and have a comfort available to them that is not the case for people that prefer to “go it alone” without God.  There are days when my cousin’s husband just wants to go on and leave the old shell behind, but he lingers.  Even in asking, “why,” we know, if we’re honest in our quest for the answer.  I believe the answer is the one given by one actor to another in a movie I saw once.  One asked the other on the occasion of leaving this life for the next, “It’s hard to let go isn’t it?”

Physical life is precious, it’s a gift of God, yet, eternal life is so much more a gift.  The transformation from one to the other is a great mystery.  In his great novel, “If Winter Comes”, A.S.M. Hutchinson describes how a young man named Freddie Perch who had just been killed in the war (WW I) came back to help his mother die.  He was the type of son that would never allow his mother to even cross a road without him.  And here he was to help his mother cross the greatest road in her life.

She was moaning….  That inhabitant of her body had done its preparations and now stood at the door in the darkness, very frightened.  It wanted to go back.  It had been very accustomed to being here.  It could not go back.  It did not want to shut the door.  The door was shutting.  It stood and shrank and whimpered there…..  It was old Mrs. Perch that stood there whimpering, shrinking upon the threshold of that huge abyss, wide as space, dark as night …