God's Love Through the Years - Part 2

OK - here is part 2 of this series.  This time let's see what God's love means to a couple of teenagers...

30-something's are up next!!

What Can We Learn From Egyptian Christians?

Thank you to Carlos Whittaker for posting this picture and allowing people to comment on it's meaning.

Take a look at this picture from the recent conflicts in Egypt.  What does this image say to you?  Comments, please:

Read more about this here :  Christians Protect Muslims during Prayer

God's Love Through the Years - Part 1

This is part one of a 5-part series on God's Love.  I have asked some friends in various age groups to help me by writing or drawing what God's love means.  I thought it would be interesting to see how our view of God's love changes as we get older.  Putting aside obvious differences like writing style or the move from pencils to computers, I am hoping to see a change from a general/shallow view to a more in depth one.  I'm not going to comment on these, I just want us to enjoy the insight and creativity.

For this first part, I asked a few kids ages, 5 - 10 to help out and here's what I got:

 

Cheating God is Making Me Fat

Well, I'm learning alot about myself through this journey of learning what it means to love.  Today, I stumbled upon a devotion that I cannot ignore because it directly relates to me and this journey I am on.  Here's the deal:  it's no secret that I like food...alot.  Let me be totally honest...I love food!  (There's that word...love...I bet God wants to show me something!).  As a result of my affinity for all things delicious, I am somewhat...er, rather...well, quite a bit overweight.  I know I have an eating problem, and try as I might, I cannot seem to overcome it.  While being healthy is important to me, as is feeling good about myself and being able to play football and softball and run around with my kids, I have resolved myself to being overweight and having to just "deal with it."  Then I found a free 21 day devotional book concerning food and today i read day one. 

"OK God, you've got my attention - I hear you loud and clear!"

Here's the big reveal - turns out that I am loving food more than I am loving God.  I have actually thought this is the past, but I didn't have the correct perspective.  This past Friday we hosted our first small group study on Francis Chan's book "Crazy Love" and we talked about how BIG God is.  God is so far more than we can ever possibly imagine, and I have chosen to replace Him with steak and potatoes,  burgers and fries, Ronald McDonald and Wendy(s).  I know I've always been an emotional eater, meaning when I get sad or depressed I go find something to eat.  When I get bored, I eat.  When I am mad, I eat.  When I am nervous I don't eat anything, but I make up for it later on when I am no longer nervous.  But here's what I came to realize today...I should be turning to God in those times, not a bag of chips. 

To some of you this may seem like no big deal, but here I am trying to learn about what it means to love God and love like God, and He shows me that I love food more than him.  What if one of my kids was upset and wouldn't say a word to me, but went to the pantry and grabbed a snack instead.  I'd feel like they were robbing me of an opportunity to show my love for them.  When my kids are hurting, I want to hold them in my arms and tell them things will be OK, that we'll get through this together.  As big as God is, He wants us to turn to Him for comfort, yet I essentially say, "No thanks, God...I've got "Five Guys" who I'd rather have help me feel better.  This is absolutely stupid on my part.  I've been cheating God out of a chance to show me the greatness of His love.  It stops now!

So today is day #1 of a new part of my journey...the part where I ask for forgiveness, and then start turning to God instead of food.  When I am sad - there's God.  When I am tired - there's God.  When I am frustrated with my job - there's God.  When I am bored - there's God.  When I don't feel like getting up a few minutes earlier in the morning to go exercise - there's God.  I have to stop relying on food, and rely first and foremost on God. 

Just a 'Feel-Good" Story?

I have been moved by the recent story of Ted Williams.  No, not the guy who once hit over .400 for the Red Sox, but a homeless man living in Ohio who has a "golden radio voice."  In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the video:



Now, this guy has great voice!  And I am genuinely thrilled that the Cleveland Cavaliers stepped up and gave him a job.  I am thrilled that he has been reunited with his 90 year old mother.  It's great to see a guy go from rags to riches!!  Reminds me of the movie with Jamie Foxx called "The Soloist" - homeless guy on the streets who has a great talent and finds redemption.

But my heart aches for all the other homeless people who do not have great radio voices or who couldn't play the cello in a closet let alone in a performance hall.

What about them?  Why is it that we are so quick to overlook people who can't help themselves?  I include myself in this...I admittedly am attracted to the emotional, feel good stories of a guy like Ted Williams getting another chance.  How many times have I failed to even give spare change to the guy on the corner?  Too many to count I am sad to admit. 

This blog is about love.  Too many times we take the easy way out and love those that we deem to be worth loving.  I mean, it's so much easier to love a guy with a great voice, or a cello player or a decorated Army veteran.  I'm not here to suggest we shouldn't help those types of people, but what about the guy who has had both arms amputated?  What about the woman who was disfigured after being beaten by her abusive husband for years?  What about the children in orphanages who have down-syndrome?  Where's the feel-good story there?  No one will get any media attention for  helping them and I'd like to find a way to step out of my comfort zone and pay attention to the ones that we normally overlook.

Remember all those "WWJD" bracelets and bumper stickers that were so popular years ago?  I do and I ask the question, what would Jesus do?  Would He find the one guy with special talent and exalt him to some position and give him a house and food and have him appear on talk shows?  I don't think so and here's why:  time and time again we saw that Jesus spent time with the "outcasts" of society and I believe that he would paid attention to the ones nobody loved.  Lepers...no one would go near these people, but Jesus did.  Blind, lame, bleeding, possessed...these were not people with special gifts, but rather things that people considered curses and yet Jesus went to them and healed them and then made a big scene and got lots of attention as a result.  No, he didn't do that did He?  He didn't look for attention.  He didn't hold press conferences and tell the world how he healed a blind guy, or stopped a woman's bleeding.  He healed, He fed and He gave a second chance to people who had no hope of ever getting it.

I am thrilled for Mr. Williams and I will keep tabs on his story and I genuinely hope he stays sober and clean and takes this opportunity to change his life.  But I pray that I will remember the ones who are still standing in the cold without food or water and without hope. 

Genuine love means taking the road less travelled.  Genuine love means walking past the cameras, past the ones with special gifts and helping those who have no hope.  Genuine love means sacrificing what we value as good no matter the cost.

Love Ain't Easy, but God Never Fails

Have you ever had one of those times when you thought you were doing something right, but then the backlash makes you wonder why you bothered in the first place? I won't get into details, but I've had that happen more than once and each time I find myself swallowing my pride or taking one for the team or any number of other cliches.  It seems to be hardest when family is involved.  I find myself asking the question "Do my personal views need to be glorified or do I need to make sure that God is glorified?"  The answer to that is easy when looking from the outside-in, but in the midst of a situation, the lines in between the two can be easily blurred.

Today I am especially reminded of the verses on which I have based this blog.  "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." ( Corinthians 3:4-8).  Wow...that's hard stuff.  Personally, I have read that verse a hundred times and while I know what it says, it wasn't until recently that I began to internalize the importance of these verses.  What is the greatest commandment from God? "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke 10:27).  The greatest commandment is to love and through 1 Corinthians 3:4-8 we know what love looks like.  Are we doing it?

I encourage you to try this little exercise:  rewrite 1 Corinthians 3:4-8, but insert your name in place of the word 'love' or pronouns referring to love and read it out loud.  Here's how mine reads:

"Kevin is patient, Kevin is kind. Kevin does not envy, Kevin does boast, Kevin is not proud.  Kevin does not dishonor others.  Kevin is not self-seeking, Kevin is not easily angered and Kevin keeps no record of wrongs.  Kevin does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  Kevin always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Kevin never fails."

This is humbling as I reflect on the fact that I am generally a good person. But if the greatest commandment is to love, and I insert my name and can then clearly see that I fall short of reflecting what love is, then I have got some work to do.  It is a daunting task to look at love and look at our shortcomings and seek to try to correct the situation.  For me - I get three words into that verse and fall apart...I am not a patient person.  Personal evaluation and reflection is overwhelming at times, but what gives me hope is knowing that I can rely on God's attributes and not my own.  Now let's rewrite that verse and insert God's name and I will show you what I mean:

"God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, God does boast, God is not proud.  God does not dishonor others.  God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered and God keeps no record of wrongs.  God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  God never fails."

While I fall apart on the first three words,  I am comforted that I can lean on God right to the final three words where I am reminded that "GOD NEVER FAILS."  So while I am easily angered, God is not.  While I may keep a mental list of the wrongs others commit against me, God does not remember mine.  While I may fail miserably in every aspect of my life, I can count on Him because God never fails.

Love isn't easy - I don't find anywhere in the Bible where God says anything will be easy (a result of the fall?) but He's there to help us.  The Holy Spirit that indwells us gives us the strength to do the difficult even when we don't think we need the help.

Demystifying Mysticism & Contemplative Prayer

"Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centers on a practice or practices intended to nurture those experiences or awareness. "  (Thanks to Wikipedia for that definition)

In beginning this journey I have been very skeptical and have had a rather closed mind about mysticism, but it now seems logical to me that there needs to be a significant spiritual aspect to our faith.  We are in fact spiritual beings who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.  When we think of mysticism we tend to think about eastern religions and having out-of-body experiences and the sort.  We thinks about chanting and meditation and burning incense and well, it all seems a little too "new age."  But the fact is that mysticism means communing with God and that is something that every Christian should be interested in.  I think I get caught up the terminology and the “how-to’s” rather than the purpose and meaning. 

The Holy Spirit is most often the member of the Trinity that is forgotten, probably because we have a hard time understanding and relating to this "spirit."  For me, having been raised in New England and having worshiped at a Baptist church for a number of years, the Holy Spirit wasn't really emphasized as part of our worship life.  We left that to those Pentecostals down the street and dismissed much of it because of the likes of Benny Hinn and the fake healings and claims to be able to raise the dead.  I also had a bad experience when I was younger in that some friends who attended a more charistmatic church asserted that my family members were not true believers because we didn't speak in tongues (a 'sign' that we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit).  Perhaps you can now understand some of my skepticism.

I mentioned in a recent post that I am not one for deep theological studies on any particular subject, but I have been reading quite a bit to check this out for myself and gain some understanding.  After reading a numbers of passages in Acts and a few commentaries on whether or not the Spiritual gifts such as tongues are active today, it was recommended that I read a couple of books that really helped me.  "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster and "Into the Depths of God" by Calvin Miller.  Both of these books discuss the importance of meditation and contemplative prayer in order to get more in touch with God through the Holy Spirit.  Rather than go through all of their explanation, I will recommend you do a bit of reading.  Here's my take on it:  we need to spend more time listening to God - letting Him speak into our hearts.  This is how we gain a deeper knowledge of Him and gain an understanding of His will for our lives.  This is accomplished through contemplative prayer and meditation.

Most people don’t spend one hour a week in prayer, let alone setting aside an hour a day to ‘listen’ to God.  Too often we fill our prayer time with a list of the wants and needs that we have.  God knows them already…but do we spend time to listen to Him? or do we just expect God to do all the listening and answer our prayers?  Good relationships are a two-way street.  Communication must be flowing both ways.  I have recently tried to set myself apart from my routine and pray – and just be still.  I have closed the door to my home office, turned off all the lights and music and with just a flashlight I read some scripture and then doing anything possible to block out noise, I just prayed and then sat quietly.  It was so refreshing to think of nothing but God through contemplative prayer.

I think people hear instruction on this practice of contemplative prayer and see that one should repeat a word or phrase over and over.  Why do this?  Well I like to think practically – it helps block out other thoughts and distractions.  It keeps us focused on the task and that is to sit and focus on God, to be in His presence.  Technology has wired our brains to be active constantly – it’s no wonder there are so many sleep clinics – so this repetition is a way to de-program ourselves and allow our brains to take some rest.  It is in this quiet stillness that we can feel God’s presence.  I believe God’s presence is always there, but we don’t recognize it or feel it because of everything else we have chosen to “feel.” 

We cannot simply put our hands or eyes on every answer that is to be had.  Hugging the Bible does not make us closer to God any more than holding a glass of water quenches our thirst.  We need to ‘take it in’ – let it become a part of who we are.  Does this mean meditation?  Yeah.  Does this mean contemplative prayer?  That’s probably part of it.   Is contemplative prayer and meditation some form of eastern mysticism?  I now do not believe so.   

I have decided that I need a more purposeful quiet time with God and I hope that you too will do some reading on the subject and find that there really is a very good reason to "...be still and know that I am God!"  Do you want to love God more and deepen your relationship with Him?  Spend more time listening and understand that the Holy Spirit is alive within us.