Expect God's Blessings in 2009

Someone once asked Albert Einstein, “Of all the questions you’ve posed about the mysteries of the universe, which question do you think is the most important?” Einstein’s response: “Is the universe a friendly place or not?” That's an important question and, for the Christian, has an easy answer. The answer is this: Our God is a friendly God and He is sovereign over the universe. So, wherever we are we can trust Him to work all things together for our good. Is the universe friendly? It doesn't matter. The God who rules the universe is.

How you think about life is very important. As you move into 2009, appropriate the virtue of applying God’s underlying goodness to every situation you face in life. Do you believe the following statement? God is for you. There is no substantial ground to stand on when it comes to expecting the best until we have settled that we do, indeed, believe that statement.

The Psalmist said, “This I know, God is for me” (Psalm 56:9). Do you know the same? Without absolute confidence that God is for you, circumstances may toss your emotions and actions around like a cork in the ocean. The person who has settled on the fact of God’s goodness is able to calmly move forward in anticipation of a good outcome.

Does that mean that we always get what we want? Not at all, but it does mean that while our path may be a winding one that sometimes leads us through valleys, we are progressing all the while toward a good place. Any place God leads us is a good place because it is God’s place for our lives.

As you move through the next year, expect the best. Consider every positive result in your life to be a reminder from God of His intent to bless you. Look for His hand and listen for His voice in the subtleties of your day.

Your God is a good God and He has already worked out the details for your life during the next year. He stands tall over the past, present and future. He's was with you in your past. He is with you now. And He is waiting in your future for you to catch up and see the wonderful things He has planned for you!

Visiting With Friends

Our friends, Bill and Joan Mial, are here visiting with us this weekend and we're having a great time together. The Mials were our hosts in Africa while we were there. (The picture is of the four of us when we went on a safari together in Swaziland.) Bill introduced me to TransWorld Radio and is being used by God to spread the grace walk message through that powerful organization.

The Mials have been married for 53 years and have served as missionaries throughout their marriage. Melanie and I have commented to each other that we love to see people in their seventies who are still obviously so much in love. The Mials have crisscrossed the world together, but have spent the last few years investing their lives in South Africa, reaching the continent with the gospel through their ministry with TWR.

Bill talked to me this past year about recording radio programs that would be translated into various languages and broadcast across the continent there. My own circumstances have kept me from starting the project until now. During this trip, we've decided that the 101 Lies series I've done on YouTube and am putting into book form now may be a good approach in teaching pure grace in those countries in Africa where the gospel hasn't been heard and also as a remedial ministry in places where legalistic Christianity has already done damage.

Bill plans to send a few of the teachings to one of the key people in West Africa to get his feedback on the matter. The first wave of ministry will be to produce programs for the French speaking people of West Africa. Then we'll move forward to other languages afterward.

God has used the Mials to impact hundreds of thousands of lives, but since coming to understand the grace walk, their mission is to see to it that the world hears the message of the pure grace of God without the legalistic trappings that enslave new believers.

Sentimental Musings The Day After

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas day together. Like many, we had a busy one. Our family starts our day together by going to our daughter Amy's house before dawn so we can be there when the children wake up and come in the living room to see their toys. It's the defining moment of the day for me.

I loved seeing our excited grandchildren with their race track and cars, video games, drums and guitar. And I loved the fact that it's not me who has to live with those toys in the coming days.

We spent most of the morning there, then came back to our house where I took a late morning nap before going to my sister's house, about an hour away. This was the first time we've had our Christmas meal together at her house since my Dad died two years ago. It was a bitter-sweet time as we reminisced about our parents. I wore a ring all day that my Dad always wore. Maybe it was silly, but it was a silent way for me to acknowledge my parents on this special day.

As I sat yesterday, watching my grandchildren laugh and play, I found myself becoming philosophical about life - thinking of the Christmases when I was a small child at my grandparents home in Savannah, GA - of the great days in the house where I grew up and the many Christmases there - of the Christmases with my own children when they were small - and now of Christmas with my grandchildren. The reality of being the patriarch of our family now (that sounds better than "geezer") was heavy on my mind yesterday. I remember my Dad once telling me that life is like rewinding a cassette tape. When you first start to rewind it, the tape seems to move so slowly. Then the closer it comes to the end, the faster it seems to spin. Boy, oh boy, isn't that the truth?

My thoughts about the flow of life weren't morbid, but were comforting as I thought about how our Father uses us to impact the lives of those we love. Our legacy is that love we leave behind. As I thought of my grandparents and parents yesterday, it was their love that I remembered. I trust it will be the same with my children and grandchildren after I'm gone.

When we left my sister's house, we stopped by our friends, Bob and Sheree's house for a few minutes. I had bought a Christmas gift for Melanie that was too big to bring home so I kept it in their basement (- a jewelry armoire - for you men, a big box made like a decorative door with a mirror on front.) It's something she had seen months ago and had wanted, but I'd made her think it had already sold when we went back to look at it again. What I didn't tell her was that I'd been the one to buy it.

We visited with Bob and Sheree, our dear friends of almost 19 years, then came home where my sons and our youngest daughter visited with us until very late.

It was a great day - more poignant than many Christmases for me. The older I get, the more I realize the great treasure that God has given us in our family and friends.

Get Your Kleenex

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There's nothing quite so moving as a stirring Christmas song. I can almost guarantee this one will bring tears to your eyes.

Seriously, I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Christmas. I'm going to be away from this blog site for the next few days.

Merry Christmas!

Triumph Over Trials

Twentieth century psychologist, Victor Frankl was an amazing man. During World War II, he spent years of unspeakable horror in Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. His writings about man’s search for meaning was greatly influenced by his experiences there.

One of the lessons he learned through his horrible experiences offers great insight about how passion in life directly affects how a person advances through whatever circumstances he may face. Frankl described how the goals and expectations that his fellow prisoners once had for their lives disappeared in prison. They were stripped away and became impossible to achieve.

It was how people responded to their circumstances that made all the difference in their lives. Some of the prisoners found new meaning in life that they could become passionate about, ranging from basic tasks like trying to get food or gather information or find work within the camp. Others determined to document their events for future historians. Some focused on helping those who hurt in an attempt to ease their suffering.

There were many others who lost all hope in the concentration camp. They found no meaning in their circumstances and no goals to pursue. They surrendered to feelings of hopelessness and despair.

Frankl described how these two groups differed from each other. Those who found meaning in their circumstances seemed to have a sense of stability and calm that most wouldn’t think fit their situation. Those who failed to find a mission through their misery often became passive, paralyzed by lethargy. These often deteriorated quickly, both psychologically and physically. Many seemed to go downhill and die quickly.

Frankl concluded that “the sort of person that the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influence alone.” He wrote about how that, while there are many things that can be taken from us in life, nobody can take away our decision as to what attitude we will embrace in our circumstances.

The Apostle Paul knew what it was to suffer. His testimony would fly in the face of the joy boys we hear on TV today who tell us that our faith should insulate us from troubles. Paul described his journey this way: In far more labors, in far more imprisonments,beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

What was his attitude in all this? We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;(2 Corinthians 4:8).

We can't control what troubles come into our lives, but we can decide how we respond to them. Are you facing trials in your circumstances? Rise up and be who you are as you move through them. Your Sovereign God is in control so you can rest in Him and He will take you safely through them all.

Trusting Your Heart

Reggie Wilson is the driver on Metro Bus Route 48 in Seattle. Commuters who ride his bus to work each day see first hand what can happen when a man isn’t ashamed to act from his heart. Reggie is known as “the singing bus driver.” The enthusiasm of his heart is contagious.

It isn’t uncommon to find his passengers boisterously singing “The Sunshine Song” together as they clap their hands to the beat. “If You’re Happy That It’s Friday, Say Uh-Huh” is a group favorite. Sometimes they are eating the cheese and crackers that Reggie has put under some of the seats. “What do we do with cheese?” he asks his passengers over the bus microphone. “We share!” the crowd responds. “That’s right,” Reggie answers. “Cheese is great and we don’t eat it all by ourselves. We share it!”

This kind of behavior may seem bizarre to the analytical mind, but not to a heart set free. Reggie came under criticism when he began his routine. He thought of quitting his singing and just drive the bus. Then one day a woman who got on the bus told him, “I learned yesterday that I had terminal cancer. You made me laugh. Please don’t ever stop.” So he hasn’t.

Reggie’s assessment of his situation? He said, “I love being a bus driver. Do you know how great it is to see a busload of smiling people? When I see that I feel like I have found my glory. ” I have found my glory. What do you think he means? I believe he has discovered his heart and learned to trust it, and as a bus driver on a Seattle city bus, Reggie White is making a difference.

Many with a church background grew up being bombarded with the Old Testament teaching that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Because they have locked in on that single verse to the exclusion of others, they have come to doubt their own heart, believing it to be untrustworthy. While it is true that apart from God’s transforming grace, man’s heart is deceitful and wicked, you don’t live at that place. You have been embraced by the grace of God and have been transformed.

God promised in another place, “I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart” (Ezekiel 36:36 The New Living Translation). As a child of God, that is where you live. Your heart’s desire is to be obedient to God and to glorify Him. Why else would you be reading a book like this? Trust your heart. God has transformed it by His grace.

You can trust your heart because it belongs to Jesus Christ. You have become a partaker of the divine nature. (See 2 Peter 1:4) His life is your life. Learning to trust your heart will progress in direct proportion to choosing to believe that truth.

Dealing With Our Fears

It is often common in mainstream Christianity to suggest that it is wrong for a Christian to ever feel fearful. That faulty perspective has compounded the problem of fear in the lives of believers by adding feelings of condemnation to the feelings of fear they already have. Now they have two problems instead of one.

It is ridiculous to think that, because we are Christians, we won’t experience feelings of fear. While it is true that God has not given us a spirit of fear (See 2 Timothy 1:7), don’t think it won’t show up on your doorstep anyway. The question is, “What are you going to do with it?”

Listen carefully to this statement and take it to heart: It is not a sin to have feelings of fear come upon you. Again, the focal point isn’t whether or not you ever feel fear. You will. Sometimes Christians think, “I shouldn’t feel this way.” No, feeling fear is normal in certain circumstances. The issue at hand is deciding how you will handle it when it comes.

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemene on the night before His crucifixion, you will never convince me that He didn’t experience feelings of fear. What else would cause Him to sweat blood and ask His Father, if there was any way, for Him to take away what was to come? The pivotal moment in the biblical account of Jesus in that garden was the way he faced his fears.

Jesus faced his fears, then acted in faith. He didn’t succumb to them. Instead, He moved through them toward the Divine purpose of His life. He refused to give in to feelings of fear and, instead, moved forward with faith in His Father.

Our greatest threat is not fear. The greatest threat is inactivity because of fear. You will feel fear at times. The question is “will you face your fears and move through them, trusting God as you go forward with knocking knees or a nervous stomach.

General Norman Schwarzkopf is a man few people would call anything but courageous. In an interview, he was asked, “Is a General allowed to feel fear?” His answer was, “Sure, I hope so.” Schwarzkopf believes that feelings of fear can actually hone your senses and cause you to focus. To him, it isn’t feeling fear that is the problem. What is important is how you face it. The General said:

What is bad is when you allow that fear to turn into panic, and you allow that fear to petrify you to the point that you cannot perform whatever duty you have to do. That's the thing that's wrong with fear. But there's nothing wrong with being afraid. And true courage is not not being afraid. True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that's what courage is.

The Apostle Paul once wrote, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3). When Paul faced the daunting assignment to go to Corinth and establish a church, he felt fear, but he acted anyway. Courage is acting boldly in the face of fear.

Do you feel fear about certain situations? Welcome to the human race! On the other hand, you aren’t just any human. You are a Christian. So face your fears and then move ahead with confidence that your Father will guide you each step of the way.