Wednesday, July 29, 2009

"Perspective in a Large Dose"


SUFFERING !!!!!!

My heart has been ripped to shreds this morning after watching a video tribute to Parker and Haley Hewitt.. Crystal Hewitt, the children's mother, was driving them to pick blueberry's and was in a tragic accident killing both Parker and Haley and severely injuring Crystal..Crystal's injuries are traumatic with a broken back and many other injuries..

As I watched the video I felt such a pain in the core of my being...a pain so immense that I felt like an elephant was standing on my chest and my whole body began to sweat and tears flooded by eyes..I could feel the pain of the Hewitt's like it was my own and I am just devastated..

On one hand, as a Father of three girls, I can not say if I would be able to live thru something so traumatic...as the video was playing, I could see my life with my own girls playing in my mind and how I would feel if something similar happened to me and that is what ripped my heart to absolute shreds...and on the other hand, this gave me a new perspective, a much needed perspective on those I love and cherish...to be sure to take every moment hostage and never let the things I love most be taken for granted....for the blessings of children are among one of the greatest things God has ever entrusted me with and the joy of those blessings are indescribable..

God is truly mysterious in His ways and that is because He is ALL KNOWING and ALL POWERFUL and because I believe that I know His plan for the Hewitt's are much grander than anything I can imagine with my own little finite mind...and the testimony of the husband to stand by his lady while she recovers after losing his kids is inspiring to me and touches me in ways that only the Hand of God could.. They believe in the power of Jesus Christ to get them thru this time and that the weight of such tragedy will not be more than they can bear..

Would all of you who read this please watch this video...and when you do, think of your kids and how life would be if they were suddenly no longer with us and try to remember to hug them, love on them and spend time with them....no matter what...Sacrifice for them !!!

http://www.craighewittphotography.com/blog/in-memory-of-parker-and-haley-6-29-09/

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

"Marriage insight"


I was listening to the radio this morning and heard some things, I feel compelled to share. This ought to be short but powerful...at least it was for me..


The guy on the radio (I believe it was Pastor James McDonald) was speaking about "exclusive romance" and what it meant to be in marriage and not just married but in a fulfilling loving marriage.. I have run the spectrum on marriage from one extreme to the now total opposite..One extreme I thought marriage was a doomed project with loftiness that was not sustainable for the human species..Of course my view during this time was when I was full throat deep in darkness, with deception and conniving as my best friends..to the view I now cling to and that is a marriage fulfilling and rewarding and just a special part of my life as I now know it...I cant say I am much different now except to say I have left that intentional deception behind and have allowed myself to be in plain view of God's shining light exposing me for who I am..but still a wicked person at my nature and but for God's grace and mercy am I not still deceiving all those I love..


So this brings me to the message I desire to share..


"We as humankind, desperately want what we can not have and take for granted the things we do have"...THINK about this for a minute or two..Does this sound like our marriages and what might be the crux of the destruction of marriages. This is very very harmful to our Holy Unions we take before God the Father..


There are three points I picked up in this message this morning that will help us regain our focus and reset our priorities...and this is for men, although women can also benefit as he mentioned neither side.


1. Pursuit - We as men have stopped pursing our wives..Think back to the first few dates where you would stop at nothing in your pursuit of her..I can remember distinctly ( and my memory is nothing to be desired for sure)my unending pursuit of Nicki to win her over, to gain her approval.. Courting her, taking her to dinner, movies, doing fun things together, trying to get her to laugh. Why do we stop pursuing..? Two reasons..One is just what we mentioned above..We take for granted the things we have and now that they are our spouses, we no longer do the things we did while in pursuit.. The other is we do not value our spouses as much as we should...which leads to point #2


2. Supreme Value - It is very easy to pursue that which we perceive the value to be high..Think about this men..We want that promotion, that sell, that whatever and we pursue with an intensity that would marvel many people..and I bet our spouses would agree...that they have at one time or another seen us place things at a "high value" and then charge after them.. We need to make our spouses the "Supreme Value" in our lives and then live like that.. Think of the things that you hold in this regard..Maybe a special gift passed down from generation to generation, maybe an old restored classic, possibly your high end set of golf clubs, or your lawn..each of those garnering your attention to minute details..painstaking attention to keeping it looking like it is brand new or as close to perfection as humanly possible.. CAN YOU IMAGINE how our marriages would benefit from this type of SUPREME VALUE being placed on our spouses.. To give them the attention they so desire, the painstaking details of noticing a slight change in hairstyle, or kind gesture of loving appreciation, or even a wink right in the middle of dinner just to be flirty and fun with the one who you call Wife( or husband)..The one who you chose to enter into a relationship for better or worse, sickness and health, where no man can separate...We need to refocus our attention, our energy, our passion of the Supreme Value on our Spouses


3. Forever - Marriage is forever...there are no backup plans, no plan B's, no alternate courses to take..Marriage is forever and we as men need to make absolutely sure our wives know this down to the smallest deepest fiber of their being..This brings about comfort and security that allows our wives to be the woman we know she can be..but if we are consistently walking on planks that lead to uncertainty about the "forever" part. how can we ever expect our wives to submit to the man as the leader of the home and the spiritual guide. She will hesitate and never fully commit to that because in the back of her mind, she has to hold something back just in case we do something unspeakable like leave the marriage.. Forever means in good times on the mountain tops and in bad times in the deep valleys..It is thru the phases of life that we encounter that strengthen our love, our passion and our desires for one another and the crushing weight of the world we live will not produce a broken & battered relationship, but instead, when the intense heat and pressures of the world surrounds us, it creates a beautiful, radiant diamond...formed by the weight of this world...but produced by the goodness, grace and mercy of our surrendered life to Jesus Christ..


Nicki..You are beautiful flower, one as rare and as delicate as any known to man...and all others are but weeds...amongst your value to me.


I pray that I will never take you for granted and that you hold the designation of "Supreme Value" in my life here on earth...and may I treasure you and always give thanks to God for the Blessing he rendered in my life some 18+ years ago..Forever I am, never will I go..


EB

Monday, July 27, 2009

"Religion"


God has been dealing with me for several weeks maybe months now on this topic and while this topic seems very broad on the surface...I desire to speak to the idea of religion and how it relates to me as a Christian and what is means to be a Believer.


When you hear the word "religion" what does it bring to your mind..What thoughts are conjured up? After a thorough study of James and now a class study of James in Sunday School and the Pastor speaking on a similar theme..it is obvious to me that God is trying to make this point stick with me..and hence back to this blog to try and express my ideas so that I can gain a better grasp of what is in my mind and to establish a point in my life where God was working to help me grow and attain wisdom...


Does Religion mean to you...Going to church, reading your bible, tithing, etc..?


James 1:26 "if anyone thinks he is religious, without controlling his tongue but deceiving his heart, his religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world"


This passage is the focal point of my message today..


See... religion to many people that are unbelievers has a negative connotation..I believe the reason for this is simple hypocrisy. We who claim the mantle of Christian can no more be differentiated from the worldly person than a set of identical twins..We have caused a stumbling block to the unbeliever because our religion is only a Sunday deal, or possibly a Wednesday night every now and then.. Believers who exhibit genuine Christianity accept God's word, act on His word and apply His word to their (our) lives. To most people, religion is the external or ceremonial rituals of public worship. We focus only on these outward activities and believe that as long as we do these, we are genuinely religious..


Religion is a way of life..governed by true Faith. First if we accept God's word as the guide book to life as in 2nd Timothy 3:16-17 " ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete(adequate), thoroughly equipped for every good work"


then we must act on His word and draw application to our lives..So many times I find myself being squeezed by the pressures of the world and when something has to give, it often times is the time I spend with the Lord..Why do I choose others activities over the time with my Savior.? That is a question I battle with on a regular basis but also confronts the very power of our (my) sinful nature and the bent we have toward wickedness.. left unchecked by the Spirit of God and the inspired Word will leave us dead...separated from God..


Our Sunday School teacher told us about the story of Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde..that this person was trying to separate good from evil and he thought that if he could separate the two and be left with good, everything would be fine...but what he found out is that the evil side was to powerful and the only way to get rid of it was to "kill it". I never really knew what this play was about until this day but I find it fascinating and a perfect example to try and help explain this..Our flesh must be crucified...and new person must be raised up in order for us to act on the word of God. We will not act on the word until it becomes the guiding force behind everything we do. Attending church, tithing, helping other people are all great gestures but are empty without a regular reading and immersion of God's Holy word in our lives.. The wisdom we need to avoid ignorance can only come from the Bible..If we choose to go thru a "checkoff" list of religious activities but never read the word of God and try to gain wisdom from it, we run the risk of being "ignorant"...ie. being deceived by what is truth and what is not. This is how we as Christians or who claim the title of Christian can have a views of homosexuality or abortion that is errant. We have become ignorant in our understanding and therefore the world has stained our viewpoint, leaving us deceived...Remember that when you are deceived, you do not even realize it...that is why it is called deceived.. Some synonyms for deceive are " Duped", Hoodwinked", "Defraud", "Ensnare". I thought these words would help drive home what is happening to Christians.. We are being hoodwinked by the devil himself...he has us believing things that are in total antagonism to the word of God because we dont know what the word of God says..because we dont read it.. We simply do our duty of being a good person for the most part, attend church regularly, volunteer, etc...and never truly dig into God's word to find the truth..because when the truth is exposed and it flies in the face of this world and we say it so, we are ostracized and labeled "kook" by those who are ignorant to the truth...and the fear of being labeled this by others has caused us to keep our views (the truth)to our self and clamour such statements as " This is how I believe and how you believe is up to you", a relative existence...versus an absolute Truth given to us for our own good..thru the inspired word...and this all results in a religion and not a genuine life built on Faith in Jesus Christ and evidenced by our "doing" or "living".


James offered up three areas of our life that could be a portrait of our Genuine Christianity..


1.) Self control illustrated by our ability to control our tongue - Self control in an inner spiritual activity, not an outward ceremonial one.. Self control is taught by the apostle Paul as a fruit of the Spirit. If you read further into James, he spends almost an entire chapter unpacking the "tongue" and goes to far as to call it "tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity" in verse 6 of Ch 3

If we claim to be devoted to a way of life that glorifies God and yet spout off hateful, destructive words is pure deception and a form of religion that is useless as James writes


2. Looking after orphans and widows - I have to admit my ignorance here and say this never really made a lot of sense to me and the understanding that I know have has eluded me for so many years. This deals directly with the heart and right attitudes.. Orphans and widows were vulnerable members of society during this time but the point hinges on this...they had nothing to offer in return. When you reach out to help, it must be from the proper motive...to not expect anything in return...but because it is the "right" thing to do.. to have a heart for those who can not offer anything for your help. That is evidence of the word of God guiding our lives.


3. Keeping oneself unstained by the world - James expounds that authentic Christians protect themselves from the sinful pollutants of the world. They apply God's word to their lives consistently thus enabling them to resist the world and exhibit genuine Christianity


Here is the larger implication of "religion" versus a genuine Christian faith. The unbelieving world seeing us act as though we are a set apart peoples in the world and that our lives are a direct reflection on the written word and not a hypocritical example.. When our actions do not line up with our words, we lose all credibility and become stumbling blocks for others..so before we lash out with our tongue, or we choose to help with the intention of gaining praise or reward, or we take on the likeness of the world..ask yourself if this is the proper response and check your motives...so as to not defame the Kingdom of God and bring shame upon His name.


We must "humbly receive the implanted word" so that our lives can be governed by the Holy Spirit. Intently read the Word and study what it has to say and then act accordingly and not allow the world to pollute the truth as we know to be and our lives as we proclaim the saving work of Christ our Lord..Just as the Sadducee's were greatly mistaken in Mark 12:18-27, let us not be mistaken in our understanding of God's word..That will only happen if we spend time in it often and intensely.


Religion is not an outward expression but an inward reality..


As I look at my life and the many opportunities I have blown in my responses to others, I have great sorrow..for my life has often more than not been an example of hypocrisy than of the genuine faith I long for..but the good news is that God has opened my eyes to this and allowed me to see me for who I really am and have spawned in me a renewed dedication to the example I might be to those who come in contact with me..to realize my time spent with God studying His word, meditating on It's meaning is paramount in my life if I ever want to evidence the desires of my heart..


Lord I am so grateful for your mercy and grace and if it not be for your abundance of such, I would be lost in the wickedness of this world and ensnared by the wiles of the evil one. Thank you so much for opening my eyes and revealing to me the truth of your Word and exposing the hypocrisy in my own life and setting a new course toward genuineness of the faith. I am in awe of your pefect knowledge and Holiness and desire to have a heart that is after yours..In Christ our Lord I pray..Ame


EB

(lifeway curriculum)