what's on the inside

You may or may not have picked up on the fact that, about once a month, I post a quote that has interested me, yet without comment. The rest of the time, I attempt to share some of the thoughts that come to mind as I read or remember a certain quote or quotes. This, taken together with the occasional unrelated mental upheaval, is after all the nature of my blog.

It has been two weeks since my last post, which is a little less often than I try to write. This longer-than-normal gap came about due to some increased personal "busy-ness" in my life. This morning I awoke thinking about the fact that when one has more things [than normal] to do in a given time, priorities are explicitly or implicitly assigned so that the most important and/or favorite things get accomplished in the available time. Items of lesser importance might be put off or canceled or not even thought of to begin with.

Now, I'm not making a commentary about the importance of my blog (or it's readers, if there are any) to me. I did wake up thinking something like, "Gee, it's been a while since I wrote anything." Right on the heels of that thought, it occurred to me that life's pressures can be very revealing as what we consider to be important becomes more and more apparent. If my Christian life is something that I do rather than who I am, does it not follow that it might be subject to priority too? To a watching world, it might then appear that, when I'm under pressure, my mask slips, i.e I forget to act like a Christian.

Praise be to the Lord, that Christianity is Christ, and even when life hands to me more plates than I can balance, the character traits that typify a genuine Christian life (such as patience, gentleness, and self-control) will still be present if I am letting Jesus live his life in me, because Jesus is the Christian life. That is why in the Bible, those traits are called the fruit of the Spirit.

I used to know a man who said, "Trouble doesn't build character, it reveals it." Even if there is no trouble or pressure ("Life's good!"), our life should be that of Christ in us, rather than our highest-priority effort to "be Christian."

The Christian life isn't difficult--it is impossible. If we don't know that, we will try to do things ourselves. Faith is not necessary when we think we can do it ourselves. Faith comes along when we realize that we cannot do it on our own.

Joseph Garlingen

One might well say, "What's the difference in a believer and a non-believer doing the same things? What makes the believer's life 'Christ living in him'?" Faith in God's Word--Jesus, the trusting of one's life to Him, makes the difference. So, with these thoughts in mind, may I repeat my quote of two weeks ago, from Douglas Rhymes, who said,

If our faith is not relevant to our daily life in the world and in the parish, then it is no use; and if we cannot be Christians in our work, in the neighborhood, in our political decisions, then we had better stop being Christians. A piety reserved for Sundays is no message for this age.

As in all ages, Christ in you is the message the world needs.

quotpourri

If our faith is not relevant to our daily life in the world and in the parish, then it is no use; and if we cannot be Christians in our work, in the neighborhood, in our political decisions, then we had better stop being Christians. A piety reserved for Sundays is no message for this age.

Douglas Rhymes

needs

There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all cost, and God will fulfill His purpose through your life. (This includes meeting the needs of your heart.) One individual life may be of priceless value to God's purposes, and yours may be that life.

Oswald Chambers

This includes meeting the needs of your heart is the phrase that caught my attention because of the way that God did that for me today. Blessings come in all shapes and sizes, but one of the most common things about them is that they rarely, if ever, are what we expect.

This afternoon, I was at work and my cell phone rang. Pulling it from my pocket, I glanced at the display and saw to my surprise and delight that it was my son calling. Now, those of you that know me know that he has been in the Middle East on his second deployment with the U. S. Army; that he was calling me from his cell phone could only mean that he was back in this country! What a rich blessing indeed! We knew that he was due back sometime soon, but we didn't know exactly when.

The endless stream of love and care that God pours out on me, indeed all of His children, is certainly reason enough to take the whole of Chambers' comment to heart. The wonderful thing is, I need not set out to do anything to overtly bless anyone; that will be the natural outcome of living dependently on Jesus Christ, as such a life is always useful in His hands. And that is the greatest blessing of all.

back

Three week ago, I was tremendously excited because of our impending departure for summer vacation: "Only two days until we leave!" And it was a fabulous vacation during which we thoroughly enjoyed a portion of God's creation. Rivers--we canoed on the Snake and North Platte rivers; mountains--my daughter and two friends climbed Mt. Elbert, the tallest peak in Colorado! It was wonderfully cool everywhere we were, and the blessings and refreshment were awesome.

Today, as I write this, I've been back from vacation for two days, and it has reminded me how fleeting the temporal is. However, that brings into sharp focus the superiority of God's way. When one's life is centered on loving God and people, the passage of time nears irrelevance. As Henry van Dyke said,

Time is too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love -- time is eternity.

july fourth quotpourri

I have lived, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

Benjamin Franklin

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

Thomas Jefferson

balanced diet

Several times recently I have heard the comment, usually made to justify changing churches, "I just wasn't being fed." Considering the fact that I have said this in the past myself, my reaction to hearing it lately is interesting to me.

"I just wasn't being fed." By that do you mean that there was no [spiritual] food made available? Or was the portion set before you too meager to satisfy? Was it there, and you merely did not "eat?"

When I was an infant, I of course depended on my mother to feed me. As I grew, increasingly I fed myself but my mother still specified and provided the food that I ate. As time went on, I could choose more and more what I ate, but largely it was still provided by someone else. Finally, in maturity, I'm largely responsible for feeding myself, even though there is almost always someone else involved in the provision of food.

One might initially be drawn to a local church because of a hunger to know the Lord; by feeding on the Word, one can learn who God is, who man really is, what God has accomplished to reconcile man to Himself, etc. As a [spiritual] infant, a person does not know what or how to eat, and the church, through the preached word, Bible classes, etc. can feed such a person until that person begins to learn to feed directly on the Word. From passages of Scripture such as Hebrews 5:12-14, we see that there is an expectation for the Christian to grow to maturity, but not every one does, and as Theodore Epp said,

It is a shame for a person to have been a Christian for years but not to have advanced beyond the knowledge of his salvation.

That aside, is occupying a seat and listening to sermons the reason ultimately for church attendance? The passage in Hebrews, as well as many others, points at our maturing to love one another as Christ commanded and to serve one another as Christ demonstrated. This is not at all to diminish the value or importance of the preached word, but the church is a family where we each have a responsibility to one another, and "eating" once a week will obviously not sustain us in our love and service to each other, much less to a needy world. We must daily see to our spiritual sustenance by making our mind available to God's Word. Viewed in this way, "I just wasn't being fed" seems a pretty selfish cop-out.

Last weekend, my wife and I were visiting the town where I grew up. As we drove by the church where I went as a child, we noticed the sign out front which carried this stinging rebuke:

Christians often expect the world to respect the book which they neglect.

and I gloat

You may think that I am about to brag on my kids since today is Father's Day and I've chosen a title for this post like "and I gloat." As their earthly father, I am very proud of them because they have grown into such fine people. The glory for that is properly reserved for their (and my) heavenly Father, who is the only character builder there is. What better Father's Day gift could there be than praising God and offering thanks for His accomplishments!

However, I have even more thanks to offer to the Lord today because today is not just Father's Day. It is an even more special day, the memory of which is brought about by two quotes:

I do.
--me

And,

I do.
--her

Thirty years ago today, my wife and I were married. I have no words to express how grateful I am that God put us together nor how much at this point I cherish the life we've had so far. She is my best friend, confidant, playmate, truly the greatest part of me. To say 'Thank you, Lord' seems so inadequate, as does 'I love you, dear.' Nevertheless, those heart-felt words are the best I have. Lord willing, I'll say them again in another thirty years (and every day until then!)