ELIMINATING HURRY

NOTE: After today I will be taking a short break due to knee replacement surgery. I hope to resume with SOUND BITES after Labor Day on September 6.

 

ELIMINATING HURRY

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”  (Psalm 46:10)

"You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life." Imagine for a moment that someone gave you this prescription, with the warning that your life depends on it. Consider the possibility that perhaps your life does depend on it. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. Hurry can destroy our souls. Hurry can keep us from living well. As Carl Jung wrote, "Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil."

Again and again, as we pursue spiritual life, we must do battle with hurry. For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

-- John Ortberg in “The Life You've Always Wanted” 

#5424

WE ARE FAMILY – Part 2

“If someone says, 'I love God,' but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?”  (1 John 4:20 NLT)

We need to reflect on the implications of this image [of family] for our experiences of church. We frequently talk of churches and act as though they were branches of an organization, rather than as extended families. We often reduce the lists of qualities in passages like Galatians 5:22 and Colossians 3:12-14 to a purely individual affair. We lift ourselves out of our family context and speak about confidence and generosity etc. in some vague and abstract sense, rather than as a call to love deeply from the heart those people with whom we church. Without concrete long-term evidence of such love for each other our “Christian” communities are a [sham] (John 13:34-35).

-- Mark Strom in “The Symphony of Scripture: Making Sense of the Bible’s Many Themes”

#5423

WE ARE FAMILY – Part 1

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:15-16 NLT)

Part of the normalness and significance of churches for the New Testament writers came from the association of these groups with homes. Houses were not only the context for these gatherings, they provided an essential perspective on what living as Christians meant. Christians were family and… this experience mirrored the heavenly reality.

The New Testament almost always used the Father/Son image to explain the relationship of Jesus and God. It was, therefore, natural to describe Christians as adopted into this family (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Galatians 4:4-6). Thus Christian growth was a matter of maturing from infancy to adulthood (Ephesians 4:11-16; Hebrews 12:4-9) and of learning to relate to each other intimately and responsibly as in an ideal family (e.g., 1 Corinthians 8:11-13; Galatians 6:10; Colossians 3:12-14; 1 John 2:28 – 3:3). 

-- Mark Strom in “The Symphony of Scripture: Making Sense of the Bible’s Many Themes”

#5422

THE POWER OF WORDS

It’s impossible to overestimate the power of words. They can injure or heal, poison or nourish, deceive or enlighten, cost lives or save them. It is no exaggeration to say that the course of history can be changed with a single sentence.

In 1987, President Ronald Regan met with Russian Premier Gorbachev in Berlin. Everybody knows that certain protocols come into play when heads of state get together. Above all, you’re supposed to act like friends, smile for the cameras, and not say anything in public that might embarrass your counterpart. But Ronald Reagan threw such conventional thinking right out the window and dared speak six words that historians agree altered the world forever: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down the wall.”

When I think about that incident, I’m reminded that James compared the tongue to a small bit that can turn a powerful horse, or a tiny rudder that can alter the direction of an enormous ship (James 3:3-4). 

--  Mark Atteberry in “Free Refill: Coming Back for More of Jesus”

#5421

IN MY DISCIPLESHIP

In my discipleship I will be -- like David, lifting up mine eyes unto the hills from whence comes my help; like Paul, forgetting those things which are behind and pressing on forward; like Abraham, trusting completely in our God; like Sarah, laughing for joy at God’s great promise; like Enoch, walking in daily fellowship with our Creator; like Moses, choosing life over death; like Jehoshaphat, preparing my heart to seek God; like Mary, loving God so much she birthed our Lord and Savior; like Daniel, able to commune with God all the time; like Job, patient under all circumstances; like Ruth, loyal above all to family; like Caleb and Joshua, refusing to be discouraged even in the face of greater numbers; like Joseph, able to turn away from all evil advances; like Gideon, advancing even though friends be few; like Aaron and Hur, constantly upholding the hands of our spiritual leaders; like Isaiah, consecrated to always do God’s work; like John, always leaning upon the example of the Master Teacher; like Andrew, ever striving to lead my family to a closer walk with Christ; like Priscilla,  a pioneer for growing churches; like Stephen, manifesting a forgiving spirit toward all people; like the angels, proclaiming the message of peace and good will to all. In my discipleship, I will be such! 

-- Wesley D. Taylor, as quoted in “A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café” by Leonard Sweet

CONFESSING SIN

At the earlier Methodist class meetings, members were expected every week to answer some extremely personal questions, such as the following:  Have you experienced any particular temptations during the past week?  How did you react or respond to those temptations?  Is there anything you are trying to keep secret, and, if so, what?  At this point, the modern Christian swallows hard!  We are often coated with a thick layer of reserve and modesty which covers "a multitude of sins" -- usually our own.  Significantly, James 5:16-20, the original context of that phrase, is the passage which urges, "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed." 

-- Michael Griffiths in “Cinderella with Amnesia” [1975]

#5419

ACCEPTING GOD’S KINDNESS

God is kind.

Ephesians 2:7 reveals that God shows us “the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” God is kind, and Jesus is the living proof of that kindness. Jesus displays what God’s kindness looks like. Jesus presents God’s kindness in living form. Even though we may be unkind to other people, or even to God Himself, God still takes the first step and gives us the unmistakably kind gift of Jesus.

When God saw the world struggling, wandering off on its own, lost in traps of its own making, He sent Jesus to show the way home. God offered Jesus to the world then, and He offers Jesus to you and me now. When you are lost, God sends Jesus to find you. When you turn your back on God, still He calls you home with the kind gift of Jesus: God’s own Son, the Word of God made flesh, offered as a gift to the world. 

-- Allen R. Hunt in “Nine Words: A Bible Study to Help You Become the Best-Version-of-Yourself” 

#5418

LOVING GOD, LOVING OTHERS

“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And He has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.”  (1 John 4:20-21 NLT)

The social gospel is not an addendum to the gospel; it is the gospel.  If we read the Gospels, it becomes clear that it was not what Jesus said about God that got Him into trouble (but) His treatment of men and women, His way of being friendly with outcasts with whom no respectable Jew would have anything to do.  It has always been fairly safe to talk about God; it is when we start to talk about [humans] that the trouble starts. And yet the fact remains that there is no conceivable way of proving that we love God other than by loving [others].  And there is no conceivable way of proving that we love [others] than by doing something for those who most need help. 

-- William Barclay in “Ethics in a Permissive Society” [1971] 

#5417

MORNING, AFTERNOON AND EVENING

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  (Joshua 1:9 NIV)

Morning, afternoon, evening -- the hours of the day, of any day, of your day and my day.  The alphabet of grace.  If there is a God who speaks anywhere, surely He speaks here: through waking up and working, through going away and coming back again, through people you meet and books you read, through falling asleep in the dark. 

-- Fredrick Buechner in “The Alphabet of Grace”

#5416

A GOD-CENTERED LIFE

“Then Jesus said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.’” (Luke 9:23 NLT)

While the essence of sin is a shift from a God-centered to a self-centered life, the essence of salvation is a denial of self and a return to a God-centered outlook. We must come to a place where we renounce our self-focused approach to life and turn the attention and control over to God. When this happens, God orients us to Himself and to the purposes He is accomplishing around us…

God-centeredness requires a daily denial of self and a submission to God. 

-- Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby and Claude King in “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God”

#5415

REST IN GOD’S LOVE

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”  (1 John 4:16 NIV)

Rest in God's love as if it were the very food of your soul. In truth, it is. If you cannot feel or believe this love, pray for its assurance as if your life depended on it. In truth, it does. Allow your heart to reconnect with its deepest desire, your soul-deep desire for God.

-- Rev. Marjorie Thompson in “Leading from the Center Newsletter”

#5414

PEACE IN THE STORM

“He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in Him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!”  (Isaiah 26:3 TLB)

Jesus is calling the church to be a community of... people who will believe that even when God does not calm the storms, God will calm them in the storms; people who will know that to voyage with Jesus is to enjoy peace even in storm-tossed experiences... The point is not to avoid storms, but to stand through the storms with Christ.

-- Leonard Sweet in “A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe” 

#5413

THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT

“I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.”  (Philippians 4:10-13 NIV)

Because we lack a divine Center, our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. We must clearly understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like… Covetousness we call ambition. Hoarding we call prudence. Greed we call industry. 
 
-- Richard Foster in “Celebration of Discipline”

#5412

A SONG OF HOPE

Hope is the belief that what little contributions and differences I make in my life have enduring and cumulative consequences. A friend of mine, Jaime Potter-Miller, told me a story once that took place when she served as a chaplain at a retirement community in Western Pennsylvania. She found herself making pastoral calls one afternoon on some of the there-but-not-there residents. How does one provide pastoral care to a woman in the later stages of Alzheimer’s or to a non compos mentis man, she wondered?

Jaime determined that one way of caring for these people was to bring her guitar and sing. There was a patient in particular, however, for whom even singing seemed like a waste of time. A brain stem stroke had left this woman virtually comatose, with not even a twitch of response to any stimuli in years. Her family had tried everything they could to reach her, but nothing evoked even a semblance of recognition.

Unable to bypass this woman’s bed, Jaime bent down with her guitar as close to the woman’s face as she could get, and began signing. Jaime asked herself, “I wonder what she sang when she went to Sunday school?” She sang her answers, one of which was “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” During this song, Jaime thought she heard a groaning sound. Then she watched in amazement as this stroke victim began to make guttural noises. Jaime stopped singing, afraid the woman was having another stroke, and called the nurse.

The nurse examined the woman and found her no different than usual. “You had to be imagining it,” she said to Jaime. “This woman hasn’t had any bodily response to anything or anyone in years.” But Jaime wouldn’t let her go.

“Listen to this,” Jaime insisted. Once again she sang “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” And once again the woman began making those sighs and sounds “too deep for words.”

The nurse bolted out of the room, collected every other medical staff person she could find, and brought them in to witness a miracle. A simple song [of faith] had reached into this woman’s soul and touched her where nothing else could. Jaime later said to me, “Len, I had no idea how deep the roots of faith go down.”

-- Leonard Sweet in “A cup of Coffee at the Soul Café”

#5411

GENEROUS GIVING

God’s goodness expresses itself in His generosity. God is good, and God is a giver. In fact, He is the Supreme Giver. God spoke the universe into existence. God breathed into you the breath of life. God formed you in your mother’s womb. When you were lost, God gave you Jesus to show you the way home. And God prepares all eternity for you. God is a giver. You are made in His image. So the best-version-of-yourself will be a generous giver, too…

The most joyful people also happen to be the most generous. Generous giving is joy. To give is to become more like God.

God delights in your giving and even multiplies it to bless others. “God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things… you may have an abundance for every good work.”  (2 Corinthians 9:7b-8) 

-- Allen R. Hunt in “Nine Words: A Bible Study to Help You Become the Best-Version-of-Yourself”

#5410

THE FIRES OF ENTHUSIASM

“As servants of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do,...”  (Ephesians 6:6b-8a)

Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, once told his players, "If you are not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired -- with enthusiasm!" Nothing of substance can be accomplished without enthusiasm…

In the community of believers, people are motivated in different ways. It is a challenge for leadership to know how to kindle enthusiasm and maintain it… Wise leaders know how to keep the fires of enthusiasm burning while avoiding burning people out with exhaustion.

-- Stuart Briscoe in “Daily Study Bible for Men” 

#5409

LISTENING TO THE MASTER

Joshua Bell is perhaps the world’s finest violinist.  His parents knew he was something special when he was only four years old and he stretched rubber bands to his dresser drawers and played classical tunes on them, adjusting their pitch by pulling the drawers in and out.

As an experiment in 2012, he played -- unannounced -- in a metro station in Washington DC.  The people who conducted this experiment were warned by experts that a crowd would certainly gather; they might need extra security.  Surely many people would flock to this one-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Joshua Bell brought his 1713 Stradivarius violin -- which cost millions of dollars -- and began to play the six most beautiful songs in his repertoire.  The world’s greatest violinist playing the world’s greatest music on the world’s greatest instrument.

But no one stopped.  A thousand people walked by.  You can see it on video.  Children would tug on their parents’ sleeves, but the adults were too preoccupied.  One woman alone recognized him and stopped to listen.  She gave him a bigger tip (twenty dollars) than the other thousand people put together.  They were in a hurry, hurrying past Joshua Bell because they had other things to do.

Jesus said, “To what can I compare this generation?... We played the flute for you, and you did not dance.” (Matthew 11:16-17)

The Master is still playing, but listening is optional.  Those who have ears to hear, let them hear. 

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want To Be: Becoming the Best Version of You” 

#5408

SIMPLICITY AND COMPLEXITY

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, former chief justice of the Supreme Court, once made a perceptive distinction between two kinds of simplicity: simplicity on the near side of complexity and simplicity on the far side of complexity.  He said, “I would not give a fig for simplicity on the near side of complexity.”

Many Christians settle for simplicity on the near side of complexity.  Their faith is only mind deep.  They know what they believe, but they don’t know why they believe what they believe.  Their faith is fragile because it has never been tested intellectually or experientially.  Near-side Christians have never been in the catacombs of doubt or suffering, so when they encounter questions they cannot answer or experiences they cannot explain, it causes a crisis of faith.  For far-side Christians, those who have done their time in the catacombs of doubt or suffering, unanswerable questions and unexplainable experiences actually result in heightened appreciation for the mystery and majesty of a God who does not fit within the logical constraints of the left brain.  Near-side Christians, on the other hand, lose their faith before they’ve really found it. 

-- Mark Batterson in “PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity”

#5407

 

POSSESSIONS AND FAITH

It is a long-known principle that when wealth is tightly held, it waters down faith. In the Middle Ages some monks put it this way: “Discipline begets abundance; abundance, unless we use the utmost care, destroys discipline.” Evangelist John Wesley put it his way: “I fear, wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion!” Religion, he believed, must necessarily produce industry and frugality, and these produce riches. But as riches increase, so does pride, anger, and love of the world. American Puritans like Cotton Mather put it this way in speaking of his beloved New England and its spiritual decline: “Religion begat prosperity and the daughter devoured the mother.” Perhaps this is why Jesus said, “Take care, and be on your guard,” when it comes to your possessions (Luke 12:15 ESV).

If you can’t take it with you when you go, then now is the time to learn to be generous. Be generous because it is the nature of God to be generous. 

-- Donald W. Sweeting & George Sweeting in “How to Finish the Christian Life: Following Jesus in the Second Half”

#5406

DON’T STOP DREAMING

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!”  (Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV)

Our date of death is not the date etched on our tombstone.  The day we stop dreaming is the day we start dying.  When imagination is sacrificed on the altar of logic, God is robbed of the glory that rightfully belongs to Him.  In fact, the death of a dream is often a subtle form of idolatry.  We lose faith in the God who gave us the big dream and settle for a small dream that we can accomplish without His help.  We go after dreams that don't require divine intervention.  We go after dreams that don't require prayer.  And the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all our right brain can imagine is supplanted by a god -- lowercase g -- who fits within the logical constraints of our left brain.

Nothing honors God more than a big dream that is way beyond our ability to accomplish.  Why?  Because there is no way we can take credit for it.  And nothing is better for our spiritual development than a big dream because it keeps us on our knees in raw dependence on God.  Drawing prayer circles around our dreams isn't just a mechanism whereby we accomplish great things for God; it's a mechanism whereby God accomplishes great things in us.

-- Mark Batterson in “The Circle Maker”

#5405

HANDING OVER THE KEYS

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’”  (Matthew 16:24-25 NKJV)

Many people find Jesus pretty handy to have in the passenger’s seat when they require His services -- such as dealing with health problems, work issues, anxiety, grief, death, etc.

But these people are not sure they want Jesus driving, because if Jesus is behind the wheel, they are not in control anymore. If He is driving, they are not in charge of their wallet anymore. They no longer can say, “I’ll give sometimes when I feel generous, but I reserve the right to keep what I want.” Now it is Jesus’ money.

When I let Jesus drive, I am no longer in charge of my ego. I no longer have the right to satisfy every self-centered ambition. Now it is His life. I am not in charge of my mouth anymore. I don’t get to gossip, flatter, cajole, condemn, lie, curse, rage, cheat, intimidate, manipulate, exaggerate, or prevaricate anymore. Now it is not my mouth -- it is His mouth.

I get out of the driver’s seat. I hand over the keys to Jesus. I am fully engaged in life. In fact, I am more alive than ever before. But it is not my life anymore. It is His life. 

-- Adapted from John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You”

#5404