BALANCE

I hope I'm not imbalanced when I say, "The longer I live and minister the more impressed I am with the virtue of balance.
Take a moment and stand on one foot.  I recommend doing it next to a strong chair or other object where you can catch yourself if need be.  Look straight ahead.  Stand there flamingo-style long enough for a bit of fatigue to set in.  At that point you'll begin to notice how complicated it is to maintain equilibrium.  There are rapid signals, and matching corrections.  Often the corrections will be right, then left, front then back.  Interspersed with those corrections will be the sweet spots--those rare, fleeting moments when you don't feel like you are about to fall.  In short:

Balance is hard.

You can relieve the tension by lying down, or theoretically by pouring concrete around your boots.  Metaphorically, that's where way too many people live.

If physically standing is such hard work, why would we think that maintaining one's standing before the Lord--One Who is infinitely complex--would be simple?  If we think of some of the big Theological arguments we are likely to identify points where balance is important.  Please understand, balance does not equal compromise.  Think back to that physical exercise we did a moment ago.  When my brain tells me that I'm falling to the right, I have to allow that information to have its full impact.  If I don't react properly to that sensation I will fall.  On the other hand, if I over-react I will pitch over to the left.  Balance.

God is sovereign.  --  The decisions we make,
                                                and actions we take really matter.

God gives His people Liberty  --  Yet we must conform to His commands.

God has given human leaders,                                                                
and expects them to lead  --  Leaders too often abuse that power.

My associate Doug Williams is fond of pointing out that there are generally ditches on both sides of the road.  Both need to be avoided.  

Blessed are the balanced.

It's STTA.

Further thoughts on Balance:

Let me begin by offering a disclaimer to all banner-istic, and bulletin-ish people.  I really like banners and bulletins.  I just put two banners up for last Sunday's event, and I sent our church secretary two bulletin articles, earlier today.

So don't be upset.

Just to the right of me is a catalog that we received, here at church.  Right under the company name is this offer:

"HELP YOUR CHURCH GO DEEPER

WITH NEW BANNER AND BULLETIN DESIGNS."

Understand, I'm not saying that artistic flourish doesn't matter it does.  

Of this I am sure, though:  Leaving aside for a moment the fact that it is doubtful that one will find much in the way of high art in a church supply catalog, am sure that new banners and bulletin designs will not help the church go deeper.. 

You can put this on a banner or bulletin if you want to:

  "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." 

(Romans 11:33-36, NASB95)  

Contemplating it can lead you to greater depths in your walk with God.  Seeking to live in the humility of this vision of God's magnificence certainly will, but not a new, or old, banner, or an updated bulletin design.

What the church definitely needs is not a batch of new banners or a run of new bulletins.  Quit playing in the shallows, and dive into the depths of God's word.

That is really STTA.

I don't care who's on first, we need to help these people.

I try to mostly stay away from politics in STTA. I'm going to make an exception today, so if you want to tune out, now would be good time. 

I suggest that we get rid of everyone even remotely involved in foreign policy. I don't claim to understand the intricacies of who the good guys are as opposed to the ones n black hats any more than I can tell you " who's on first." 

Abbott & Costello Who's On First

I do know that if our friends are doing the kinds of things that are going on in Egypt--the widespread persecution  of Coptic Christians--then we should apply some friendly persuasion, or get new cronies. If these thugs are our enemies then we should treat them as such. Other examples of foreign messes with US finger prints on them abound.
So, if I am proposing that we get rid of the lot, who do I propose should take their place? I have three candidates in mind. I figure they can rehire the former diplomats who have a modicum of good sense, and fill in the gaps with others like themselves.
My first two nominees are a couple of paper boys from my hometown. Bradley Moss and Cameron Frye, thirteen and eleven years old, occupy the lowest rung in the newspaper business.  while they "were making their rounds . . . they found a 96 year old woman lying on her front porch.  She had been injured and asked the boys to seek help."  (Virginian Review, August 17, 2013)  This they did without congressional hearings and before consulting the UN General Assembly.  
My other nominee is Antoinette Tuff
This video should suffice for a resume.  
It starts with a scene that has become way too common, a gunman had shown up at a school with enough ammunition to kill more than half of the student's at the school where Tuff works, as a bookkeeper.  Ms.Tuff, realized that somebody needed to do something. With grace, wit, and courage that lives up to her name, She talked this would be killer into surrender. She exhibits a trait far too rare among others in the news about recent crises in Ben Ghazi, Syria and Egypt. She was willing to step up and put her own life on the line to do what is right and protect the helpless.
I don't mean in the least to make light of what is happening in the Middle East. Just the opposite, what is happening there is so serious that a response to the crying humanitarian need, and anti-Christian genocide cannot remain hostage to geo-political theories. A response can't wait for diplomatic code-breakers to decipher the Abbbott-and-Costello-like intricacies of who is, and who should be in power. Rather with the good sense and prompt action modeled by two boys who were just doing their job, we need to say, "Let's get these people some help. And with the coolness and courage of a clerical worker with a backbone, let's step up and do what is right.

It's Something to Think About.  (http://sttaspots.blogspot.com/ 

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It is good to see my friends getting along.

If you are a regular reader of STTA you have noticed that reconciliation has been a frequent theme.  The Psalmist says it is good and pleasant when brothers dwell together in unity.  Over the past year or so, a major prayer request on my list--I've shared it with some of you--had to do with some people I know, some of whom are good friends, who had not been getting along.
If you gave me a roster of the people involved, I suppose I could go through the list and check off some who were at fault, and others who were largely innocent.  Since I can't see other's hearts and don't know all that is to be known, I'm sure I'd be wrong on some evaluations.  As one of my friends--a guy I'd put on the good-guy list--said, though, "One can always look back and see things that he did that were wrong, that he could have done better."  It will come as no surprise to learn that this man is a big part of the reason that peace is being made.  He approached his formerly estranged brethren with grace and humility.  In this case his approach was well received.
A couple of other friends of mine were involved after the fact.  I'll call them "True Yokefellow" One and

Two.  Lovingly, and firmly they approached key people from both sides.  Where they could they explained the situation bringing greater understanding.  More often they urged both sides to consider that unity is a virtue highly esteemed by our Lord.  He is a peacemaker.  We show our resemblance to our Father when we make peace.  They risked making others angry in order to encourage peace.
There were some, maybe everyone who moved toward peace, who came to the place where they were willing to say, "I was wrong.  Please forgive me."  Some acknowledged that they were the cause of the problem, others admitted that along the line they had reacted badly.  At some point--I'm surmising here, because I've seen it many times before--the need for confession of wrong ceased.  Let's face it, if finding or maintaining peace requires the constant listing, confession, and forgiveness of every wrong ever done, then life will shut down for any other business.  Ephesians 4 begins with tolerance, and ends with forgiveness.  We are imperfect people, living in an imperfect world.  If we are going to get along we need to cut one another some slack.  A point needs to come in reconciliation in which we say, "I see your heart.  I am willing to reach out to you, and relate to you, in that brand of love that covers a multitude of sin."  If we try to start here, jumping over the confession, forgiveness steps, we won't get to this point, but if we insist on dealing with every fault as if it were the problem, we'll just spin our wheels.
I haven't seen any oil dripping off of my friend's beard, but I do acknowledge that it is good to see God's people in unity.
Let's help increase this tribe.

It's STTA.

Ready to Stop?

It might be a piece of a brake.  I found it along the curb in the street in front of the church.  If it is a brake part, I hope it fell off a junker being hauled to the recycling place.  In my time I've had some cars and trucks that were subject to having parts randomly come unattached and land in the road.  If this fell off a similar vehicle, somebody might be in for a surprise when they say, "Whoa."  

Being able to, and being ready to stop is important for more than cars and trucks.  In particular I'm thinking of my mouth.  Not only do I need a good set of brakes, but one of those sensor-gizmos, that automatically stop a car before it hits something or someone, would be handy. 

James warns that a tongue is deadly and can easily create a disaster.  David asked God to "set a guard over my mouth."  (Psalm 14:3)  And, Solomon said heeding the yellow signs can keep us out of trouble.   Especially when the "wicked" are present (Psalm 39:1)--and isn't that most of the time--a good set of brakes are important.

Lord, help me to not leave my brakes along the side of the road.  May my speech be gracious, well-seasoned, and appropriate.  (Colossians 4:6)  

AMEN.

BTW:  If you recognize that part as yours, give me a call.

It's Something to Think About. (http://sttaspots.blogspot.com/ 

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Got Your Pocketknife, #2

A pocket knife isn't the best tool for cutting a miter on a piece of trim, or skinning an electrical wire, or trimming your nails, but it is a tool that will work, and if you are among the group of men that Ispoke of yesterday you have one with you, and you are reasonably adept at using it.  You'll manage to git-r-done.

In counselling people in regard to relationships I find a principle that is pocket-knife-ish.  It applies across a broad spectrum of issues and it is accessible to amateurs--no "lay down on the couch," or six months of therapy.  

Take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle so you have two columns.  Make one side yours and the other whoever-else-is-involved-in-your-situation's.   

Let me illustrate the little tool with a rather innocuous, totally lopsided illustration.Every morning on my way to work I stop at Annie's coffee for a cup of java. As Annie hands me my morning fix she levels a look at me that ought to be reserved for the reincarnation of Adolph Hitler.  (Work with me here. Assume there is good reason to continue to buy coffee at this establishment with the frosty service.)

On one side of my sheet I list all the things Annie should do:  

• Attend Dale Carnegie class
• Look in the mirror
• Be thankful for my business
• etc, etc.

All true, but all, also, totally beyond my control.

The problem is totally the fault of the surly business woman, right?  My friend looking for help, is really helpless, isn't he?  Well, maybe, but let's not admit impotence until we have to.  Think about it.  Let me get the "My side" list started.  

• Upon entering the store greet Annie with a smile and pleasant greeting.

You are a skeptic aren't you?  You say, "That won't make any difference."  Maybe not, but then again, maybe it will.  And, there are likely other things "I" can do for the "my side" list.  One thing is for sure, if the only thing I do is gripe and complain about what is not being done on the other side of the page then all I have done is become a victim.  The problem with being a victim is they get victimized--all the time!  An even greater problem is acting the victim is not in line with the Bible, God's manual for getting along in life.  A summary of JesusGolden Rule, that may have learned as a child, goes like this:  

Do unto others 

as you would have them do unto you.

That places me not in the role of victim, but initiator.  There is something I can and should do.

I figure I was about four when my dad gave me that Davy Crockett pocket knife that wouldn't cut butter.  He wanted to instill a habit--carry a knife in your pocket and you'll be equipped for a lot of things.  There may be a better tool for the task, but it's at home in the shop.  With the knife you can very often make do.  You won't be helpless.  I offer the line down the paper tool for the same reason.  Quite likely there are more sophisticated therapies for your problem, but sometimes, quite frequently actually, you may find that this will do.  On other occasions it'll help you get by until (and these cases don't get stuck in the "until") you can fix it right.  

Don't be helpless.

It's Something to Think About. (http://sttaspots.blogspot.com/ 

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 (This little essay was actually where I started with yesterday's STTA.  Sometimes when you start whittling you don't know exactly what you'll end up with.)  

Guys who carried knives:

I grew up in a culture in which all men carried pocket knives.  I remember how I felt like a man when almost sixty years ago I received my first knife.  It had Davy Crocket on it.  My dad broke the point 

off the blade, I think, to pacify my mom.  I immediately found a stick to whittle.  I suppose there were men who didn't have a knife in their pocket, but they weren't guys who mattered to me.  Most of the guys I knew could whittle. I remember some of my friends, who came from a more urban culture, who were amazed that my dad could sharpen a pencil with his knife, and make it look like a pencil ought to look.  Guys trimmed their nails, removed splinters, dressed small game, stripped wire, cleaned fish, peeled fruit, adjusted carburetors, made whistles, cut rope, pruned trees, drove tacks, cut paper, with their knives and bragged about their utility and genealogy.  The care which guys gave to their knives could be heard when they told how they had been given it by their grandfather or by looking at it and seeing how half the blade had been worn away by decades of sharpening.

The fact that our culture has changed a lot was

reinforced by the fact that I had to wade through a couple of pages of Swiss Army knives, etc., before I found a picture of a "real" knife.  Those multi-gadget devices with their cute red handles are monstrosities that no man I knew and admired when I was twelve would carry.  I'm proud to continue that old knife-carrying culture--sort of.  I carry a knife most of the time.  It looks a lot like the one in the picture above.  Unfortunately it has no heritage.  I found it.  No one claimed it.  So I made it mine.  It's gotten harder to carry a knife.  In the culture I grew up in--one generation off the farm, some still working the soil--a knife was a tool, a very handy, even essential tool.  Only in the most extreme circumstances would any of the men I admired regard their knife as a weapon.  The only blood their blade ever drew was from their own fingers, when the blade slipped or when what was being cut unexpectedly gave way.  My grandfather, a farmer, or my Uncle Mc, who in his years as a disabled vet produced truckloads of smooth curly cedar shavings, wouldn't understand why the TSA seizes pocket knives--I've lost several that way (the little things the recent ruling allows you to keep, they called "pen knives" men didn't carry them).  "If this thing crashes you might need your knife."  Indeed.

I said I kinda help keep the knife culture going.  I had to saw a rope with my dull knife just last night.  If my uncle saw me--and he could see such things, though he was blind--sawing on that rope, he would say, "Let me see that, Rooster."  He'd rub the blade on his big black oil-stone, and get the blade "presentable."  He'd tell me I needed to keep working on it.  Yep, I do.

I hope I'm not just an old guy waxing nostalgic, but I think we were a lot better off with men who carried knives--sharp knives--than we are with a state that seizes them.

It's Something to Think About. (http://sttaspots.blogspot.com/ 

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 (Actually, this little essay on the humble pocket knife was not where I started to go with this STTA.  I'll get back to my main point tomorrow.)
   

There is lots of information about the one died so that we could have life at our webpage, covingtonbiblechurch.com.  Click on "Life's most important question."

Wondering at the Wonder:

A friend of mine, Matt McLain, can not only tell you more about dinosaurs than you thought there was to know, he can educate us on "not-dinosaurs."  I encourage you to read Matt's post.  It is not only informative, but highly entertaining.  I know Matt well enough to know that he enjoys making people chuckle, but he has more in mind than that.  He wants us to know, "the world is so much more amazing than anything we as humans could have invented. That is marvelous, and speaks to something so much greater than us."

We don't have to be in a graduate program to come to that realization.  Toddlers looking at butterflies and grasshoppers get the concept quite well.  The Psalmists understood it.  Was David lying on his back, staring into the vast sky, after the sheep were safely in the fold, or maybe it was in the desert, when bone weary from fleeing the madman King Saul, David looked at the sky to discern when morning would come, or perhaps it was from the palace roof, a place from whence he later looked on things he shouldn't have been viewing, that David--shepherd, warrior, King--saw the heavens in all their majesty?  Likely it was a composite of all those views that compelled him to say, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” (Psalm 19:1).    On another occasion I imagine David flexing his hand, feeling the tension in his arm, and seeing the fingers move--precise, strong, durable--"I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  (Psalm 139:14) he declared.

In Psalm 107 an unnamed writer observes the inevitable cycle of cause and effect.  His musings include sickness, sadness, storms,  flood, drought, and the wonders of the seas.  His conclusion: “Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things, And consider the lovingkindnesses of the Lord.” (Psalm 107:43)

Romans 1, and Acts 17, tell us that there are still lessons to be learned from the wonders of our world.  Take time to look.  Allow your heart to take on the wonder of a three-year-old, or a Matt McLain.

It's Something to Think About.

 

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. 1995 (Ps 139:14). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

 

Afraid of whom?

I was listening this morning to a story about North Korea's arrest and trial of Kenneth Bae, a missionary.  Bae is accused of attempting to overthrow the North Korean government.  Why not accuse me of threatening to carry away the Brooklyn Bridge in the trunk of my Honda, or trying to fill in the Grand Canyon with my shovel and wheelbarrow?  The officials of North Korea show their own weakness by fearing such an insignificant "threat."  

It is a common syndrome among petty tyrants and restrictive regimes.  Every time they arrest a preacher, squash a protest, or censor an author they show how weak they are.  The lion can afford to ignore the mouse.  My observation is not limited to happenings "across the pond."  When so called academics choose to shout down those who espouse ideas contrary to the approved line, they might as well rent a billboard that proclaims, "My ideas are weak.  I can only win a debate by keeping the opposition out."

As is often the case, though, I find that as I thinkon this, I condemn myself.  I am a child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, I have His word which is a fire, a hammer, and a sword.  I am indwelt by God's Spirit.  Yet, YET, too often I act as if Satan--a poor misguided, defeated spirit who, in spite of his great intellect, somehow thinks that he can win--is a force who can defeat me.  I know that "He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world," yet I too often act like it ain't so.  (1 John 4:4)  The fact is My knees sometimes buckle and my resolve fails in the face of entities far less than threatening than the Spirit formerly known as Lucifer.

Lord, may I not insult you, by fearing those who can do me no harm.

Amen.

 

 It's STTA

The Death-Masher:

Right now, three women must be rejoicing. The house where Ariel Castro held Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight as prisoners for ten years, inflicting great suffering on them, is being torn down.  As I type various members of the families are taking turns at the controls of a backhoe smashing the house of horrors to the ground.  

I nominate the judge in this case, Michael Russo, for the "Solomon Award, 2013" for making the destruction of this plain looking house part of Castro's sentence.  Not only did the judge decree the destruction of the structure, but he ordered Castro to pay for it. 

Of course not all prisons can be torn down with machines.  People all around us live in jails constructed of  walls and bars in their minds.  Look around, and you'll see the blank, hopeless look of those who are trapped and have ceased trying to escape.  

 

"Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,  and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."  

(Hebrews 2:14-15)

 

 We still live in the house ruled by death, but, BUT, BUT the death sentence has been decreed for death itself.  Though death is the last enemy that will be destroyed the great destroyer will be put down.  In faith, looking forward to this day the Apostle Paul exults,

 

"Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

(1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

 

That's better than a turn at the controls of the house-masher.  This freedom will last forever.

 

 It's STTA

Doing what I ought, so I don't have to stop doing what I ought not:

While gardening, Francis of Assisi was asked what he would do if he knew he would die that evening.  

"Finish hoeing my garden."

What a joy to be doing what one ought to be doing at that critical time.  The Apostle John said, "Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming" (1 John 2:28).  I fear too many of us are little kids left at home by their parents, hoping to hear the car in the driveway so they can stop doing what they aren't supposed to do and appear to perfect kids when their parents walk through the door.

It's not necessarily that we are doing something bad.  We just aren't using our time and resources in a way that counts for eternity.  If the Lord comes we would hide our heads in shame.

For much of the summer CBC has been asking the question "What's Next?"  It is a worthwhile question to ask if--and that's a big "IF"--the answer informs what I'm doing in the present. It's not rocket science.  We have a pretty good idea what we ought to be about, and even more so what we should not allow to dominate our lives.  If you knew this were your last day, could you keep doing what you are already doing?

 

 

 It's STTA

The US government just closed twenty-two embassies in Africa and the Middle-east.  It seems the chatter is intense.  Lots of bad guys saying bad things about us.  A number of officials and observers say it is similar to what we recognized--mostly in hindsight--before 9/11/01.  I have found it kind of interesting that even those one would expect to pile-on in criticizing the current administration have been reluctant to criticize the closures.  The name "Ben Ghazi" comes up often.  We don't want that again.  

As polite as diplomacy is, it is also dangerous.  Representing one nation in the midst of another can be quite hairy.  Those of us who follow Christ areambassadors.  We represent the Kingdom of God in the midst of a realm that "lies in the power of the Wicked One"  (1 John5:19).  

That is not the kind of thing that can be done with the guarantee of safety.  I know people whose loved ones have died in taking the Good News to those who haven't heard.  Even some of my preacher buddies, who serve in the comfort of the Bible belt, have been treated pretty shabbily.  I heard, just yesterday, about one who after some pretty shameful treatment just quit.  My son was asked to leave a country because he was engaged in proclaiming Christ.  I met one of his associates who just recently was also invited to leave.  Careers have been stymied and even ruined, and young people are socially ostracized--no small concern if you are sixteen years old.  So, do we just put a sign on the door letting the world know that we are shutting down until the opposition subsides?

 

 

Let's ask the Apostle Paul, who was beheaded, or Peter who was crucified, or John who lived in exile.  Our Lord warned us that it would not be easy here in the land where He was crucified.  (John  15:20)

No, we need to proclaim Good News in the face of bad news.  In fact the bad news serves to illustrate why the world needs to hear the message.

 

 

 It's STTA