Further Thoughts On My Out-Of-Control Life:

Something To Think About, Control, 2

A couple of weeks ago I woke up after surgery--well half of me woke up.  Because of the type of anesthesia I had received, from the waist down absolutely no one was home. "Wiggle your toes."  Nobody home. "Can you feel this?"  Feel what? If my life had depended on doing something with my lower-limbs there is no doubt I would have died.  I had no control over them. Thinking back on my 50/50 body, I ask myself, "Which end of my body best illustrates my day-to-day life?" I'd like to think it is the waist up portion.  I go where I want to go, do what I want to do.  My destiny is in my own hands.  I think, especially, we guys all felt our spines stiffen when we first heard the words of Invictus by William Ernest Henley. We want to think we are the "masters of our fates" and "captains of our souls." If we keep thinking that, though, we are simply whistling in the "night that covers" us. It doesn't take a great deal of thought to realize that my true condition is more like my waist-down post-op self.  I live in a world that is held together by God's power.  Were he to remove hissuperintending control for a nano-second, all that is, including both ends of me would fly into I-don't-even-know-what. I live in this strange matrix known as time, yet I have no ability make even a second of the stuff.   As Robert Burns mused to a rodent, "The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang agley."  Like me, you probably don't speak the Scott dialect of the poet, but you know what it means. I am out of control because that which I need to control in order to control my life is beyond my control.  To live my life thinking, "I can handle it." is to lay a foundation on the sand of falsehood.  My house won't stand.  My life is not built on the sand of my ability--so called--to maintain control.  My life is built on trust in the One Who transcends, and Who created all that is, and maintains it down to the falling sparrow.  That's as solid as it gets. It's Something To Think About. At CBC, we continue a series on prayer, this Sunday morning. In CBC Sunday Night, What would Hosea say to 21st Century Christians?   covingtonbiblechurch.com

My Life Is Out Of Control . . .

Something To Think About, Control

There are times when I simply can't deny that my life is out of control, my control, that is. At any given time, all the time, my plans, well-laid or frivolous, can be interrupted, discarded, and/or shreded, and there is nothing I can do about it. My world is full of bad news from the doctor, identity theft, car-wrecks, down-sizing, out-sourcing, discrimination, and numerous other evils that bring forth an "Oh, no!" response. One of the arrogant assumptions that came out of modernism is that given enough resources, thought, and planning, we can fix anything.  I'm wonderfully glad for the technology that shields me from many of life's unpleasant realities.  When it is cold, my house is warm, when it is hot, I remain cool.  Many of the health scourges of the past have been all but eliminated, by medicine and sanitation.  Distances are shrunk by modern transportation and communication.  I need to remember, though, that just because I exercise a measure of control in my life, that does not mean that I can always . . . and even if there are some things I can manipulate, that doesn't mean that all things come under my control.  Finally, since events are interrelated, if I can't control everything, all the time, then I really can't control anything.   WARNING! CONTROL FREAKS, breath deeply.  Really, though, the fact that my life is out of control propels me in a profitable direction.  Realizing that I can't control critical factors in my life I can be compelled to despair or follow the example of the Prodigal Son, living high until I land in the hog pen.  I chose neither.  Rather I trust the One Who does control all.   So, bottom-line:  My life is not out of control.  It's in God's hands. It's Something to Think About.  Click here to find out how you can have this kind of relationship with the Lord.

Shaky Conclusions:

Something To Think About America's Day Began Pretty Shaky, This Morning. 9/17

Where America's Day Begins--that's one of the descriptions of Guam.  A pretty small--though it is the largest in Micronesia--island in the Pacific.  As I write in the morning, here in Virginia, it is already the middle of the night, tonight, there on the other side of the world. If America's day begins in Guam, then this day started badly. About 3:00 this morning EDT, a 7.1 earthquake, centered just twenty-five miles off Guam shook the island with enough force to get everyone's attention.  Surely such a phenomena, especially where our day begins, has to be a warning--maybe even a punishment.  Perhaps God is rattling our new-day to shake us from our complacency.  Maybe God is sending a signal to Washington.  "You think you are secure from attack?  You think you can ignore the cries of the refuges fleeing for their lives?  I can shake you from your position of faux-security as easily as I can shake your island on the far horizon." No doubt an imam somewhere is drawing entirely different applications from the shake-up in the place where America's dawn first creeps over the horizon. If you didn't read yesterday's STTA, I hope you will.  This one is a follow-up. As the old song goes, "He's got the whole world in His hands."  Yet, as my tongue-in-cheek interpretation of natural phenomena indicates, unless God gives us a clear indication of what something means, we are clueless.  And--I know I'll raise some antagonism here--folk who claim to heard from God about the why behind the what, haven't.  Hurricane Katrina wasn't a judgment on the Gay community, Sandy didn't strike New York in judgment against Mayor Bloomberg, and the fact that one person's house is bigger than another is no particular indication of God's blessing. When you ask me "Why?" concerning the What.  My answer is, "I don't know." Is there nothing we can learn from natural disasters and wondrous natural beauty? No, there is a great deal we can learn.  Psalm 19 tell us that the sky is the display of God's handiwork.  Job saw his smallness as he viewed the greatness of God's creation.  Basic characteristics inherent in creation can lead a thinking person to conclusions about the creator. But when we claim to know specific meaning behind specific happenings in the natural world we are, to quote Job, "declar[ing] that which I [don't]  understand, things too wonderful for me, which I [don't] know.”  (Job 42:3)   It's Something to Think About.

Choice:

Something To Think About Not because you must . . . 9/12

I don't want to say anything here that appears to diminish God's sovereignty, His absolute right to rule in our lives, and the fact that in when all is said and done, it will be what God has said that is done.  Contained within God's infinite, all-encompassing plan is the the concept that is emphasized in the passage of Scripture that we are dealing with this Sunday, at CBC.  In 1 Peter 5:2, the fisherman-Apostle says to the Elders of this church in exile.  "I want you watch over God's flock, not because you must, but because you are willing."  (NIV)  Other translations use the word "voluntarily."  The Greek word behind these translations is only found twice in the New Testament.  The other occasion is Hebrews 10:26, and speaks of sinning willingly. We can willingly do what God doesn't want or we can willingly bow to His will.  We can choose. What we can't choose is to avoid the consequences of our choice. Find out more Sunday, but in the mean time . . . It's Something to Think About.

9/11

Something To Think About 9/11

Those who were born on 9/11--The 9/11-- are thirteen years old today.  When the planes hit the Pentagon, the Twin Towers, and another airliner, because of the heroism of the passengers, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania,  my grandson was just starting his school career.   Now, he is a young man who is on his own.  President Bush had just begun his first term as president.  On this anniversary, Barack Obama is in the middle of second term.  It's been a while, yet the news is still current. Thirteen years after the attack America has again been insulted, if not assaulted. The Islamic extremists  who have recently beheaded two of our countrymen go by a different name, but their ideology is the same. Not just in a patriotic way, or in the sense of military preparedness, it is important that we remember.  Lessons learned from 9/11 need to be a permanent part of our thinking.   Not all religions are the same.  Christianity rests on the foundation of Jesus Christ, Who gave His life so that others might truly live.  Millions of Christians have followed in their Lord's path, willingly giving their lives so that others could hear the life-giving message.  The brand of Islam represented by ISIS considers themselves bound to take life--even of children--in the pursuit of earning their salvation.  It is clear.  Somebody is wrong. This world is not a safe place.  While God is sovereign, He has made this world in such a way that the decisions of people, even horrible decisions like those that led to 9/11, have real consequences, sometimes deadly consequences. If we put our hope in this world, even in the parts of this world that seem indestructible, our hope is terribly misplaced.  Everything in this world will be reduced to fine ash.  Unless we have a hope and purpose that goes beyond this mortal life and the crumbling world where we live our lives, we really have no hope and purpose. All of us desperately need a soul-satisfying, time-defying, totally real hope.  We need something in our heart that will keep us from doing horrible things in a vain attempt to find peace, and that will secure us against the attacks of those who carry depravity to its logical conclusion.  People need the Lord. It's Something to Think About.

A Remarkable Man:

I have come to appreciate Joseph, the Old Testament patriarch, all over again.  Over the past couple of months it has been my privilege to hang out with Joseph, as I've prepared and shared several messages about his remarkable life.  

One the traits of Joseph's life that I find remarkable is his acknowledgement of God's sovereignty.  At the end of his story there are some clear statements about God's ways.  

In Genesis 45:5-7 Joseph says that it was God Who sent him to Egypt.  Remarkable because Joseph was talking to the very people who had seized and sold him into slavery--the means by which he came to Egypt.

Later he said, " . . .am I in God's place?  As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. . . ."  (Genesis 50:19-20)

Psalm 105 gives some further information about Joseph's treatment. "Joseph . . . was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron;"  (17-18)

For thirteen years of his life Joseph was either a slave or a prisoner, yet as he looked back he could see God's hand in what had happened.  God was/is bigger than the petty jealousy and cruelty of his brothers, the conniving ways of a wicked woman, and the forgetfulness of a fellow-prisoner who could have helped prisoner number J-O-S-E-P-H.

I know God is certainly bigger than the petty offenses that come into my life.  I'm praying for the grace to acknowledge that even though others might mean it for evil, God in His sovereignty not only intends it for good, but actually brings good to reality.

Lord, make me like Joseph.  Amen.

 It's STTA. 

Does God Care?

Does God care?

Just about anyone who is Theologically aware at all would answer affirmatively, "Of course He does."  Wait a minute, though.  Gordon Monson, of the Salt Lake Tribune, makes a point with which I strangely agree, though I know it is wrong.  Don't tune out yet.  Let me explain.

Monson's comment is part of an article about perhaps the most controversial athlete in our nation, Tim Tebow.  "I've always believed," the commentator says,  "that God favors no professional athlete over another, no team over another. . . . He's too busy working to save the Earth, thwart evil, watch over the innocent, and publish peace.  He blesses the pure in heart, not the Denver Broncos."

First a couple of caveats:  God isn't too busy for anything.  Psalm 121:4 points out that God neither sleeps nor slumbers.  Jesus pointed out that the falling sparrow, and my falling-out hair are part of His ever-present attention.  David observed that He keeps count of my most mundane movements (Psalms 139).  From a logical viewpoint, since infinitesimal actions can have incredible consequences, if God isn't in control of the smallest things then He isn't in control at all.  Having said that, I agree with Monson.  I know I'm wrong, but that is what I think.  I came to this utterly contradictory conclusion while participating in another sport--deer hunting.  Back before I figured out that I wasn't any good at bringing home the venison I used to sit or stand at a deer-stand and talk to myself and the Lord.  

"OK, Lord, I'm here.  I sure would like to get a deer."   

Did the fact that I most often went home without a deer mean that God didn't hear my prayer?  Maybe He was letting me know that I ought to look for a better way to spend my time, or perhaps the lessons had to do with patience and persistence.  Did the success others had have to do with God's favor, or was it just a matter of my horrendous lack of the skills so valued by my outdoors-men buddies?  After a time of pursuing these mental rabbits on their circular trails, I would quit and come to the one conclusion that I knew was wrong, but that allowed me to settle down and take a nap--I was good at that.  

God didn't care whether I killed a deer or not.

 

I come to the same conclusion about football games. 

 

I don't know what Tim Tebow prays, when he famously takes a knee.  It might not have anything to do with who wins or loses.  Could it be something like, "Lord, I have no idea why I'm here in the end zone instead of under a pile of linemen on the other side of the line of scrimmage. I don't really figure it matters in any way that really matters who wins this game, but it matters supremely that I live for You.  Lord, I give you glory.  Help me to use the opportunities you give in a way that is pleasing to You.  Amen"

 

 I don't know what Mr. Tebow prays.  (If someone else does, let me know.)  I do know that for which I need to ask.

 

 "Lord, even down to things as simple as my eating and drinking, may I give glory to You."  

(1 Corinthians 10:31)  

 

 It's STTA. 

Christmas, It's Providential:

Providence is God working in the background to accomplish what He wants done in the fore.
Consider the process by which Jesus came to be born in Bethlehem.  Luke, excellent historian that he is, records:

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus,

Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.

that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David," (Luke 2:1-4, NASB95)  

We can be sure that neither Caesar, nor any of his underlings had any interest in the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy, but his decree accomplished just that.  More than half a millennium before Jesus birth Micah made the prediction made famous in the Christmas Carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem.   

. . . as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah . . . From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity." (Micah 5:2, NASB95)  

Caesar wanted what all political rulers want--more tax.  Quirinius and the other functionaries wanted their cut and to toady up to Caesar so they could maintain their comfortable position.  In spite of the announcements by the Angels (Luke 1 and Matthew 1) I doubt that Joseph or Mary put it all together--"Oh, yeah, our son is going to be the Messiah.  Micah says he is supposed to born in Bethlehem.  That's what all this is about."  More likely their response was like yours or mine when we are forced to jump through some unreasonable bureaucratic hoop.  At this point I'll avoid putting unflattering words in the mouths of Mary and Joseph.
Bottom line:  Nobody on earth knew what was happening, but God was providentially accomplishing His will in totally unseen ways.
He still is. 

It's STTA. 

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