Month: March 2021

The Sermon on the Mount as recorded by Matthew, is the most quoted sermon ever preached and for good reason because it is a message, a Word, from the Lord himself. At one point in that sermon Jesus tells us, “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see.” At another point in that same sermon Jesus tells us, “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly.” Which is it, Lord? More than a little confusing isn’t it? Although those are two accurate quotes from the NLT translation, they are both taken out of context. Let’s put them back into context and see if they are no longer confusing or contradictory.

Here is the first quote in context. “You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:14-16) Here, He is talking about true believers doing good deeds in the name of the Lord, so that He is the one who receives praise and glory.

Now let’s look at the second quote in proper context. “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do – blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:1-4) So now we know the difference is motive. When we let God’s light shine through us by our words and deeds, He gets the praise. When we help others to show everyone what a good person we are, the praise of men is the only reward we will ever receive. Have you ever heard the expression, “He (or she) is blowing their own horn”? Now you know where that expression probably originated.

That sermon Jesus preached is very often quoted out of context by unbelievers or by those who don’t want to face the full truth of His teachings. As Christians, we need to make sure we read and understand the full context of scripture, not just brief excerpts that seem to justify our opinions. When we read and study God’s word to sincerely discover the full truth He has for us, context is extremely important. Not all context is as obvious as the example I’ve given above. Thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the full message God has for us in His Word.     

When I was a boy we had to memorize the multiplication table in the second grade. It was tedious, but it was the way I learned how to learn new things and commit them to memory. I understand it is still taught in later grades now, but as a chart for reference and not something that must be memorized. Why bother when they can push a few buttons on a calculator or computer to get the answer. I can still multiply, divide, add and subtract without a calculator after all of these years, while most youngsters can’t. I can also remember other things I’ve committed to memory like Bible verses, song lyrics and quotes from people smarter than I am. Two Bible stories brought this topic to mind. They illustrate how great God is at multiplication.

The first story is found in 2 Kings 4:1-7. The widow of one of the prophets came to Elisha for help. A creditor was threatening to take her two sons into slavery for payment of her debt. Elisha asked, “Tell me, what do you have in your house?” She replied, “Nothing at all, but a flask of olive oil.” He told her to find and borrow all of the empty jars or containers she could; then pour the oil from the flask into them until they were full. When the last container was full, the oil stopped flowing from the flask. She told Elisha what happened and he told her to sell the olive oil and pay off the creditor; she and her sons could then live on what was left. God took what she had and multiplied it to meet her needs with some left over.

The second story is found in John 6:5-13. A large crowd of 5,000 men not counting women and children followed Jesus into a remote area where he sat on a hillside teaching them. Jesus asked Phillip about feeding the people. Phillip told Jesus even if all of the disciples worked for months they still couldn’t afford to buy food for all of those people. Then Andrew said, “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fishes. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” Jesus blessed the loaves and fishes then broke them up and had the disciples distribute them to the crowd. Everyone had their fill and the disciples collected twelve baskets of leftovers. God took what they had and multiplied it to meet their needs with some left over.

You are probably asking yourself, “What does all of this have to do with me or my Christian life?” God has a way of taking what you have and not just increasing it, but multiplying it to meet your needs. I cannot count the times when I was sure our income would not cover our expenses; but in answer to our prayers God covered our needs with some left over. So, my dear Christian brother or sister, with a thankful heart count the blessings you already possess and then watch God multiply them to meet and exceed your needs.     

Even as Christians, we have some irritations in our life. Whether it is the actions of others, the weather, or some other uncontrollable condition; they are real. Sometimes I think I get on my own nerves by putting unnecessary burdens on myself. How do we deal with the irritations? How do we cope? We can’t always control our situation, but we can control our reaction to it. Do you just grin and bear it? Do you pray to God to remove it? Do you feel sorry for yourself and play the victim? Do you get angry and rant about it to anyone who will listen. Whatever your reaction might be, you probably have never thought to thank God for the problem. But that is exactly what Corrie ten Boom did.

During World War II, she and her sister were arrested by the Germans for harboring and helping Jews. They were placed in Ravensbruck, one of the most notorious prison camps in Germany. The barracks they were put in with other women became heavily infested with fleas. It was so bad the vicious, sadistic guards would not enter their barracks. She and her sister used that opportunity to hold uninterrupted Bible studies, leading many of the women to Christ. Corrie wrote later how she thanked God for those fleas that kept them from the abuse of the guards and gave them the opportunity to share the Gospel of Christ.

During my 25 years in the pest control industry I treated several severe flea infestations. I would tuck my pant cuffs inside my socks and my long sleeves inside my gloves, spray myself with repellant and then pray that I didn’t take even one flea to my truck or home with me. The minute they sense a host is present those blood thirsty insects attack. I can’t imagine living in that condition with thousands of them looking for a blood meal and no defense against them. As bad as that was, it was still better than the abuse from those evil guards; so Corrie thanked God for the fleas.

I’m not saying that what is bugging us is protecting us from something worse, but it is always a possibility. Sometimes, when we find ourselves in rough waters, it is because our enemies can’t swim. Sometimes when we call on Him for help in the storm, He speaks calm to the storm and other times He speaks peace to our soul right in the middle of the raging storm. Either way, there is indescribable peace.

Christians, whatever our situation, we have the Holy Spirit to prompt us to react in a way that is best for us and those around us. It may vary from person to person or even from situation to situation, but it will always be the best reaction at the time. Sometimes I have been prompted not to react at all.

By the way, later in her life Corrie ten Boom stated, “I have experienced His presence in the deepest darkest hell that men can create. I have tested the promises of the Bible, and believe me, you can count on them.”

Of all of the jobs I have held during my lifetime, the ones that gave me the opportunity to provide a needed service for others were by far the most gratifying. Service jobs are often looked down on as menial and demeaning, but there is something truly noble about helping others; making their needs a priority. After all, Jesus tells us, “The greatest among you must be a servant”. (Matthew 23:11) He demonstrated that by washing His disciples’ feet.

Providing excellent customer service was my favorite class as a trainer. The most important things I taught about serving others were these: Listen carefully to the customer to learn what they need and their expectations for you to help them fulfill their need; Then do your very best to exceed their expectations. If you do those two things, your service will always be perceived as valuable and effective. 

The owner of the company whose employees I trained was a great example in his interaction with his employees. As a result, most employees passed his empathy and kindness onto their customers and we received so many referrals from happy customers the company didn’t have to spend money on advertising. When he died shortly after my retirement, I was asked at the last minute if I wanted to say a few words at his memorial service. This is a portion of what I had to say, “Dick Jennings was a very humble man whose pride was in his family, his sailing accomplishments and in the company his grandfather founded in 1888. I had the privilege of working with him on the history of his company titled, ‘In the Company of Good People’. Most of us here have a dear connection with that company. He believed in and lived by the Golden Rule every day. He always treated others with respect and kindness. I know he offered help to many of you, as he did to me. My faith teaches me that if a man does good deeds for others publicly, his reward will be the praise of men; but if he does his good works privately, God will see them in private and reward him in heaven. By those criteria, Dick Jennings is doing very well right now.”  He was a man of wealth and influence, but he had the heart of a servant. I’m pleased to have gotten to know him and become his friend as well as his employee.

As Christians, we are commanded to love one another; but we are also called to serve one another. Peter wrote, “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.” (1 Peter 4:10) Nothing I know is more gratifying than serving another person; that is because it is actually God you are serving with your kind acts or encouraging words. I sometimes regret the fact that I can no longer help others physically or financially, but I pray that by sharing my gift with you through this blog, I have been able to provide you with strength and encouragement.  

I can’t believe there are still people who demand proof of God’s existence while ignoring the countless signs all around them. The more science discovers the more miraculous our world appears. Atomic scientists tell us everything in our Universe, including us, is made up of tiny, microscopic balls of energy called atoms. Biologists now know that every living cell has within it a unique genetic code. It is now obvious that the first living cell would be much too complex to come into being by chance. In humans, that genetic code determines gender and physical characteristics down to the color of hair, eyes and skin. If you still don’t believe in miracles, you must have forgotten that you are one; knitted together in your mother’s womb. (Psalms 139:13) You and I are living proof not only of God’s existence and creative power, but also of the variety found throughoutt His creation.

There were probably more, but there are three times recorded in scripture when Jesus raised a boy, a girl and His friend Lazarus from death and brought them back to life. Those three people were living proof of Jesus’ power over death, but all of them eventually died again. When Jesus rose from the tomb that first Easter Sunday morning, He became living proof of His promise of an everlasting life beyond this one for all who believe in and follow Him.

Jesus made it clear to Nicodemus (John 3:1-21) that His ministry and mission was not just about physical life and death. It is all about the spiritual rebirth that is needed to enter into the kingdom of heaven. This past Sunday I watched online as eleven people of various ages and backgrounds each gave their testimony of what God has done in their life since they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Then each of them was baptized; symbolically entering the watery grave with Jesus and being raised out of that tomb a new person with a new life. Those eleven people are living proof of God’s love, mercy and grace; so much so that at the end of the sermon that morning many more people responded to the call to give their hearts to Christ. Tears of joy ran down my face as I watched and listened, because I relived the joy of that occasion I experienced those many years ago.

As Christians, my brother or sister, we are living proof of what God can and will do in the life of His children. May those around us see our family resemblance to our Heavenly Father. May they see the fruit of His Holy Spirit within us. May they feel His love through our love for them; and may they too become living proof of God’s unfailing love, mercy and grace.     

A friend of mine from Christian Life Center recently posted this on her page, “Confident that unknown seasons, hard seasons, mountaintop seasons are perfecting me.” She is beautiful in appearance and in her heart. She is a very gifted singer, musician and writer. Just in the few years I have known her, I have seen her gifts develop and truly blossom as she puts them to use for the Lord. I couldn’t be prouder of her if she was my own daughter.

In just two days from posting this to my blog, I will become 78 years old (Lord willing); nearly 67 of those years have occurred after my spiritual second birth as a child of God. After all of those years of mountaintop seasons of blessings, hard seasons of struggles and those unknown seasons in between, I am still an imperfect work in progress. Am I closer to perfection than when I began? You bet I am – getting closer each day! But the only perfect human in the history of this world returned to heaven about 2,000 years ago.

If I compare myself to other people, I might think that my perfection is nearly complete. But the only true perfection in this life is found in God’s word, His Holy Spirit and the Universe He created for us. Compared to those, I realize how far from perfect I still am yet. You see, I am still that lump of clay the Master Potter placed on His wheel when I became a Christian. He has been forming me with His skilled and powerful hands applying pressure inside and out forming me into His perfect likeness – a person worthy to be the adopted son of my heavenly Father. It is only when my transformation is complete that He will remove me from the potter’s wheel and present me to our Father as a finished work.

Until then, God will also use the seasons my young friend mentioned for my perfection. Even the hardest seasons that are meant for evil against me have been and will continue to be turned around by God to bless and strengthen me instead. Joseph was the greatest example of that process. His brothers sold him into slavery, then his master’s wife sent him to prison for refusing her seduction. But God used those evil actions to eventually place Joseph in a position to prevent Egyptians and even his own family from starving during a great famine. That is how God can turn our hard times into blessings. Those mountaintop seasons not only bring us peace, comfort and encouragement, they also give us a scenic vantage point to view the Glory that lies ahead for us. Perfection awaits us in God’s perfect presence.        

I make a conscious effort to share all of my Christian life experiences with you through this blog without exaggerating the blessings or sugar coating the struggles. I want seekers and new believers to know what they can expect as a child of God and I want to let more mature Christians know they are not alone in their experiences walking with our Lord. This post describes the unexpected situations in which we sometimes find ourselves.

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I didn’t sign up for this”? There are times in life when our experience is very different from our expectations. Every veteran I know could identify with that as they remember their first week of basic training or the first few days of their first deployment. Others might remember surprises they encountered beginning their first full time job. Whether it is a job, a calling or even a relationship; we find ourselves in situations we never expected.

Imagine how David felt hiding in a cave from King Saul with a few hundred misfits. He vowed to serve the Lord while tending his father’s flock as a boy; Samuel had anointed him with oil as a future king; God helped him slay Goliath; as a hero he served in Saul’s court; but now the jealous king was trying to kill him. This was not what he envisioned when he vowed to serve the Lord. He called out to God and his situation began to change for the better.

When I got out of the Air Force, I took a job as a service dispatcher at a coffee company in St. Louis. After five years, I was offered a new service route out of Burlington, Iowa, with an increase in pay. After praying about it, my wife and I decided to make the move to a rented house in Burlington. Because the route was just starting out, it was spread over a large territory with one of my largest customers, a truck stop, that was one hundred miles from my home. I had to spend two nights a week away from home. One evening after dinner I went back to my motel room, called my wife then prayed; pouring out my heart to God that this was not the life I expected or wanted. One of my customers was the small Christian food service company at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. When I stopped there the next day, the owner told me he had gotten the contracts for two colleges in the Chicago area and he offered me a job as food service director at one of them. He would train me and pay for our move. My wife and I jumped at the opportunity and our situation changed for the better. We bought a home and began to put down roots.

When you find yourself in a situation that is not what you counted on, the first thing to do is take it to the Lord. It might be that you made a wrong turn somewhere along the line, but most of the time God will show you that it is just a temporary transition needed to  get you to where He wants you to be. Even through uncomfortable situations, God will take you to your next level of service and your true calling; sharing your gift with others.

How many times have you heard someone say, “We don’t plan to fail – we just fail to plan”? Yes, it is true that I have never planned to fail; but how can I plan for something that hasn’t happened yet? Like most people, I think, I am better at reacting to the present than planning for the future. “Hind sight is twenty-twenty,” but by that time it is too late to plan. It has taken me much too long to realize that the Holy Spirit dwelling inside me has access to the future and is the perfect source to consult when planning. We can also seek out the wise advice of someone who has “been there and done that”; whether it is a trip, event or pursuing a dream or goal.

Thankfully, my bride-to-be had 18 months to plan our wedding while I was stationed on Okinawa. She didn’t use a professional wedding planner, but I know she consulted others about the details. The only planning I was involved with was choosing a best man and deciding to take our vows from the book of Ruth instead of the traditional vows. That event was, like my bride, perfectly beautiful.

A friend reminded me of another familiar saying the other day. “If you want to make God laugh – show Him your plans.” I always thought that sounded too much like it describes a fiendish god who enjoys wrecking our plans. That certainly is not the God of love, mercy and grace that I know, worship and serve. I think when God laughs at our plans it is because He has plans for us that are infinitely better than the ones we come up with. Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Jews in exile. If they even had plans, they were short term ones about their current situation. Hope was a thing of the past. In that letter, Jeremiah quotes God, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29-11) We cannot plan better than when we pray for God to show us His plans for us and then follow the prompting of His Holy Spirit to achieve them.

I will be 78 years old in a few days. My future here is much shorter than most of you who are reading this. At this stage of my life, I live one day at a time and watch God’s plans for me come together. I think maybe that is the way I should have been living all along.   

I ran across two songs with a similar message. Here is a brief quote from each of them. “God was in time when the children of Israel crossed the mighty Red Sea. He was on time when the walls of Jericho fell at Joshua’s feet. Whenever I feel discouraged, I don’t have to wonder where He’ll be. He’s been in time, on time, every time for me.” “While struggling though a bitter day, I fall down on my knees to pray. To get relief where else could I go? ‘Jesus, here I am again helpless and I need a friend. I’ll depend on you to ease my troubled soul;’ and He comes in time, on time every time I need Him. Just when I think I’m going to fail. He answers, ‘Yes, no or maybe so.’ I don’t worry cause I know He’s in time, on time every time I need Him.” That sums up accurately God’s involvement in my life and His response to my prayers since I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior long ago.

The thing we must remember is that God created the Universe including the solar system that is the basis of our concept of time; so He is not limited by time or space as we are. He responds in His sweet time and on His timetable; but He will always respond in answer to our prayers. Mark Batterson points out that we are living in an age of instant gratification, so when we don’t get an immediate answer to our prayer, we think God didn’t hear us or doesn’t think it is a prayer worth answering. Neither is true, of course. Mark suggests that instead of praying ASAP (as soon as possible} prayers, we should start praying ALAIT (as long as it takes) prayers.

A great example of the difference between our time and God’s time is found in the Gospel of John. (John 11:1-44) Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus that their brother Lazarus was sick and needed immediate healing. They knew Jesus loved them and they thought he would rush to the rescue. Jesus didn’t come and they wondered why as they watched their brother die. He had been in the tomb for four days when Jesus finally got there. Jesus knew that Lazarus was dead and he was there to bring him back to life. Our God is so great that even when He is four days late; He is still on time. When we think He’s late, it is usually because He has something bigger and better planned.

As Christians, we don’t have to wait for God to come to us. His Spirit is with us and in us at all times. He hears our every prayer and He will respond when it will bring Him honor and glory. He will always answer our prayers in time and on time, every time. But it will be His time and not ours. The only prayer that God always immediate answers is the one we pray with a repentant heart for salvation from our sins and spiritual rebirth through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus; His Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our heart; while angels spontaneously rejoice in heaven.