Month: September 2022

Aspect of Christian Life #3

In addition to our spirit and mind, our body also plays its role our Christian life. Because we worship in spirit and truth (soul and mind), it may not be clear at first how our physical actions are important. Out physical position when praying or even raised hands and joyful dance during worship put us in the proper attitude, but it goes far beyond that. Love and kindness toward others is a requirement for a child of God. Kindness is love in action and almost always requires physical action on our part.

There is one big difference between physical and spiritual or mental development. The closer we get to God over the years the stronger our spirit and mind usually become. Age and wear and tear take a toll on our physical strength. My knees no longer allow me to kneel in prayer as I once did. My limited mobility makes it impossible for me to physically do kind acts for others. That does not hamper my Christian service as I near 80 years of age, but it does change my emphasis. Without kneeling I have to humble myself mentally and spiritually when I approach God in prayer. I raise my voice in song as I worship. Instead of providing physical or financial help I provide encouragement and prayers. That certainly doesn’t lessen my affect on those around me. It is important that we take good care of ourselves so we can take care of others, but God will always give us a way to serve them. As I approach 80 years of age in March, Lord willing, I have found the importance of encouraging words and prayers for the needs of others. Those should be things we do even before offering a helping hand.
Part of Christian service is taking good care of ourselves so that we can take care of others for as long as possible. God blesses us so that we can bless others. I’m sure I have mentioned this before, but years after his retirement from baseball Mickey Mantle said, “If I knew I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” Some things can’t be prevented like injury or illness, but our general health can be maintained for quite a while until age takes its final toll on us.
Serve physically while you can, but never underestimate encouraging words and prayer.

Aspect of Christian Life #2

Another aspect of Christian living is our mind. The brain is a marvelously complex organ. It monitors our five senses for dangers and pleasures. It also controls and monitors our other organs. Our mind can somehow envision things we have not experienced. Every new invention begins with a problem and visualization by someone’s mind of possible solutions. The philosopher Descartes is famous for saying, “I think, therefore I am.” It was his proof of existence. One thing is for certain; when you are brain dead, you are indeed dead.
What role does our mind play in living the Christian life? Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God change you into a new person, by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 2:2) In the King Jame Version, it refers to “renewing our mind”. My spirit was renewed instantly when I accept Christ as my Savior, but it took longer for my mind to be transformed. Maybe that was because I was only eleven at the time.
It is marvelous when my mind is focused by the Holy Spirit on Jesus and God’s will, but we have to be very careful because minds tend to wander off sometimes. Every temptation and all resulting sin first enters our mind. We can’t keep them from flying over our head and through our thoughts sometime, but we can keep them from nesting in our mind. Satan is very good at distraction. He will create a storm in our life to try to focus our mind on his lies. There are so many lies in our world today that sound so convincing to our mind, but if we concentrate on God’s word and his will, we can avoid them. Those lies are dangerous, because once you believe them, the truth no longer sounds right. As Mark Twain said, “It is much easier to convince someone of a lie than it is to convince them they have been lied to by someone they trust.” It is the “helmet of salvation” mentioned in Ephesians 6:17 that will protect our minds from lies and temptations.
Age often takes its toll on our minds. I thank God every morning for a sound mind at my age. Don’t ever take that for granted.

Aspect of Christian Life #1

For the next three blog posts, I want to explore three aspects of human life and how they affect our life as a Christian. When God created Adam He gave him a spirit,a mind and a body. The spirit is the most important because God is Spirit and that is our best means of communicating with Him. We often refer to our spirit as our heart. It is in a real sense who we are. It controls our feelings and provides our moral code. Since Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden, we have inherited the stain of original sin on our spirit. Jesus explains to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that his mission on Earth is to provide us with a new, reborn spirit that no longer separates us from God; allowing us to communicate with Him directly again and to enter heaven to be with Him for eternity.
It is faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior that provides us with a newly born spirit that works in conjunction with God’s Holy Spirit to give us the power to communicate with and obey God as Adam did before his fall. It is that new spirit within us that identifies us as God’s son or daughter and a Christian. Living the Christian life is simply living in obedience to God and displaying to the world around us the fruit that Spirit produces; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. (see Galatians 5:22-23)
Our spirit is lifted in worship and study of God’s word. It is touched by the needs of others; as we help them overcome their condition and rejoice in their victories. It is our job to love others and not to judge them, but leading them to Christ is an act of love not judgment.

Value of Time

As I grow older, I realize the value of time. Other things of value can be replaced, but once time is spent it is gone and we can never get it back. The other reason it is so valuable is that we never know how much time we have left. People who died last night had plans for this morning and people who died this morning had plans for this evening. All of us who have lost loved ones regret that if we had known time was so short, we would have hugged them tighter and told them how much they mean to us one last time.
It is ironic that the biggest complaint of retirees whose children are on their own is the lack of time to get things done. Part of that is;, of course, our bodies have slowed us down so it takes longer to do virtually everything. It also takes us longer to get started on any project. We tell ourselves we still have plenty of time to get it done, but do we?
Have you ever been accused of wasting time on unimportant things. Maybe you have even accused yourself of doing that. I want to share a bit of wisdom I have received from God’s Holy Spirit over the years. Nothing that puts a smile on someone’s face is a waste of time especially if it lights up your smile. No action that benefits another person is ever a waste of time. It is actually those investments of our time that matter most when our journey here comes to an end. Those acts of love and kindness are tucked in our hearts and they, along with our faith, are the only things we can take with us.
Thank God we will have eternity to hug our Christian loved ones again and time will no longer be a concern.

Wild Ride

In the summer of 1959, I went on a blind date that changed my life. That first date we went to an amusement park in St. Louis. I was smitten by that older woman (13 months older) with that quiet Mona Lisa smile. Even though we grew up in the same city and we had so much in common, including our faith in Christ, our paths had never crossed until then. We dared each other to ride the big wooden roller coaster. We held hands on that ride and I’m sure we both said a few silent prayers that the creaking old ride would get us safely to our destination. I mentioned at her memorial service that it was the first and last thrill ride we shared; if you didn’t count our 50 year marriage, which was a wild ride we took together. There were highs and lows, twists and sharp turns; and dips that took our breath away. Looking back on all of it, good and not so good, I wouldn’t change a thing because that long ride together drew us closer to God and to each other. It is all part of who I am; today.
Have you ever wondered why the Christian life isn’t a smooth, straight highway to heaven? Why do we face long climbs and sharp drops; rough stormy seas, sorrows and sadness? Yes, there are thrilling experiences along the way, but also sudden unexpected curves that change the course of our life. I think there are three things we need to remember as we face this wild ride.
The first thing is we need contrast to help us understand life. We can’t truly appreciate light unless we have experienced darkness. We can’t appreciate God’s blessings without going through a dry spell or a difficult trial. It is human nature when things are sailing along smoothly we immediately begin to take it for granted and think that is the way it will always be. We need to be reminded sometimes that He is the source of our blessings and our peace in the storms of life.
Secondly, the Christian life is a refining process. God burns away our impurities and smooths out our sharp edges. He is forming us into His son or daughter in the likeness of Jesus so our family resemblance will be easily seen by all. That process isn’t pleasant sometimes but the resulting love, kindness, obedience and other fruit of the Spirit are more than worth whatever discomfort we go through. So don’t worry about what is around that next curve, just enjoy the ride and know there is peace beyond our wildest imagination waiting for us at the end of it.
Finally, we are never alone on this wild ride called the Christian life. The gospel song Through the Fire describes it so well. “So many times I’ve questioned certain circumstances or things I could not understand. Many times in trials weakness blurs my vision and that’s when my frustration gets so out of hand. It’s then I am reminded that I’ve never been forsaken and I’ve never had to stand one test alone. As I look at all the victories the Spirit rises up in me and it’s through the fire my weakness is made strong. He never promised that the cross would not get heavy and the hill would not be hard to climb. He never offered a victory without fighting. He said help will always come in time. Just remember when you’re standing in the valley of decision and the adversary says give in, just hold on, our Lord will show up and He will take you through the fire again. I know within myself I would surely perish. But if I trust the mighty hand of God He’ll shield the flames again.”

He Can

I was reminded of another song the other day. It was written by Richard Mullan and came out in 1954, the year I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. It has been recorded by several artists over the years. “HE can turn the tide and calm the angry sea. HE alone decides who writes the symphony. HE lights every star that makes our darkness bright. HE keeps watch all through each long and lonely night. HE still finds the time to hear a child’s first prayer. Saint or sinner call they’ll always find Him there. Though it makes Him sad to see the way we live, He’ll always say, ‘I forgive.”‘
We must never take for granted our access to God through prayer or His amazing power that is released in response to our prayers. When Jesus died on the cross the heavy curtain in the temple that separated us from the presence of God was torn from top to bottom, symbolically allowing us to come into God’s presence to pray in the name of Jesus.The life; death and resurrection of Jesus bridges the gap between God and mankind. All we have to do is accept God’s gift of salvation and follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit within us.
I know I am still here writing my blog because of all of the prayers that were prayed for my survival from Covid and more recently from a urinary track infection that was draining my energy. Never underestimate the power of answered prayer. We are called to love others and help them, but don’t forget to pray for them as well.
My church is beginning 21 days of prayer today through the end of September. Prayer involves much more than presenting a wish list to God for His approval. I have never been comfortable with the second verse of the song above, because it makes God seem like a genie granting wishes. Our prayers should include praise and worship. We must also ask for God’s will and direction in our life. If you don’t take time to listen to God’s plan for you, you are just leaving a message on His voicemail, hoping He will get back to you later. I can tell you from experience that once you know His plans, you will forget all about what you wanted to do with His approval.

Only One Way

The New Age Movement seems to be enjoying a burst of popularity. On the surface, it seems so fair and inclusive. All religions worship God in different ways and although they each take a different path, all roads lead to God and to heaven. As a Christian, I know the major error of that philosophy and so do you. Even the newagers know why true, born again Christians don’t fit into their philosophy. You can mention God all you want around them, but the minute you mention Jesus, you are being too “preachy”.
The center of our faith is Jesus Christ. He teaches us that He is the way, the truth and the life. No one can approach God or enter heaven without going through Him. Jesus Christ was either a delusional egotist who actually believed he was the Son of God; or He is exactly who He claims to be. He leaves us no other option. To believe there is another way to please God and enter heaven with Him, would label Jesus a liar and that is a very dangerous position to take. The founders of all of those other religions are dead and buried. When Jesus stepped out of that tomb in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, He proved by example the gift of eternal life He offers through His sacrifice for our sins. I have mentioned many times that Christian faith is not a religion like those others, but it is a personal relationship with God thanks to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. No matter how sincere those other worshipers are, they are sincerely wrong. Those other roads will not take them to heaven.
I read the testimony of a former Muslim the other day. He said he left Islam because he studied the life of Mohammed. He became a Christian because he studied the life of Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just teach us the truth; He is the personification of Truth. He doesn’t just show us the way; He is the Way. There is a wave of Christian faith moving through those other religions around the world. When Jesus returns every knee shall bow and everyone will acknowledge Him as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. I’m so glad I have recognized Him as my Lord and King long ago.