Have you ever seen square gears? I have a small set of three square gears on my desk and they actually mesh and work! You see, when the gears go around, the corners are actually going in a circle. If the gears are properly positioned in relation to each other the corners will intersect at their neighbor’s flat sides and they will mesh and work fine.
Have you ever wondered if you were a square gear in a round gear world? Or looked at others and figured them to be in that category? Who is the final arbiter of whether round or square gears are normal? As a Christian, have you ever felt outnumbered or had difficulty meshing in secular society or business?
As Americans, we are schooled in the principles of a democratic republic and taught early-on that the majority rules. And that’s well and good in our political system. But we are then prone to extrapolate that principle into our culture and allow the culture to decide too many other questions of life. Culture seems to decide there should be ever-decreasing standards of decency, language and education with the foolish notion that this will produce ever-increasing standards of living. Our politicians have taught us that “to get along we must go along”; that for our system to work we must learn “the art of compromise”. In our headlong rush to achieve social inclusion of every person or idea or religion, what we are actually achieving is not a seamless society but the balkanization of society. More and more laws are passed to erase the seams but all they do is create more seams.
This is nothing new. The Bible is replete with account after account of God’s chosen people being seduced into thinking that their neighbors’ culture or religion was the true normal or “round gear” system, losing sight of God’s values just because from the world’s view they appeared to be “square gears”. And isn’t that what the world thinks – that the Christian way is all “square gears” and will never work? But Christians have learned the secret that when we get in line with God (mesh correctly with Him), suddenly everything works like God designed for it to and what once appeared unworkable now works marvelously. Have we checked how we’re meshing lately?
My prayer is that we will all be encouraged to be so immersed in God’s values and system that we will see them as the norm, and not what the world would try to make us believe is the norm. This will happen as we spend more and more time in prayer and God’s word and other Christian resources. Will we do it?
TODAY'S PERSONAL PARAPHRASE
Psalm 23:4
Even though my "to do" list has been taken over by events, I will stick with you, Lord, for you are with me. Your discipline and your promises are a great strength to me.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
PREAMBLE TO RE-LAUNCH
For the past couple of years I have been privileged to facilitate a class at our church examining the personal disciplines that would be helpful to Christians as they grow deeper in their Christian life.
As a part of the class, we began a blog designed to provide a ready reference for the ideas discussed in class. Our primary text book (other than the Bible, of course) was originally designed as a devotional book containing 52 chapters to be covered in a one year period. (Disciplines For The Inner Life by Bob Benson, Sr. and Michael W. Benson) Our class decided to not be bound by the one year constraint. The result was an unhurried study where we dove deeply into about 80% of the chapters over the two year period.
Various events and circumstances then interrupted our ability to meet regularly. People’s desire to deepen their spiritual lives continues, however, prompting the reorganization and re-launch of the blog mentioned above. This new version of the blog, now named Deeper Life Encouragement, will cast an even broader net in finding resources to help us all deepen our spiritual lives.
We will not post on a hard and fast schedule, but more on a “what is worthwhile” schedule – i.e. intermittent. There is a place on the blog to subscribe, so that you can receive automatic notification when a new posting occurs. I would encourage you to subscribe. You can always unsubscribe if you so desire.
So here we go! Your feedback and constructive criticism is always welcome. And I sincerely hope and trust it provides some spiritual food for all of us!
KEEP ON WALKING!
Today the Lord seems to be telling me to “keep on walking”. Do I need the exercise? Yes, but He’s talking about walking in trust with Him when it seems like things aren’t happening according to the schedule I expected when I started out on the latest assignment He’s given me.
The Lord showed me that most of His followers in the Bible had to walk by faith daily (and sometimes for years!) without knowing His schedule, so why should I be any different?! I haven’t been exactly sitting around, but in spite of some very legitimate activities I feel like in some respects I’ve just been treading water. The Lord helping me, I’m going to refocus on what I need to do to be more obedient to His assignment.
It’s time to Keep On Walking!
ENCOURAGEMENT EQUALS HOPE; HOPE EQUALS ENCOURAGEMENT
Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe, in his book Pause For Power (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Publishing, 1998, p. 361), suggests that from his study of First Peter there are three themes - suffering, grace, and glory - which unite to form an encouraging message for believers who are experiencing times of trial and perhaps even persecution. He goes on to quote H. L. Mencken, whom he describes as a “cynical editor and writer”, defining hope as “a pathological belief in the occurrence of the impossible.”
Dr. Wiersbe then comments:
“But that definition does not agree with the New Testament meaning of the word. True Christian hope is more than ‘hope so.’ It is confident assurance of future glory and blessing.
“This confident hope gives us the encouragement and enablement we need for daily living. It does not put us in a rocking chair where we complacently await the return of Jesus Christ. Instead, it puts us in the marketplace, on the battlefield, where we keep on going when the burdens are heavy and the battles are hard. Hope is not a sedative; it is a shot of adrenalin, a blood transfusion. Like an anchor, our hope in Christ stabilizes us in the storms of life (Heb. 6:18-19), but unlike an anchor, our hope moves us forward, it does not hold us back.”
Well, I hope that encourages us all today. We find great encouragement not only in the Bible, but also in communicating with each other. I know enough about some of you to know that you actively seek daily opportunities to encourage others. Some of us may be a little more passive, waiting for those opportunities to present themselves even while we’re watching for them so we can then use them. This pattern is not absolute, as we probably all do both from time to time. But we have learned that encouraging others also encourages us.
I have also known people (though none of you, of course) who seem not to have a single bone of encouragement in their bodies. But those bones can be grown because they are mental, not physical! It all starts with attitude. And attitude may be the only thing in our lives over which we have absolute personal control. Let’s all encourage the growth of those bones in ourselves and in others! If encouragement equals hope and hope equals encouragement, then we can all take strength from Dr. Wiersbe’s statement that “Hope is not a sedative; it is a shot of adrenalin, a blood transfusion.”
“Keep On Walking!”
For the past couple of years I have been privileged to facilitate a class at our church examining the personal disciplines that would be helpful to Christians as they grow deeper in their Christian life.
As a part of the class, we began a blog designed to provide a ready reference for the ideas discussed in class. Our primary text book (other than the Bible, of course) was originally designed as a devotional book containing 52 chapters to be covered in a one year period. (Disciplines For The Inner Life by Bob Benson, Sr. and Michael W. Benson) Our class decided to not be bound by the one year constraint. The result was an unhurried study where we dove deeply into about 80% of the chapters over the two year period.
Various events and circumstances then interrupted our ability to meet regularly. People’s desire to deepen their spiritual lives continues, however, prompting the reorganization and re-launch of the blog mentioned above. This new version of the blog, now named Deeper Life Encouragement, will cast an even broader net in finding resources to help us all deepen our spiritual lives.
We will not post on a hard and fast schedule, but more on a “what is worthwhile” schedule – i.e. intermittent. There is a place on the blog to subscribe, so that you can receive automatic notification when a new posting occurs. I would encourage you to subscribe. You can always unsubscribe if you so desire.
So here we go! Your feedback and constructive criticism is always welcome. And I sincerely hope and trust it provides some spiritual food for all of us!
KEEP ON WALKING!
Today the Lord seems to be telling me to “keep on walking”. Do I need the exercise? Yes, but He’s talking about walking in trust with Him when it seems like things aren’t happening according to the schedule I expected when I started out on the latest assignment He’s given me.
The Lord showed me that most of His followers in the Bible had to walk by faith daily (and sometimes for years!) without knowing His schedule, so why should I be any different?! I haven’t been exactly sitting around, but in spite of some very legitimate activities I feel like in some respects I’ve just been treading water. The Lord helping me, I’m going to refocus on what I need to do to be more obedient to His assignment.
It’s time to Keep On Walking!
ENCOURAGEMENT EQUALS HOPE; HOPE EQUALS ENCOURAGEMENT
Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe, in his book Pause For Power (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Publishing, 1998, p. 361), suggests that from his study of First Peter there are three themes - suffering, grace, and glory - which unite to form an encouraging message for believers who are experiencing times of trial and perhaps even persecution. He goes on to quote H. L. Mencken, whom he describes as a “cynical editor and writer”, defining hope as “a pathological belief in the occurrence of the impossible.”
Dr. Wiersbe then comments:
“But that definition does not agree with the New Testament meaning of the word. True Christian hope is more than ‘hope so.’ It is confident assurance of future glory and blessing.
“This confident hope gives us the encouragement and enablement we need for daily living. It does not put us in a rocking chair where we complacently await the return of Jesus Christ. Instead, it puts us in the marketplace, on the battlefield, where we keep on going when the burdens are heavy and the battles are hard. Hope is not a sedative; it is a shot of adrenalin, a blood transfusion. Like an anchor, our hope in Christ stabilizes us in the storms of life (Heb. 6:18-19), but unlike an anchor, our hope moves us forward, it does not hold us back.”
Well, I hope that encourages us all today. We find great encouragement not only in the Bible, but also in communicating with each other. I know enough about some of you to know that you actively seek daily opportunities to encourage others. Some of us may be a little more passive, waiting for those opportunities to present themselves even while we’re watching for them so we can then use them. This pattern is not absolute, as we probably all do both from time to time. But we have learned that encouraging others also encourages us.
I have also known people (though none of you, of course) who seem not to have a single bone of encouragement in their bodies. But those bones can be grown because they are mental, not physical! It all starts with attitude. And attitude may be the only thing in our lives over which we have absolute personal control. Let’s all encourage the growth of those bones in ourselves and in others! If encouragement equals hope and hope equals encouragement, then we can all take strength from Dr. Wiersbe’s statement that “Hope is not a sedative; it is a shot of adrenalin, a blood transfusion.”
“Keep On Walking!”
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