Turbulence

Five passengers, including a baby, were injured this past Monday on Flight 1676 from Denver, Colorado to Billings, Montana.  As the jet began its descent toward the Billings airport, it encountered some severe turbulence.  The plane dropped sharply, causing those who were injured to be thrown around in the cabin of the aircraft.  Investigators are trying to determine if the “Fasten Your Seatbelts” sign was illuminated at the time of the incident (source: Amy Hubbard, latimes.com, 2-18-14).

Turbulence.  That is a great word to describe life at times, isn’t it?  You know what I am talking about, don’t you?  You are cruising along, minding your own business and then -- WHAM -- out of nowhere, the bottom drops out, leaving your bruised and battered.  A financial setback.  A lost job.  An unexpected diagnosis.  A death in the family.  All of these things and more can turn your life upside down.  How do we deal with the turbulence of life?  Allow me to suggest two things.

First, expect it.  Some flights have very little turbulence.  Other can leave you with a death grip on the armrests.  But turbulence happens.  It happens in every life.  It can take different forms and comes in varied measures, but no one is immune to it.  God has warned us that tough times are part of life, so expect it.

Second, prepare for it.  No, I’m not talking about always expecting the worst to happen, but to be mindful of the possibility.  It seems to me that hurtling along at over 600 miles per hour in an aluminum tube between tanks of jet fuel is always a great time to wear a seatbelt.  After all, who know what problems the weather outside the plane might cause?  If you keep the seatbelt on, you are better prepared for the unexpected.  Life is the same way.  If you are always wearing the seatbelt of God’s providential care and protection, you are more likely to survive the turbulent times of life.

The “Fasten Your Seatbelts” sign is on.  Are you buckled in?

God loves you!

Mike

Eating Your Words

It was a wise person who said: “Keep your words soft and tender because tomorrow you may have to eat them.”  Have you ever choked on some words that you spoke too rashly?  Have you ever regretted hitting the “send” button on a verbal missile launched in cyberspace?  Have you ever used your words as a weapon?  Chances are, each of us can think of times when we have done all of the above.  We quickly learn that ill-chosen words are never palatable as leftovers.

James certainly knew what he was talking about when he described our tongue as one of the most dangerous and unmanageable parts of our bodies.  “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way” (James 3:8-10).

The Bible has much counsel regarding what to say as well as when and how to say it.  “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise” (Proverbs 10:19).  “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1).  “He who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding” (Proverbs 17:27).  “Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 29:20).

Having a sharp tongue is not a virtue.  Verbal abuse can be just as damaging as physical abuse.  Although it is difficult, it is always best to “let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth…” (Ephesians 4:29).  We may have to bite our tongues.  We might have to count to ten.  But it sure beats having to choke down unsavory words later.  Let’s choose our words carefully!

God loves you!

Mike

Lord Of The Schedule

If the Lord permits 2014 to run its course and we live to celebrate New Year’s Day 2015, we will all have had the opportunity during the year to choose how to use 8760 hours of time.  For the sake of discussion, let’s say we use seven hours a day on average for sleeping.  That means that we will use 2555 hours of our 8760 hours, leaving us with 6205 hours.  Now we need to carve out some time for eating.  Let’s be generous and allow 1 hour each for 3 meals a day.  That’s a total of 1095 hours for feeding ourselves.  That leaves 5110 hours in the year.  Let’s assume we are not independently wealthy or retired, so we also need a job.  If we work forty hour a week for 52 weeks, we will be busy at making a living for 2080 hours for the years.  Now we are left with 3030 hours after eating, sleeping, and working.

So we are talking about roughly 3000 hours of “discretionary” time in the coming year.  When you look at it that way, it doesn’t seem like much time, does it?  No wonder the year appears to go by so fast!  Of course there are other important and necessary claims on our time, such as family and friends.  Each of these (and more like them) also subtract various amounts of time from the total.  And for people of faith, we also want to make sure that God gets His share of the minutes, right?

Rather than merely giving God His “slice” of the time pie (or worse yet, the leftovers), let me encourage us all to view every hour of the year as “God’s hour.”  Every second, every minute, every hour is a gift from Him and can be devoted to His praise and glory.  God is not just another entry among others on our calendar.  He isn’t content with just being “worked into” our hectic schedule.  He ought to be the first consideration in all that we do or say (Colossians 3:17).

God loves you!
Mike

Until Death Do Us Part

“I heard of a couple who, as they were paying for groceries in the check-out line, were discussing their soon to be 50th wedding anniversary, when the young cashier interjected by saying, ‘I can’t imagine being married to same man for 50 years!’  The wife wisely replied, teaching the young girl a lesson at the same time, ‘Well, Honey, don’t get married until you can’” (sermoncentral.com).

That’s very wise advice!  It is also very biblical.  A marriage is more than just a mutually beneficial living arrangement.  Its not just something that will do until something better comes along.  It is a covenant based on a commitment (Malachi 2:14).  That’s why at least older versions of marriage vows usually included words like this: “I, ____, take you, ____, to be my lawfully wedded(husband/wife), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”  Am I prepared to honor my marriage commitment when things get worse, when the money runs out, and when health begins to fail?  Those are fair questions that everyone considering marriage should ask themselves.

I understand that marriages fail for a number of reasons, even for those who were committed at the start.  God’s forgiveness and redemption is just as effective for those of us who have failed at marriage as it is for those of us who have failed at anything else.  We are ALL failures in one way or another.  But the remedy for marriage failure is not found in watering down the commitment.

“Until death do us part” should still be the goal.  May we never view our marriages like a cell phone contract that allows for an upgrade every two years.  We live in a “throw away” culture that doesn’t encourage hanging in there for the long haul.  But in spite of our failures and cultural pressures, let’s encourage marriage longevity, not disposability.

God loves you!

Mike

Tears In A Bottle

“You have taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Your bottle.  Are they not in Your book?  Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call; this I know, that God is for me” (Psalm 56:8-9).
Life isn’t much fun at times.  Perhaps you can relate to some of the struggles listed by the author of Psalm 56.  Oppressors are treating you like a sidewalk, leaving their boot prints all over you.  They are proud of their efforts to make your life miserable (vv. 1-2).  They take pleasure in twisting your words as they dream up new ways to attack you (v. 5).  They lurk around every corner, seeking an opportunity to destroy you (v. 6).
But maybe your struggles are different.  Your battle may be with a health condition that is painful and debilitating.  Perhaps your trials result from the fracturing or destruction of a relationship.  It could be that you are overwhelmed with grief due to the death of beloved family member or dear friend.  These are all different life issues than the psalmist was experiencing, but no less real or painful.  Life can hurt.
Where do you turn in times like these?  The psalmist turned to God when life got rough.  It wasn’t because God magically made everything alright.  It wasn’t because God took away all of the pain and difficulty.  The author of Psalm 56 took solace in the fact that God was there in the midst of it all.  It was a source of comfort for him to know that none of what was happening was escaping God’s notice.  I especially love the imagery of God collecting the psalmist’s tears in a bottle (v. 8).  The writer trusted that no tear of pain or grief is missed by the One who loves His children.
God knows your pain and grief as well.  None of your tears are overlooked in a world of hurting people.  When life’s experiences tempt you to think otherwise, remember that God is for you, not against you!

God loves you!

Mike

Amish Issues

A recent speaker I heard referred to what he called “Amish issues.”  What are “Amish issues”, you ask?  The Amish are a religious group known for retaining many old ways of doing things regardless of the advance of the society around them.  From an outsider’s point of view, some of their choices seem a bit odd.  The speaker illustrated his point by referencing something he saw during a visit to Pennsylvania.  An Amish farmer was using a new or nearly new John Deere corn planter.  This corn planter was a modern, state of the art corn planting implement, costing thousands of dollars.  But instead of using a modern tractor to pull the planter, the farmer was using a team of horses!

The purpose of this article is not to ridicule the Amish.  No doubt they have their own reasons for availing themselves of some modern technology and avoiding others and they don’t have to defend them to me.  They can pull modern corn planters with a team of horses if they want choose to, regardless of how odd it appears to someone else.

My purpose in thinking about “Amish issues” is to consider if I have any of my own.  It’s easier for me to point out what appears to be foolish traditions in someone else’s religion and casually overlook the traditions of my own religious practice that appear to be outdated and inconsistent to others.  Am I guilty of clinging so tightly to the traditions of my religious past that my witness for Christ has become irrelevant or obsolete in the present?  If I am honest, it’s likely that I have “Amish issues” as well.

While the core principles of the good news of Jesus are unchanging and valid in any culture, the methods for sharing it are more fluid and adaptable.  The motto of the apostle Paul is still applicable: “I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some” (I Corinthians 9:22).  I must be prepared to engage culture rather than retreat from it.

God loves you!

Mike

Marked

“Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple.  And He called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case. The LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst”” (Ezekiel 9:3-4).

Ezekiel lived during dark times for the people of God.  The nation as a whole had descended deeper and deeper into sin.  In the midst of a vision from God, Ezekiel had been given a opportunity to personally see what was going on.  Each new abomination he saw exceeded the previous one (cf. Ezekiel 8).  The merciful patience of God with His people had reached the breaking point.  Executioners were called forth to bring divine discipline and judgment upon the rebels (Ezekiel 9:1-2).  But another individual came with the executioners -- a man clothed in linen carrying a writing case (Ezekiel 9:2).  His task was different than that of the executioners.  This man was to go throughout Jerusalem and put an identifying mark on those who were grieved at the sin being practiced around them.

We, too, live in times that can vex the soul of one who has a heart for the things of God.  We live in a culture that has its own share of abominations that elicit sighing and groaning among people of faith.  But don’t lose heart!  God still has His “mark” on the faithful.  Societal disintegration and cultural implosion will not give God amnesia!  To borrow the words of the apostle Paul: “The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Timothy 2:19).  As the Good Shepherd, Jesus says, “...I know my own and My own know me” (John 10:14).  If sin against God still grieves you, then thank God!  That makes you a marked person.

God loves you!

Mike