Category: Uncategorized

Christian Complements

On By BrianIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Joseph has been rotting in an Egyptian prison for months.  One day he is unexpectantly summoned to appear before Pharaoh.  It seems Pharaoh has had some dreams that no one can interpret.  But the cupbearer remembered that Joseph had interpretted his dream two years earlier, and so the cupbearer tells Pharaoh.  So Joseph is summoned.  Pharaoh tells Joseph, “I hear you can interpret dreams.”

“So I hear that you are a good plumber.”  “I was told you are really good at golf.”  “I heard you are a great cook.”  “That was a great presentation.”  Someone comes up to you with praise for whatever ability you have.  How do you respond?

Joseph responds to Pharaoh, “It is not in me; but God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”  On my own I can’t interpret your dream, but God can.  Interpretting dreams isn’t my ability; it comes from God.  It’s not about me; it is about him.

How do we respond to praise?  Do we point others to God?  I confess I often just say “thank you.”  They gave me a complement, and I appreciate it.  It seems somewhat awkward to constantly in effect say – “it’s not me – it’s God.”  Does that belittle their complement?  Or look at it from the other side.  If I should always deflect the praise from myself to God, maybe I shouldn’t complement others because it really isn’t about them anyways.  But shouldn’t we encourage each other and express gratitude toward those who minister in some way to us?  Of course we should!  So then maybe a simple “thank you” is a good answer after all.

But maybe there is a better.  Maybe we can both accept the complement with appreciation, and also express praise to God who gave us the ability.  Maybe the one giving the complement can phrase it as both appreciation for the person and praise to God.  Maybe instead of saying, “Thank you for…,” we should say, “I appreciate the way God used you in….”  And maybe our response should be, “Thank you.  I praise the Lord that he used me to minister to you.”  And if it seems awkward, maybe it is simply because we aren’t used to doing it. 

In the end, maybe complementing each other is an opportunity not only to encourage and express (and receive) gratitude, but an opportunity to help all of us lift our eyes to the one who is truly worthy of praise.

Aslan’s Other Name

On By BrianIn Uncategorized1 Comment

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader book and movie, Aslan tells Edmund and Lucy that they won’t be coming back to Narnia.  Lucy especially is heartbroken because she won’t see Aslan again, but Aslan tells her that he is in our world too.  He continues:

But there I have another name.  You must learn to know me by that name.  This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.

So what is Aslan’s other name?  His other name is Jesus.  As Aslan died to rescue Edmund, so Jesus died to rescue us.  As Aslan rose triumphantly from the dead, so Jesus rose triumphantly from the dead.  As Aslan was the children’s guide to Caspian, so Jesus is our guide.  As Aslan helped the children in the Dark Island, so Jesus helps us in our trials.  As Asalan helped Lucy overcome temptation, so Jesus helps us overcome temptation.  As Lucy loved Aslan, so we should love Jesus. 

The wonder of Aslan is a glimpse into the wonder of Jesus. 

Do you know Aslan by his other name?

A Passion for Missions

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

We had four people from Partners in Evangelism International at our church yesterday.  Two serve the mission here in America and two are pastors in the Ukraine.  It was a great day.  As we listened to the Ukrainian pastors through an interpreter, I was struck with their passion for missions.  Their great desire was to reach the people in their country who had no gospel witness.  There was an intensity expressed that I have not seen in awhile.  And the challenge for me was clear:  Do I have a passion for missions?

A passion for missions goes right along with the theme of this blog.  Jesus had a passion to reach us, and came to die for us that we might be reconciled to God.  If I have a passion for God, I will want to share the good news so more people will know and honor God, so God will be glorified by more and more people.  If I have compassion for people, I will want to share with them how they can be forgiven of their sins, have a new life with God, and the hope of the resurrection.

To live by the three passions, I must have a passion for missions.  So do I have a passion for missions?  I confess my passion had waned, but yesterday’s challenge awakened it.  By God’s grace it will continue and grow.  But how to live out this passion?  Three ideas:

Give: My wife on our way home last night was asking what we might cut out so that we might be able to give more to missions.  We have so much compared to much of the world.  We need to re-evaluate our priorities.  How might we sacrifice for the sake of the gospel? 

Go: What might we do to share the gospel in our own neighborhood, in our own community?  And might God send us on a short term trip sometime?

Pray: Those who go out need our prayers.  We need to get more serious about praying regularly for missionaries our church supports and other missionaries we know, as well as praying for the outreach of our own church and sister churches.

Father, grant us a greater passion for missions that plays out in our daily lives.

Love or Not

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

A few weeks ago I finished Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield.  It offers an interesting look at true love vs selfishness.  (Friendly warning: this post includes numerous spoilers….)

Let’s start with selfishness.  Mr. Murdstone claims to love people, but he only wants to control them and make them like himself.  Steerforth claims to love people but only to get what he wants.  Uriah Heep claims to be humble, but only as a disguise for his selfish grasping plans.  All three make great claims, but obsessed with themselves they leave a trail of human wreckage.

How different is real love.  Mr. Peggotty gives up everything to travel all over Europe in search of his adopted daughter whom Steerforth has lured away.  Like Jesus, he goes to great lengths to seek and save one who is lost.  And then there is Agnes who loves Copperfield, and stands by him through thick and thin even when he marries another.  Neither Agnes nor Mr. Peggotty have any promise of return, but both give of themselves for those they love.

Dicken’s characters have real life counterparts.  In the “novel” of life, we undoubtedly know both types of people to various degrees.  But the real question is:  what kind of character are we?  The character who talks a good talk but is obsessed with self no matter who is hurt?  Or the character who speaks with self-giving actions even to his own hurt?

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.  But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?  Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
– I John 3:16-18

Computer Fast

On By BrianIn Uncategorized6 Comments

After almost three weeks, I am blogging again.  Two of those weeks were a total computer fast.  The first day of my fast was crazy.  I kept thinking, “I should check the internet for…oh wait, I’m not using the computer.”  After that, it was wonderful.  No computer troubles and frustrations.  More time for other things.  Less random voices bouncing around in my head. 

After two weeks without a computer, I can better see the good and bad of the internet and computer.  Certainly it allows one to access a lot of information.  At the same time, perhaps it allows us to access too much information.  I need to set limits.  I need to surf less.  I need to visit fewer blogs and visit them less often.  I need less random voices bouncing around in my head.

The internet also helps us connect with others.  And yet often this is rather shallow.  I know what people are doing on Facebook, but how well do I really know most of them?  I have already determined I want to check my e-mail less often and Facebook even less.  I want to spend more time with my family and less time with my computer.  

The internet can also be a powerful platform for presenting ideas.  I blog to share thoughts with others.  Yet I need to take a break from time to time to just listen.  And I need to care less about my stats.  The irony is – though I haven’t written for almost three weeks in August, August will turn out to be one of the top three months for people seeing this blog.  Go figure!

Bottom line: The internet is a wonderful tool that can become almost god-like in our lives if we let it.  I don’t need to check my e-mail, Facebook, blog one more time.  I don’t need to surf other blogs so often.  It won’t make my day any better.   It will probably just add more random voices to my already full head.

Do you find yourself always on the computer, checking e-mail or Facebook several times a day, spending hours surfing the web?  I recommend a computer fast to regain some perspective.  You might be surprised at how wonderful life can be without it – without so many random thoughts bouncing around in your head!

The Provision of Jesus

On By BrianIn Book of Luke, Uncategorized

Can the provision of Jesus meet my needs?  This is an important question today as we live in a world of uncertainty.  Many are fearful of the future with a poor economy, lack of jobs, loss of money, and the list could go on.  Do we need to be afraid?  Or can we trust in the provision of Jesus?  We get a helpful glimpse of an answer in Luke 9:10-17.

Jesus is preaching to a crowd of over 5000 in a desolate place.  Evening comes, and the crowds are hungry.  This is a big need.  It would take a lot to feed over 5000 people!  Have you ever had a big need in your life? Maybe you do now.

Jesus tells the disciples to give them something to eat.  They rightly recognize that they can’t – this situation is too big for them.  Ever been there – in a situation too big for you?  Maybe you are now.

The disciples manage to come up with five small loaves and two little fish, but that won’t even feed the disciples, let alone the multitudes.  They consider buying food, but where would they get so much food?  There are no Super Walmarts.  The surrounding towns are smaller than the crowd with Jesus.  Even if they could find the food, how would they pay for it?  Mark 6 gives us the figure of 200 denarii.  Each denarius is a day’s wage.  Estimate $100 a day and you get $20,000.  How many of us have that kind of cash on us?  None of the disciples did.  No place to buy food and no money to do it.  The situation seemed impossible.  Ever been there?  Maybe you are now.

But Jesus thanks God (literally blesses God) for the food, divides it up, and they all eat, are satisfied, and have 12 baskets of leftovers.  There was a great need beyond any of them, and Jesus provided for the need.  How has Jesus provided for your needs in the past.  Times when the need was so great you didn’t see how it could be met, but He did.  I can think of ways God has provided jobs in incredible ways for me.  I asked the congregation Sunday, and we heard a number of wonderful stories of God’s provision.  Don’t you think he can provide for your need today?

Of course Jesus provides in different ways for different people.  He might meet a need miraculously like he did in these verses.  Or he might use others to provide for our need as he did when he sent the disciples out in verses 1-6.  Often he provides a job for us to work that our needs might be met.  He makes our gardens grow that we might have food.  And on and on the list might go.  Sometimes he provides in totally unexpected ways.  We are waiting for provision in one way, and he provides in a completely different way.  We don’t understand why, but how he provides is up to him.

He also provides in various amounts.  He provided more than enough for the crowds in our passage.  In verses 1-6, he presumably provided just enough.  Verse 5 suggests there were times when they didn’t get any food, but God still provided enough to keep them going.  None of them starved.  Which reminds us that we could get by on much less than we think.  Paul tells us that if we have food and clothes, we should be content (I Timothy 6:8).  Most of us have much more than that!

Our greatest need, however, is not even food and clothes.  Our greatest need is God, a relationship with him, a home with him forever.  This too is provided to us by Jesus who died for our sins and rose again to give us a new life with God.  Should he choose to withhold food, clothing, or health, still in him we have our greatest need met.  The Psalmist reminds us of this in Psalm 73:26 – “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  One day it will come our time to die.  He will withhold our physical needs.  But he will provide something greater – a home with him.

With all this in mind, how should we face the future?  Do we need to be afraid?  Or is the provision of Jesus enough to meet our needs?  The answer is found in the feeding of the 5000.  The answer is found in our own past experiences.  He is more than able to meet our needs.  So let us:

  • Seek.  Seek his provision for our needs.  Let us pray as Jesus taught us to pray – “Give us this day our daily bread.”
  • Trust.  Trust the Lord to take care of us.  We need not be afraid.  God will give us what we need.
  • Be Content.  God may provide abundantly or just enough.  He might provide for us to come home to him.  Regardless of how he provides, let us be content.
  • Give Thanks.  God provides for us in measureless ways.  We always have reason to give thanks to God.

Finding Help In God

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

God must be trying to tell me something because my reading this morning again points toward relying on God.

Psalm 146 tells us not to trust in people, for in them there is no salvation.  It would seem to me that this includes ourselves.  Indeed Proverb 26:12 warns us about being wise in our own eyes.  When we think that our newest plan, idea, program, message, or whatever is hot stuff to change the world – we are being wise in our eyes.  We are full of ourselves and our own wisdom and cleverness.  The proverb goes on to say that there is more hope for a fool than one who is wise in his own eyes.  When I am impressed with myself, I am worse than a fool.  This is pretty strong considering the nine verses before all speak of the fool in in very negative terms.

Back to Psalm 146, instead of trusting in people we are called to trust in God.  “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God” (v5).  When we rely not on ourselves but on God, we are blessed.  And why should we rely on God?  Verse 6 continues the thought – because God is the maker of heaven and earth.  As the one who made everything, he can help us.  We should rely on him.

And how does he help us.  The Psalmist begins a list:

  • He keeps faith
  • He executes justice
  • He gives food
  • He sets free
  • He opens eyes
  • He lifts up
  • He loves
  • He watches over
  • He upholds

Of course this is only a partial list.  But the point is that God is the one we should rely on because he is the one who can truly help us.  May we be wise, stop trusting in ourselves, and look to him.

More Relying On God

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

A few more voices on our need to rely on God.

Mark Altrogge notes that we could be the greatest in our area of ministry, but without God all our “efforts would be useless.”

On a related note, Joshua Harris asks, “What are we leaning on?”  He also quotes Jerry Bridges on our need to know God that we might trust or rely on him.