Thoughts on Lent
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Category: Weekly Thoughts
Thoughts on losing control
The answer to “losing control” — or the complex problem many Americans deal with that we call control issues — might not be a clearer view of ourselves but a clearer picture of God. Maybe our God is not big enough? Wait a minute, our theme at First Methodist Church for more than a year is that God Is Big Enough! “How big is God?” is one important question. And an even more important question is, “Is God big enough to trust?” Control issues often come from a failure to trust God.
God is omnipotent: God is all powerful!
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) “With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made.” (Roman 1:20)
God is omnipresent: God is everywhere!
“For Jesus himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we may confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.’” (Hebrews 13:5-6) “If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me.” (Psalm 139:8-9)
God is omniscient: God is all knowing!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge God, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3: 5-6)
According to the Bible, God is all powerful, all present and all knowing. God is fully capable of being trusted. But there still is the question, “Can we trust God?” The ultimate question of trust then becomes, “Does God love us, does he really love us, does God absolutely love us?” For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) The proclamation that God loves us is unmistakable and unarguable, and that proclamation is the cross, where the all-powerful, everywhere, all-knowing God chose to give His life as a sacrifice for us. God could speak no more clearly and loudly than the crucifixion of his sinless son for a sinful world. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly,” the Bible says in Romans. “God proves his love toward us” that same book also records!
There is peace and power in trusting God, walking in a restored relationship with a Heavenly Father who deeply desires that the people He created trust the invitation He offers, “Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” OR another way to word the same invitation, “Lose control!”
Thoughts on the life of the church
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Thoughts on control issues
I knew someone some years ago whose mother left a great deal to be desired. The mom often used guilt to try to control her daughter. On top of this, the mother had never been much of a mother, even abandoning her daughter for a number of years. After that she would drop in and out of her daughter’s life, usually looking for something when she showed up. When these reunions happened, the daughter would try her best to please her mother, even giving her money, hoping against hope that this would encourage her mother to become the kind of mom, friend and person she always wanted. I still know this family, and her dream has yet to come to pass. She still is trying to please her mother.
Control issues are like a two-sided coin, there are those who believe if they can control others — even the world — they would be happy and so would everyone else. Then there is the other side of the coin, those who believe if they can please everyone out there, they would be happy and so would everyone else. Both are untrue. After all, Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.” (John) I don’t recommend you thinking too hard on a couple who get married that is the opposite sides of this coin. It is not going to be pretty.
If I think I have to please everyone to be happy, how can I please God? If the premise of the Christian life is loving God, then my first obligation is to honor and live for God. God can be pleased, and the first blessing is that when I honor God with a sincere faith and an obedient life, I also please most (but not all) of the people in my life. The second blessing is that I can more easily let go of the burden of attempting to please those in my life who can’t be pleased. (It is good there are not many of these.)
The biblical principle is simple, only God can make people happy, satisfied, complete. Controlling or being controlled doesn’t do it, only a heart filled by God. Control issues are a spiritual problem, solved only be seeking our “Amazing Grace” God who sets us free to live life fully. As the Bible also says in John, “The truth shall set you free!”
Let God be God, and then I just have to be me. This I can do.
Thoughts on control
When my brother and I were about 11 and living in Biloxi, Mississippi, we lived near what we called “the woods.” There we spent weeks one summer building a fort. We built a small, boxy space, surrounded it with stacked pine logs as a fence around it, protected it with traps (holes we dug covered with sticks and leaves, not smart), as well as hid it back deep in the woods surrounded by trees making it difficult to see. Somehow, as little boys it mad us feel safe, secure and comfortable when we would go back and spend time there (we also made our own bow and arrows just in case the imaginary enemy showed up). But obviously we did not stay in that apparently safe, secure fort (which is now a housing area). We moved on in life toJapan, Navy, marriage and 30 years of ministry.
I think that people sometimes spend a great deal of time attempting to build that same fort, only bigger and more involved, but looking for the same thing — safety, security, comfort — often doing so in the realm of control. If I can control my environment, the people around me, even my world, then I can sit down in peace and safety and enjoy life. Through control we keep working to build that place, waiting for the day we can finally sit down in safety, security, comfort and finally enjoy life. It becomes about the control more than it does about the life. The sad part, we can’t control much anyway, if anything, and often can barely control ourselves. We are after all human, but hear me now, humans who have a great and loving “big enough” God.
Jesus said in John Chapter 3, “The wind blows where it wills, and so does everyone who is born of the Spirit of God.”
The person who thinks they are in control, especially in control of the future, not only are wrong about that assumption, but they will often miss the direction the wind of God is blowing because they won’t recognize it for what it is. Their own bent to control turns their lives into a rickety fort surrounded by little traps that even God finds hard to get through.
Let God be God, and then I just have to be me. This I can do.
Thoughts on democracy
“We the People”
These words, “We the People,” begin the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. When they were first penned at the end of an arduous and costly Revolutionary War, at a very contentious Constitutional Convention, they were words that officially began the new government of the United States made up of just 13 colonies. In a world where the governments were often defined by one word such as king, queen, emperor, czar, etc., this new country would begin with “we the people, by the people, for the people.” A democracy was born.
“To Establish Justice”
In a very unjust world, where people often existed to serve the monarch, in this new country, the government would exist to serve the people by establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, securing the blessings of liberty for the people and their posterity and to defend those people from common enemies. These words in the Preamble lay out the simple, yet almost divine purpose for these United States. Justice, peace, liberty, defense — words that have always defined the purpose of American democracy.
But just like a monarchy is only as good as the king (why so many eventually fail), so a democracy is only as good as the people (why in some parts of the world democracy never seems to take root).
In my way of thinking, a democracy has no specific morality or values other than its process of electing its leaders. Even the ideas of liberty, justice and peace have to be defined by the people who choose to live by these values. In other words, I think democracy has worked so well in America because of the core values, ideals, and yes, deep faith in God of the average American. If the church wants to influence America — be salt and light as Jesus commanded — then we must influence the core values, ideals, and yes, deep faith of the average American. Justice is a core value of Christianity. Peace is a core value of Christianity. Liberty, freedom, is a core value of Christianity.
Michael Novak put it this way, democracy is a three-legged stool — political freedom, economic freedom and moral responsibility. If one is lost, then the stool falls over. For me, the only sure assurance of moral responsibility is through the faith reflected in Christianity. The best way I can affirm the country I love is to vote and preach a good sermon on Sunday. Because “We the People” is only as good as the people we are. America has worked because of the moral values that guide us, moral values with a foundation in biblical faith, a faith that begins and ends in Jesus.
Thoughts on how Christianity changes the world
Jesus, Politics, and 24-Hour News: I was talking to David, our Teaching Pastor, this week about this special series, a subject that can be sometimes polarizing and argumentative. Any time pastors preach on this kind of topic, there can be some fear and trepidation. We can be misunderstood or disagreed with, especially when politics is such a volatile subject. But the conversation had a comforting tone because a preacher’s goal is to preach “what the Bible says,” to offer the “teachings of Jesus!” In other words, my opinion, and I always have one, takes a back seat to the teachings of Jesus. So, I learn from what the Lord says, just as those who might listen to me do. Jesus said, “Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and your neighbor as yourself.” He told us to make disciples of all the world, teaching all He taught. He told us to be salt and light in the world. This is the task of the Church. The question is, “How?” And even more, how to engage this world — the political and the not political — and be faithful to Jesus.
The message of Jesus attracted the common person — Jew, Greek, Roman, religious and nonreligious. They all were attracted to Him and His message. They came to him by the thousands. It was those in power — Jew, Greek, Roman, religious and nonreligious — who typically opposed His message and eventually Him. It was King Herod who refused to intervene, the powerful High Priest Caiaphas who orchestrated his trial and charges. It was the Roman governor who washed his hands and passed the sentence of crucifixion. It was a Roman centurion who oversaw the driving of the nails. Yet, these are simply names in ancient history. King Herod died an awful death, and someone else took over his throne. Pontius Pilate soon returned to Rome in disgrace, and the authority of the high priests ended in just a few years when both Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by Titus and his Roman legions after a Jewish rebellion. Most people know little about any of them, and if they know anything, it’s because of their connection with Jesus — Jesus who changed and is still changing the world, Jesus who changed thousands of lives and eventually billions, Jesus whose opinion we seek today while relegating the opinions of kings and Roman governors to ancient history.
As we think about 24-hour news and politics this season, just how does Christianity change the world?
Thoughts on thinking outside of the box
Typically the journey for many of us is building a comfortable box that works for us. When we are kids, parents put us in a box that we struggle to get out of, to find our own way. When we get on our own, we spend a great deal of energy to get our own box in place that helps us feel secure. This often becomes so set in stone that life changes little for us as we divide our lives by things we think we can do from those we think we can’t, the way we live our lives from the ways we don’t. Patterns, habits, security and comfortable become the box that we live in, even if it is not what we really want. We react instead of decide, exist instead of persist, maintain instead of follow. It is very human, but we are called to the divine. Jesus is the one we follow.
Some opportunities that might be outside our box but could be inside God’s call to more:
- Our church has many opportunities this year under a new movement we are calling The Journey. Pick up the information we have at all our exits in church, or check it out online.
We also have three mission trips coming up:
- Rwanda, Africa, June 19-28 — I am a part of this trip as we explore our ZOE Ministry Giving Hope connection. We will visit the homes of the 1,000 orphans we support and get ready to adopt another 1,000. Maybe God is calling you to Africa.
- Haiti, May 2-10 — This trip is aimed at disaster recovery and our second trip to help those dealing with ongoing issues related to the earthquake. This trip is led by Chuck Newman, a member of our church family. Maybe this is for you.
- Joplin, Missouri, September 22-29 — This trip is aimed at ongoing recovery from last year’s devastating tornadoes. It is led by Donnie Sherwood and is a great way to make an ongoing difference. What an opportunity to respond as Christ’s feet and hands.
If you want to know more or are interested in signing up for one of the trips, go to the church website. Deadlines are approaching.
Thoughts on New Year’s Resolutions
“Now faith, hope and love remain – these three things – and the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13
Every January our culture has a conversation about New Year’s resolutions . . . should we or shouldn’t we? Should we make promises to ourselves, to others, even to God? Often the reason we don’t is the lack of confidence we have in ourselves that we will be able to keep the resolution and then disappoint ourselves, other people and maybe even God. So, sometimes we just don’t do anything.
I believe God created the world, created us and has given us an amazing gift in the Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus talked about life a great deal, both everlasting life and abundant life. Everlasting life is a gift we receive through faith in Jesus Christ. Abundant life is a life we live, a life created as we partner with Christ, learning day by day how to live in abundance, “faith, hope and love!” By God’s grace we have the power, the presence of His Holy Spirit and the biblical truth that is given to us by God so that the future can be changed by making promises and commitments to it. I am going to go to church this year! I am going to stop this certain destructive behavior! I am going to forgive this person in my life! I am going to begin a regimen of self-care, body, soul and mind! You get the idea.
Thoughts on the invitation of Christmas
In the story of Christmas, we have what is called by many “The Incarnation.” The son of God is born through a miracle of the Holy Spirit and a young woman named Mary. This child named Jesus was born “to save his people from their sins.” This is a promise made by God long before. One of the most interesting things about it is the invitation to other participants who did not really have to be there for the Incarnation to take place — wise men who discovered in reading prophetic words that a Messiah would come to Bethlehem one day and had been searching and waiting for generations and then the shepherds who were shocked out of their sandals by angels who invited them to the most important moment in history. Their invitation is our invitation, whether we discover Christ is Lord by the words of angels or prophetic words such as the Bible records. It only matters that we accept the invitation and show up at Christmas. Philippians 2:9-11 says, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow . . . and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Christmas is made real only on the knees of those who bow before this Lord.
There is a true story told of a man named Tim Smith. But you might not know the entire story. Tim was raised by a man named Horace Smith. When Tim Smith was 11 he found a box under his mother’s bed with his birth certificate in it, a certificate signed by Tug McGraw. He knew the name immediately because he had Tug’s baseball card taped to his bedroom wall, for Tug was a famous baseball pitcher. He discovered that this man was his real father. A quick look in a box slid under a bed changed Tim Smith’s life as well as his name. Today he is Tim McGraw, married to Faith Hill, and is one of the most popular country singers in America and played a lead role in the movie The Blind Side. What a shame if he just slid the box back under the bed without looking inside.
I hope you will take a deep look inside of Christmas. When I do, it changes how I experience this life-changing season. It is not a season we pull out from under the bed after Thanksgiving and then slide back on New Year’s Day; it’s a joyful reminder of what it means to bow before God who sent us such an “Amazing Grace” Savior. Christmas is a special holiday, all the pieces from the secular to the sacred, the tree to the candlelight services. But Christmas is also as simple as a knee bent on a stable floor before a small child who would one day save us all from our sins.
Merry Christmas!