Friend or Foe?

“Christians don’t tell lies they just go to church and sing them.”  A.W. Tozer   (Thanks BMOC)

Who am I that You are mindful of me?
That You hear me when I call
Is it true that You are thinking of me?
How you Love me
It’s Amazing

I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
He calls me friend

Everytime I sing this song in church I have to ask myself; am I really and does He really?   Is it biblically based that God calls me friend?  I have absolutely no doubt that God is mindful of me, but am I bold enough to say that He calls me friend.  God called Abraham friend: ‘and the Scripture was fulfilled that says,”Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.’  James 2:23

John 15:14 says  ‘You are my friends if you do what I command.’ Well, there are a whole lot of people singing and believing that song without doing what He commands.  And I count myself in that group more often than not, unfortunately I fail miserably at keeping His commands.  I think that it is extremely hard living in the United States to live a life that is truly pleasing to God.  There are so many distractions that deceive us and lead us in the wrong direction.

Parents know that quite often they can not be their child’s friend if they truly love them and expect them to grow.  I believe it is the same way with our heavenly Father.  Hopefully, as I mature as a Christian, at some point in time He will be able to call me friend. 

Through the bible I have come to know Abraham friend of God, and I sir am no Abraham!  My prayer is for discernment of deception and to be able to live a life that is pleasing to the God of Abraham.

Thinking praying out loud, RT.

Blessing Blunder

There is something I don’t quite understand…..be kind now….I know what you are thinking; there is a lot he doesn’t seem to understand.  However, this one has been bothering me for awhile now.  I have been hearing prayers by numerous people including some pastors in which they begin by saying, “Lord we bless you”.  Now my theology is not that deep, but is that even possible?

As I understand the word blessing in biblical terms it is a ‘favor or gift bestowed by God.’   I know for a fact that I have been blessed by God on countless occasions.  I further believe God has blessed me through the actions of others and hopefully He has been able to use me to bring His blessing to others from time to time.  But to say that we have the capacity to bless God….really?

Maybe our actions can be pleasing to God on occasion, but a blessing…I don’t think that  is possible.  Blessing are divine and we are not.  I might be arguing semantics, but shouldn’t we be singing praises to Him for the blessing He has bestowed upon us?

And if we want to bless someone, why don’t we put ourselves out there in a position where God can use us as a blessing to someone else?  You know what I mean?

May God bless you and praise be unto Him, RT.

A dog-like faith…

This print of Andrew Wyeth’s “Master Bedroom”  has traveled with me for over two decades and has hung in five homes, in three different towns.   It always seems to call me back to being a better person. 

If I could only display the same loyalty towards Christ and His teachings that my dog displays towards me.  The same joy at hearing my master’s voice.  The same excitement to spend time in my master’s presence.  The same compassion for and interest in my master’s actions.  The same sense of  peace knowing my master’s identity. 

House-broken, but still in training, RT.

Day One

My morning reading came from Genesis 1 verses 3-5  today.   The Message translation is as follows:   God spoke: “Light!” And light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. God named the light Day, he named the dark Night. It was evening, it was morning— Day One.

Now, I have read this passage many times before, but today I had an epiphany of sorts: the order of Day One.  “It was evening, it was morning- Day One.”  Upon further reading, that was the order of all the days in Genesis One.  Do you realize what this means?  We have gotten it wrong all along; our collective cognitive chronological clock is off by 12 hours.  Can you imagine the implications of this revelation?  Does that mean all the times we thought we were watching Monday night football it was actually Tuesday morning football?  And what about my formative years; were those Saturday night cartoons instead of Saturday morning cartoons? Just the thought of this whole time-shift thing makes my head swim.

But seriously, in Light of the season we have just finished (and should still be) celebrating, look at Christ’s chronology condensed: Born in a manger, lived as a poor carpenter’s son, studied and taught God’s will, was crucified, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.  When I think about it Christ life fits this pattern.  I would consider being born in a filthy animal stable fairly dark…kind of like dusk or early evening.  Christ’s evening continued throughout His life until it reached complete darkness with His persecution and crucifixion.  I don’t know about you, but I would call that the dark of night.  Thank God though for early light of Sunday morning and the resurrection!  I am sure that it was a very bright morning indeed, but I think that the brightest part of Christ’s day is yet to come.  His brilliance and all of His glory will be revealed at His Second Coming!  Hallelujah! 

How does this new time strategy fit with our lives?  We are born into a dark world with the only beams of authentic Light coming from followers of Christ.  Couldn’t this be considered our evening?  Sadly, we often don’t truly accept Christ until we reach the lowest point in our life; isn’t that the dark of our night?  Stick with me here, our salvation then could be seen as dawn bringing morning’s (Christ’s) light.  Then our own death, instead of a dark time is actually the brightness of mid-day’s sun for the believer.  A time when we will see the radiant glory of God Himself.

I am thankful that whether we are in the dimming light of evening or the pitch blackness of night, morning is just a prayer away.  And whether we are in the burgeoning light of early morning or nearing the brightest part of our day, we haven’t seen the purest Light yet.

Enjoying my new day. RT.

No more fresh salsa….

This week’s frost put an end to the RT victory and salsa garden.   Now it is time to prepare the soil for next year’s planting and harvest. 

Be sure to drop by next summer for some fresh salsa and good conversation.  If you play your cards right, I might even let you pull a weed or two.

Thankful for seeds sown, past and future harvests and a nice ripe tomato every now and then, RT.

At the risk of being labeled…

I am more than a little hesitant to even write this post, but it is something that has bothered me for sometime now.  I know some people will miss the point of what I am trying to express and find a suitable label to bestow upon me.  Regardless, here it goes…..

My church has had several men who have served in Iraq over the past few years, probably not unlike your church.  A couple of Sundays ago one of these men returned home and was welcomed back by the congregation with patriotic pageantry and honor.  Before I go on, let me state that what I am about to say is not meant to be derogatory towards anyone.  This man felt it was his duty to serve is country and he bravely did so.  But I had to wonder how would we welcome those men who over the years have chosen not to serve their country based on their religious beliefs?  Would we welcome these men with the same amount of pomp and circumstance? 

We all operate by a set values that we each hold true.  One man feels a duty to serve his country by taking up arms,  while the other feels a duty to serve his God by laying down his sword.  Remember the incident in the Garden of Gethsemane when one of Jesus’ followers drew his sword to defend Christ Himself?  Christ said not by the sword.  Now I know that this was to fulfill prophesy, but if not for Christ then for whom?   I truly believe we are at the beginning of a revolution, one that will bring substance to that dangerous phrase thy will on earth as it is in heaven.  It won’t be a revolution led by Obama or McCain or their generals, but rather by the followers of Christ living out their lives in His dust.  Following Him so close that their actions will be noticed by the entire world.

Wondering outloud, RT

America, here’s your sign!

This past Sunday I was greeted by this proclamation as I pulled into the church parking lot: America, Bless God!  Was this the work of a dyslexic church worker, an electrical glich or was it an act of divine genius?

I prefer to believe the later.  America, and by America I mean the USA, has long volleyed the call of God bless America in song and war cries.  But I often wonder are we deserving of that blessing?  What are we doing as a nation for God to want to bestow His blessing on us?  When I think of Christ words in the Beatitudes, the answer is not much.

I believe that as a nation and as a people if we truly want God’s blessings we have some dramatic changes to make.  We know what we need to do, the question is are we willing?

As always, RT

A tad bit more on Flag Waving

It is ironic to me that we are often fickle about our soap boxes.  One such soap box issue that has been burning long before Roe vs. Wade and will continue to cause sparks to fly is abortion.

Some pro-lifers are adamant about their anti-abortion stance based on their biblical view that all life is sacred; waving the Christian flag. If life begins at conception for them, does it end at birth?  Are they willing to take in and/or pay to take care of those “orphaned” by unwanted pregnancies carried to term?  What is it the bible says about widows and orphans?  “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27  If we are going to claim the high ground, we need to be willing to put our hearts, time and money where our beliefs are.

Another bit of irony is that if all life is sacred, how do we justify war?  Yet some of the same folks waving the Christian flag when it comes to abortion are waving the US flag when it comes to supporting wars in which untold numbers of innocent lives on both sides of the conflict are lost.  Who was it who said that they will beat their swords into plowshares?  Oh yea, Micah 4:3;  “He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.  They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”   Now, I know that is OT, but if you have been praying that dangerous NT prayer “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”; look out.

My point, if indeed I have one, is that I am just wondering what would our world look like if we truly lived out our Christian faith by actually following the blood-stained words of Christ?

Just wondering, RT

A Balancing Act

As of late I am struggling with the meaning of a simple two word phrase I read; “excessively confident”.  They were used in reference to the human capacity to do unspeakable acts of violence to other human beings.  When a person or a group of people become so confident that their beliefs are those of their God/god, that even genocide becomes a viable act.  The two word phrase was used to refer to Hitler as excessively confident of his world view and that lead to his quest for power and the extinction of an entire race.  That the Hutu and Tutsis were each excessively confident that their respective tribes’ point of view and that confidence lead to the atrocities in Rwanda .

I can see this, but then I consider the words of Martin Luther;  ”Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.”   I don’t know about you, but to stake my life on a belief a thousand times, I would need to be excessively confident of or in the belief.  So what is to keep my excessive confidence in Christ from becoming too excessive?  Remember the Crusades?  I am sure that they were very confident in their faith.

For me the balance is the “red letters” of my bible; the words of Christ.  He was supremely confident, as He should be as God in human form, yet He also humbled Himself when He took that human form.  It is quite a balancing act to be excessively confident in Christ and yet humble about those beliefs.  I struggle every day with that balance; some days needing to be more confident in my faith and other days needing to be more humble in my faith.  But my guess is that I am not alone.  And that is somewhat comforting……

Searching for balance, RT.

Flag waving!

As we wind up or down for the final push for control of the White House, which flag will you be waving?  

What does each flag represent to you?

Which flag represents your beliefs? 

Just wonderng aloud, RT