Helping God?

"I've always wanted to ask God why He allows hunger and poverty, but I'm afraid He'll ask me the same thing" - Author Unknown

It’s really a fascinating thing to think about - God employs us, partners with us, in working in this world.

1 Corinthians 3:9 — For we are God’s fellow workers . . .

There is a helpful way of thinking about my life and God. It goes something like this:

Try to figure out what God is doing or wants to do in the people around you and then allow him to use you to help.

I wonder what I will see today? I wonder what I will do with what I see?

How will you vote?

It’s probably too much of a simplification, yet it is rooted in truth and helps us think about the decisions we make for life and for today. Here’s the line to think about:

God casts a vote for you and the devil casts a vote against you. You cast the deciding vote.

Pray for others

Do you pray for others?

Who? How? Why?

I found another interesting verse tucked away in the Old Testament. These words are a part of Samuel’s farewell address, found in 1 Samuel 20.

As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you.

Interesting.

James, the brother of Jesus, in his fifth chapter says this:

. . .Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

How about we do this today?

Intentionally select some people (5? 10?), pray for them in specific ways, and then let them know about it? Let’s see what happens.

Pray First

When do you start to pray?

How bad does a situation or circumstance have to get before you start looking beyond your ability to control it?

There is an interesting verse tucked way back in 2 Chronicles (16:12).

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.

Wow! Sounds pretty modern in some ways, doesn’t it?

We need to pray early, often, and first. I like to ponder this expression attributed to various ones.
Pray as if everything depends upon God and work like it depends upon you.

Think about that today, but the main thing to take away is to begin with prayer. A Monday morning prayer will make a difference in how this week unfolds.

Why not go ahead and say a prayer now?

Life's like This

Think Along 65

What is it with these numbers? Tomorrow I am riding my bike 65 miles with a bunch of other people. It’s the Ride 2 Recover ride at Crane.

This is the elevation chart for the first 50 miles. The last 15 are essentially the same.

It’s not quite as bad as it appears, but it is hilly and will be hard.

There are a lot of similarities between a ride like this and life. Sometimes you fly down the hills with exhilaration, but then you must slowly and painfully grind your way up another hill.

Then you go back down. Then back up.

It’s so much easier when you ride in a group. It’s hard to do this by yourself.

It’s wonderful when you take a break every few miles and people provide some encouraging snacks. It’s fuel for the ride and an anticipation of the big meal at the end.

And when the ride is over you sit down at a table with friends and enjoy a meal and tell stories punctuated with laughter.

Yes, it sounds like the Story of God to me.

Old Love

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four?

For some reason that old Beatle’s song jumped into my head this morning!

It got me to thinking about love and marriage and divorce. Have you read about the new trend called gray divorce?

The divorce rate for those over 50 has doubled in the last 20 years. Sad.

Marriage has to be based on unconditional love, a decision to love "no matter what." It’s a decision that outlasts physical attraction and emotion. Both of those things can fade as the years add up.

There is something sweet and sacred about a couple growing old together. It takes a lot of work that is rooted in the kind of love that God has for us: an unconditional commitment.

I want to love and be loved like that. Don’t you? Let's commit to it.

Gossip

As a child, were any of you made to watch Hee Haw?

Or, like me, did you make your child watch a few minutes of reruns on RFD-TV to expose them to classic and classy TV from the past?

And do you remember this song from the show?

"Now, we’re not ones to go ’round spreadin’ rumors
Why, really we’re just not the gossipy kind
No, you’ll never hear one of us repeating gossip
So you’d better be sure and listen close the first time!"

We often laugh about gossip, but it really is a dangerous and usually divisive practice. Here are a couple of proverbs that speak about it (26:20 & 16:28).

Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.

A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.

I can participate by speaking it and/or listening to it. Which is worse?

Prop me up

Someone sent this to me. It’s worth sharing.

Prop Me up on the Leaning Side

Every time I am asked to pray, I think of the old fellow who always prayed, "Lord, prop us up on our leaning side." After hearing him pray that prayer many times, someone asked him why.

He answered, "Well sir, you see, it’s like this... I got an old barn out back. It’s been there a long time. It’s withstood a lot of weather; it’s gone through a lot of storms. It’s stood for many years and is still standing. One day I noticed it was leaning to one side a bit, so I went and got some pine poles and propped it up on its leaning side so it wouldn’t fall.

Then I got to thinking about that and how much I was like that old barn. I’ve been around a long time. I’ve withstood a lot of life’s storms. I’ve withstood a lot of hard times, and I’m still standing, too. But I find myself leaning to one side from time to time, so I like to ask the Lord to prop us up on our leaning side, ‘cause I figure a lot of us get to leaning at times.

Sometimes we get to leaning toward anger, leaning toward bitterness, leaning toward hatred, leaning toward a lot of things that we shouldn’t. So we need to pray, ‘Lord, prop us up on our leaning side, so we will stand straight and tall again, to glorify the Lord.’"

Who do you work for?

"I may look calm and collected when I stroll in to work on Monday, but really, I've killed all my employees in my head like three times."

Did your boss say that?

It’s actually attributed to that famous person called Unknown.

It’s Monday and a lot of people are dreading going back to work. Perhaps that dread is associated with a bad boss.

How can you work for a person like that? Truth is, if we follow Christ, we are working for Him. Colossians 3 provides this nice reminder for the week ahead.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

God is Patient

God is patient.

Wrap your mind around that for a moment or two. The Story of God, revealed in Scripture, testifies over and over again to his patience with us.

His patience, along with kindness, and tolerance has a purpose.

Roman 2:4 — . . . Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

God’s patience, which comes his love and his desire to be in relationship with us, is designed to bring us to him.

I wonder if my patience toward others would do the same thing?

Listen!

Have you noticed that we have 2 ears and 1 mouth?

What do you think that tells us?

Listen more than we speak?

James, the brother of Jesus, says this in his first chapter:

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak...

How can we listen better today?

Quit?

"Quit Now!"

That’s what the poster said. It was held by a young man surrounded by a bunch of other young men, all standing along the course of the Boston Marathon.

They invited fatigued runners struggling in brutal heat to simply quit and join them in a tent stocked with cold drinks.

I don’t know if anyone succumbed to their tempting plea. It seemed cruel to me, slightly angered me, and made me more determined to finish the race.

Are you ever tempted to quit, quit something that you have worked hard for, maybe even dreamed of doing? But things are tough, circumstances are challenging, and a voice (or a sign) says, "Quit Now!"

I say, DON’T QUIT! Work through the problems and keep your eye on the goal. Finish! You have lots of people to encourage you. Look for them. Listen to them. Here’s a nice voice from Hebrews 12:1,2.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Don’t quit!

Monday prayer

St. Francis provides a nice prayer for a Monday, doesn’t he?

Works pretty well every day, actually.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Now, to put it into practice. . .

Proverbs 15:1,2

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.

Sad Songs

Some of you are going to think of this post all day long, because some of you are going to get a song stuck in your head. Ready?

Sad songs, they say, sad songs, they say, sad songs, they say, sad songs they say so much.

It’s true, and the Scriptures are full of them. In fact there is a whole category of Psalms classified as Psalms of Lament. And what about the Book of Lamentations? It’s a sad song, and it says a lot.

Sadness is a part of the human experience, and it’s OK to be sad from time to time. You would be odd not to be sad occasionally, in my opinion.

What’s interesting about lament in Scripture is that it usually ends up praising God. Lamentations 3 is typical.

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD'S great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

Those sad songs sure say a lot.

Love

It’s probably the most overused, misused word in the English language: love.

We love everything from our families to pizza.

The kind of love that we need to make relationships work is described in a 1 Corinthians 13.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

That’s a nice list of love’s qualities and characteristics! Don't you love this list?

An interesting exercise is to replace the word love in this passage with the word God.

A challenging/convicting exercise is to replace the word love in this passage with my/your name.

Looks like I have some work to do!

I’m so thankful that God love me perfectly, even when I fail to love as he does.