Rest or Exercise

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”   —Ecclesiastes 3:1

After a busy and exhausting summer, I am trying to find space and quiet to refuel my spiritual, emotional, and physical tank for the fall and Christmas push. Oh yes, I said Christmas. Look around, the last rain and windstorm nearly emptied the trees. The landscape has put on its winter garb. I decided to re-energize myself by taking a short walk down to the church and back prior to a mini-vacation. On the downhill part of the trip, with my legs whining about having to hold back the whole way down, I questioned my plan. Maybe I should have driven down after taking a short nap. Nap or walk? Which is better?

The miracle feeding of the 5,000 came at a time when Jesus and His disciples were greatly in need of rest but the crowd had an even greater need for care, teaching, and food. After the disciples returned from their first ministry tour, Jesus encouraged them to relax and recharge, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31). Upon arriving at their retreat area, they were overwhelmed by the crowd who had run ahead of them. The rest for the disciples turned into exhausting ministry. “When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (6:34). The need of the crowd outweighed the need of the disciples.

If you are tired, what should you do—nap or exercise? It depends upon your circumstances. Ecclesiastes says there is a time for everything. If you are exhausted from lack of sleep and over exertion, you may need to nap. If you are tired from stress and being out of shape, you probably need to take a walk, get your heart pumping, and breathe some oxygen into your system. What comes naturally to us is usually the wrong response. If we feel depressed and lonely, the natural reaction is to stay home and mope around. The greater need is for us to get out, experience life, and be a friend to someone else. What I have experienced in my personal life, I have also seen in church life.

The kingdom of God is not simply doing more things. Being busy for busyness sake is not ministry. There are times when churches and Christians need to slow down, step away, and rest. But for churches in decline with limited finances, the natural reaction is to cut back and limit ministries. The greater need is to spend yourself in outreach, ministry, and advertizing.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 teaches us that life has rhythm. There is a time to work harder and there is a time to rest. In ministry, my rhythm gets confused when I begin skipping days off. A funeral, a special conference meeting, or an emergency falls on my day off, and I throw myself into ministry with no problem. Later, I might lazy away an afternoon thinking I earned it. Then, maybe, I’d waste a morning on another day. Before long, I would forget if I was taking a workday off or working on my day off.

Learn well the rhythm of life. Work hard and then rest. Walk then nap. Pray and do. Reach out and rest up. Where are you today? What is your natural inclination? You probably need to push yourself to rest or exercise depending on your own personality and situation. Jesus is Lord over all of life. He invites the weary to come to Him for rest. But He also sends the waiting into a hurting world in need of God’s Grace.

My Way

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”—Proverbs 14:12

My granddaughter has officially entered the terrible twos. To me, it’s the terribly precious twos, but nonetheless, Addi turned two last month. It is every parent’s desire for their children to be healthy and grow to become self-sufficient. Addi is well on her way, at least she thinks so.

Addi is very talkative, and one of her favorite phrases is “By self.” She says it all the time usually with an exclamation point, “By self!” When she is getting out of the car, climbing up or down from the table, eating her food, or carrying her latest, bigger than life toy, Addi exclaims, “By self.” “By self” means I want to do it by myself. I can do it myself. I don’t want your direction or help. Often, the phrase is accompanied by an equally emphatic, “Big one!” “Big one” means I want the entire cookie, the whole piece of fruit or bread. I want to drink from the big glass or hold the entire slice of pie. “By self! Big one!”

Addi’s “By self” attitude is captured for adults in the famous Frank Sinatra song, “I Did It My Way.” Even by briefly hearing the song, we understand it describes the sad and rebellious nature of our culture. The song begins, “And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain…I’ll state my case…I did it my way.” It appears the strongest argument for having lived a full life, according to the song and our culture, is by doing it “my way.” We often take the abilities and power God gives us and use them in selfish ways.

God created human beings and gave them dominion over the earth. We were created to take charge. I believe God desires for us to take our God-given abilities and use them to take control of our lives and the situations around us. God gave Adam and Eve one restriction, not to eat “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen.2:17). This God-given power was to be used under God’s rule and lordship.

The book of Proverbs states, “There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death” (14:12). We can do things our way, but we usually end up exactly where we don’t want to be. Genesis 3:6 describes the first human act of independence. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” Can’t you almost hear them saying, “By self.” “I want to do it my way.”

Don’t get me wrong. I believe God wants us to serve Him in unique and creative ways. There are hundreds of open doors and creative paths waiting to be entered within the will of God. God is ready and willing to pour His Holy Spirit into and through us in never-before-imagined ways if we would but surrender to God’s will and way.

Whether it is Frank Sinatra singing “My Way” or precious little Addi demanding, “By self,” we see a desire to live free from control and accountability. God promises to supernaturally open doors and give us a blessed future if we seek to follow Him with all our heart. If we seek first to serve the Lord and His Kingdom, God will give us far more that we can ever get from the world. Do you want to do it your way and end in destruction or will you seek to go God’s way in His love and power and find life, hope and a future?

Fear or Faith

“Don’t be afraid; just believe.”—Mark 5:36b

I changed schools in the middle of my first-grade year. Prior to Christmas 1960, I attended Madison Elementary of the Redbank Valley Schools. Over Christmas vacation, we moved to a 40-acre farm. In January 1961, I began attending the Hawthorn Elementary School. Although we only moved 10 miles and my siblings attended the same school, the move traumatized me.

On the first day at my new school, I discovered that I was now in the slowest reading group. During a Christmas vacation lasting just over a week, I went from being in the first reading group to the last. I also learned, by experience, that I rode the late bus. At the close of my first day at the new school, I tried to get on an early bus with the correct number, but I didn’t recognize any faces. My first-grade teacher stopped all the buses and led me from one bus to another until we had checked every bus. None were mine. We then determined that I, terror-stricken and in tears, must ride the late bus. I cried at school for three weeks in a row that January.

No matter how old our bodies grow in years, there remains within us a little child, often fearful and insecure. Many things in life move us to fear and doubt: a new job, a marriage, the loss of a job, or spouse. Words like cancer, divorce, addiction, and guilty can send us cowering in fear. Pause for a moment and think back to the last time your breath was taken away in fear or you faced a new challenge.

The fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark places fear along side faith. Chapter 4 ends with Jesus and His Disciples crossing the Sea of Galilee to the “other” side. The “other” side is where the heathens live. They don’t worship God. They own and eat unclean animals like hogs. It’s the land where little children are warned never to go. As they cross the lake, a storm nearly drowns them all. They awaken Jesus to rescue them, and He replies, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40) And there it begins, fear and faith.

Chapter 5 continues the story as they land on the “other” side. The Disciples’ fears are confirmed. They immediately meet a demon-possessed man living a graveyard. After Jesus casts out the demons, the crowd returns to see the demoniac, clothed and in his right mind, sitting at Jesus’ feet. The scripture tells us, “They were afraid” (5:15).

Jesus and the Disciples return home across the lake without incident. They are met by a crowd that includes a religious man whose daughter is near death. As Jesus goes to the daughter, a woman with a 12-year-long disease comes and touches the edge of Jesus’ clothes and is healed. When Jesus singles her out, she falls before Jesus trembling with fear. Jesus tells her to go in peace for her faith has healed her. Here again, fear and faith. Immediately, some men come to tell the father that his little girl has died. Jesus ignores this report and speaks to the father, “Don’t be afraid; just believe” (5:36b).

Many of you have fears, large and small, real and imagined. These fears keep you imprisoned and immobilized. Hear these comforting words of Jesus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” I remember a plaque given to my father-in-law by his Sunday School Class. It read, “Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered, ‘No one’s home.’” Who is home at your house? Fear or Faith?

Disciples Follow

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”—Matthew 16:24

I began dating my future wife the junior year of high school. Her parents were very upset that their daughter was dating me. I really didn't understand, because I thought I was a pretty good guy. When I asked Darlene to explain this, she said it was because I was not a Christian. Now I was really confused for at that time in my life I thought everybody in America was Christian.

Just as swimming in the ocean doesn't make you a fish, so living in a country where the most practiced religious faith is Christian doesn't make you one. By the way, some people believe “none” is now the largest religious preference in America. “None” is the response on a religious survey question when you check, "None—no religious affiliation."

Jesus said if anyone wishes to be His disciple, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him. Christian disciples follow Jesus. It is not just a matter of going to church. I was lead, forced, or at least expected to attend church each week of my life until I was 18 years old. But for all those years, I would have to admit, I was not really following Jesus. My salvation rested on the fact that I felt I was a pretty good egg. I never intentionally tried to hurt anyone, but Jesus’ measure of a disciple is drastically different from mine back then.

Disciples follow Jesus. If you claim to be a Christian, when was the last time you read your Bible? Recently on the way home from a Baptism service at the Quemahoning Lake, one passenger quoted several verses from John 3 that she learned by watching the Jesus Film. Later she quoted a large portion from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Amazed, I asked if she had learned all those verses from watching the Jesus Film. “Yes!” was her reply. If you’re not a good reader, have you watched the Jesus Film or listened to the Bible on media enough to memorize the scriptures? When was the last time you prayed? I'm not talking about a simple “help me” prayer but a prayer of serious communion with the Lord or lifting someone else's name to the Lord.

After Jesus washed the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper, He told them, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).  After telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asked which was neighbor to the man who was mugged by robbers. “The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise’” (Luke 10:37). Have you shown your love for God by serving your neighbor in love?

Jesus told the disciples, “You shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). Have you ever told someone else about your faith in Jesus or, at least, invited someone to church? Disciples follow Jesus. Can anyone tell by your life that you are a follower of Jesus?

Jesus invites us to follow Him. If we follow Jesus through prayer, Bible reading, and serving the way Jesus did, our lives should naturally declare our faith without saying a word. We needn’t worry about someone questioning our Christianity.

The Pure Shall See

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” —Matthew 5:8

I am sipping from my devotional Styrofoam coffee cup. Last year for Christmas, my church staff gave me disposable coffee cups labeled with inspirational sayings. Today, the devotional saying reads, “Since the things of God are ‘spiritually discerned.’ A proper understanding of scripture is often more the result of an individual’s spiritual condition than his or her intellectual ability.” Although I cannot locate the exact source of the quote, it appears to relate directly to 1 Corinthians 2:14. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Many persons mistakenly believe that understanding the Bible and spiritual truth is related to intelligence and education, but often the opposite is true. Please, don’t get me wrong. After 26 years of schooling and three degrees, you can be certain I am completely for higher education. But persons acquire spiritual truth by revelation rather than by education. We can understand all the original languages of the Bible, but if our heart is not right, we will not be able to hear a Word from God.

When Jesus asked the disciples who they thought He was, Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” To this Jesus replied that Simon was blessed because the Heavenly Father had revealed this to Peter. At another place, Jesus commented on the way God the Father gives spiritual insight. “At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children’” (Matthew 11:25). God reveals Himself and The Truth, Jesus Christ, to those whose hearts are pure.

Fall is the season when young persons go off to college or begin a career in the workforce or military service. Parents and the church family often lament that young people lose their faith as they go off to college and career. Many times we blame the Survey of Religion Class or that “liberal teacher” as the cause for their loss of faith. Losing one’s faith may be directly related to willful disobedience in drug experimentation, sexual exploration, or walking away from God’s ways in disobedience. Spiritual receptivity and faith have more to do with heart purity and an individual walking obediently in the light they already have.

If you are having moments of doubt, or trouble understanding God’s Word, check your obedience level. Are you justifying some sinful behavior in your life? Is there a secret sin you are trying to keep hidden? “Blessed are the pure in heart.” Truthfully, we all have our “stuff.” We have all fallen from God’s intended purpose for our lives. We have all sinned. But, as we call upon the Lord in sincerity, out of a pure heart, God will restore us to a right relationship with Himself and reveal His Son, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, to us. God still answers the prayer of the old hymn written by Clara Scott, “Open my eyes, that I may see Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me; Place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free.”

A God Revolution

“I have not come to abolish them [the Law or the Prophets] but to fulfill them.” —Matthew 5:17b

During difficult economic times we often hear stories about the good old days. I have many treasured memories from my childhood but never thought of them as the good old days. My childhood would be better described as a time of innocence, or at least ignorance. I didn’t know how poor we were. My dad worked for a brick plant that was owned by the local clay mining company in St. Charles, PA. We did have an indoor toilet, but we bathed in a galvanized tub in the basement. Didn’t everyone? A special treat was when Dad would take my older brother and me to work and give us a shower in the company locker room.

When Jesus Christ began His earthly ministry at age 30, He proclaimed, “The time has come, the Kingdom of God is near” (Mark 1:15). Jesus began a God revolution. I am not referring to a rebellion, but a revolution. The original meaning of the word revolution is “the movement around something, one complete turn.” The earth makes one revolution around the sun every year. The moon makes a complete turn around the earth every month. Jesus came to bring the world one complete turn back to God’s original purpose in creation.

When we think of revolutions, we think of countries or peoples rebelling against the current government. They may be wishing to return to former better times, “the good old days,” but they seldom seek to return to God’s intended purpose. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. Jesus did not come to throw off the rule of God but to re-establish it. Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect human life, died, and rose again to reconcile fallen humanity to an intimate relationship with God.

Spiritually speaking, if we are to return to the good old days, we must go back farther than good memories from our childhood or a boom period for the church in the 1950s or 70s. We must return to the good old days of God’s intent for creation in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had intimate fellowship with God and a carefree enjoyment of the natural world—no pollution, no recession, and no terrorism.

The New Testament describes a future where the blessings of God’s original creation are restored. The similarities between the opening chapters of the Bible and the last two chapters, Revelations 21-22 are amazing. The environment is described as a paradise. The river of God waters the land. The Tree of Life is available with an abundance of fruit to eat. God and human beings have close communion. Revelation 21:3 says, “Now the dwelling of God is with men … God himself will be with them and be their God.” Genesis describes streams watering the land and God walking with man and wife in the garden (Gen. 2:6, 3:8).

The God Revolution that Jesus brings makes it possible for you, me, and the entire world to make one complete turn back to God’s intended perfect world. Jesus Christ invites you and me to see, enter, and receive His Kingdom. Brian McClaren writes, “To see it, we need to repent and acknowledge how blind we have been, becoming teachable and ‘young’ again, like children. To enter it, we need to become a part of it, and to receive it, we let it become a part of us.”

Think about the best good old days you can remember. Wouldn’t returning to God and God’s good and perfect plan for your life be a thousand times better than anything you can imagine? Turn to God, receive His love and forgiveness. Start a God revolution in your life.

Heroes Run to Trouble

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”—John 15:13

We had planned a church picnic for a Sunday afternoon at the Quemahoning Reservoir. As I prepared for morning worship, it was storming: hard rain, lightning, and thunder. I prayed for guidance concerning what to do about the church picnic. At around 7:30 AM, the weather channel was forecasting storms all day. Then a news flash reported the stage at the Indiana State Fair collapsed due to high winds and storms. Several were killed and many injured. Having prayed for guidance, I looked toward heaven and said, “Okay, Lord, I get it.” Immediately, I decided to move the picnic to the church fellowship hall. Of course, between services, the skies cleared, and it did not rain again until Sunday night after everything was over.

Updates on the Indiana State fair disaster told amazing accounts of heroism. As soon as the stage fell, instead of running away, Hoosiers went running into the debris to help. Their quick heroic efforts saved many out of the catastrophe. Heroes run into trouble. This past week as we remembered the 911 terrorism attacks, I observed similar reports from the Pentagon attack. As soon as they saw the flames and smoke, retired, active, and former military personnel went running into the fire rather than away. They guided and carried many to safety.

I continue to be proud to be an American. As we remember the 911 attacks, we are reminded of the many acts of sacrifice and bravery. Unlike the terrorists and suicide bombers who kill innocent victims and even their own people, American heroes run into trouble to benefit others without regard for their own well-being. The heroic firemen climbed the stair towers as fast as they could toward an unknown fate. The collapsing towers took their lives as they gave aid to others. The heroic passengers on Flight 93, charged the cockpit and saved the Capitol and many lives as they gave theirs. Yes, heroes run to trouble.

We sing in the national anthem, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” As Americans, we have our share of faults, but we have lots to be proud about. When tyranny oppresses and evil attacks, American missionaries and American soldiers choose to run into trouble giving aid and support. Trouble seems to bring out the worst and best in us. The worst is that we depend so much on our superior military might that we think we are invincible and can cure every ill with power. The best is that Americans will sacrificially run to trouble rather than selfishly away from trouble.

I believe, as an American Christian, that America has benefited from living in a culture influenced by the sacrificial example of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. As He prepared to give His life on the Cross for the sins of the whole world, Jesus told His disciples to love one another as He loved them. He goes on to say, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). When the Church and when Christians get it right, we are seen as those who run to trouble. Troubled individuals, troubled homes, troubled cities, and troubled peoples around the world attract Christians like moths to a flame. Jesus has given us the example of sacrificial service.

More than an example, Jesus promises His power and presence. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:16, 20). Do you want to be counted for Jesus sake? Do you want to leave your mark in this world? Then be a hero for Jesus. Run into trouble. The Lord will meet you and use you there.