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— John Donne
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Loading ...Patience, Perseverance, Passion, Hard Work, and “wait for it”
Posted on April 15th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Evil and Suffering, Movie Reviews, Parenting, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.
Rob is an amazing person who has a great career and a wonderful family. Rob was my closest friend from age 3-13. We still see each other once a year. This is not really a story about Rob and me. I am quite certain that Rob doesn’t even know the angst that I went through trying to keep up with him.
Rob and I were swimmers, and he ALWAYS beat me in the stroke that we both did best (breaststroke). He may not even remember all those swim meets where he would beat me handily, and he certainly (I hope) doesn’t know about the emotional pain of never being able to beat his best friend… until maybe later…
Rob was a grade behind me in school so our paths began to separate. He got into baseball, and I remained in swimming. In high school, we both chose to play water polo and that meant that we would both be swimming together again. We were the 2 main breaststrokers on the team so we found ourselves swimming against each other again. This time, however, I was always in the lead.
I tell this story to my kids periodically. I want so much for my kids to know that only time will tell the eventual outcomes. They suffer, much like there dad has, when their friends beat them (and especially if their siblings do). It is after these defeats that I turn to the “Rob story” in hopes of reminding them that with patience, perseverance, hard work, these circumstances can change. Todays winners can be tomorrows losers in ANY race that you might find yourself in.
In the movie Minority Report, the main character (Tom Cruse) is being chased while he is helping to rescue a woman who has the power to see the future. As they are being chased through a busy shopping mall, she is whispering in his ear directions to follow so they won’t be caught. At one point she quietly chants, “wait for it…” over and over so that the main character will trust her advise and stand still in one place. The place she advises them to stand is right in the middle of the mall in plain sight of everyone to see. Unknown to the main character, a man with a large bundle of balloons is going to walk across their path blocking them from view at just the right moment when a group of police chasing them is trying to spot them.
We don’t know the future. We must stay on the right course. If we are gifted and passionate about a sport or a career (for example), patience, perseverance, hard work, and just ‘waiting for it’ may, in time, allow us to finish better than we ever imagined that we could.
Life is filled with trust. We must trust in God’s plan even when we want to trust in our plan. We have to trust that our current state of affairs, our current losses, our current struggles, may, in the end, bring wins, success, and maybe even joy especially when we “run with perseverance the race marked out for us [by God].”
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? run in such a way as to get the prize.”-1 Corinthians 9:24 (NIV)
“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.”-Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)
Where is God? Part 1 Now Here: A Walk Through Psalm 13
Posted on April 15th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Evil and Suffering, Sermons, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.
I had the honor of flying solo for a sermon at my church. We are doing a 6 week series titled: Where is God? This 1st in the series addresses some practical tips that can be applied to help all of us to deal with life’s stress, anxiety, pain, and suffering. It is subtitled: Now Here, a walk through Psalm 13.
Here are the power point slides, the 2 video clips, and the audio is below. Please share your thoughts.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Suffering of Christ for us: Station 7 of the Cross
Posted on April 12th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Evil and Suffering, Sermon Notes, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.
How do we ‘modernize’ the suffering of Christ on the cross? How do we depict His suffering so that we can best understand the brutality of our sin? One artist has tried:
“This piece was originally created by Jackson Potts II, for a collection of works hanging in Xnihilo Gallery. The installation is a modern take on the traditional Stations of the Cross, and the gallery requested 15 artists to each depict one of the stations. Due to reasons which will be explained in subsequent posts, the gallery was not able to hang this piece. We invite you to view it here and to comment upon it.
Here is Jackson’s artist statement.
Jesus Falls for the Second Time.
When I came up with this idea for my piece, one of the things that I wanted to show was that Jesus was innocent, and the crowd still wanted him to die. So I used a child (my brother Dietrich) to show the innocence of Jesus and how wrong it was for him to be treated that way. The police officer was just doing his job, as was the guard that was escorting Jesus to Skull Hill. The crowd was angry and violent except the one girl in the blue dress, who represents the people who loved Jesus.”
Here is the link to view the photo (it is brutal but thought provoking):
The Psychology of Choice & Character
Posted on April 1st, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Evil and Suffering, Love, Men on the Path, Parenting, Spiritual Growth, Virtue, Vital Signs of Healing, marriage.
Please enjoy this brief audio discussion regarding the psychology of choice in which I discuss several examples of the influence of the subconscious and of time on our choices.
Example #1: Volunteers were given scrambled sentences and one group was given a group of scrambled sentences that were about rudeness and the other group was given a group of scrambled sentences about being patient. The group that had just found the words relating to rudeness were much more likely to interrupt the interviewer’s phone conversation. Very interesting.
Example #2: The other example they did is they had again 2 groups but this time one group got scrambled sentences with words to be found about being old and the other group had random words. These two groups of participants were then timed from when they left the office, where the testing was done till they reach the elevator and they found that there is a significant slower pace to the group of people that were finding the words that were related to being old elderly.
Example #3: One group was asked to think of a very smart person and then answer trivial pursuit type questions vs. another group that was asked to think of a very stupid person and then answer the same trivial pursuit type questions. The group thinking of the smart person did better at answering the trivial pursuit questions!
Example #4: Finally the last example is from the tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell and in this book he discusses a very interesting story regarding the good Samaritan. Princeton University psychologist met with a group of seminarians people studying to become a pastor’s and they were trying to answer the question who would stop and help a person who is slumped in the alley head down, eyes closed coughing and groaning. One group was told that they were late to the class that they were going to teach and they are expected in only a few minutes so they better get moving quickly. The other group were told that they have enough time to get over to the classroom. What they found was that on several occasions the seminary students going to give their lecture which was actually on the parable of the good Samaritan literally stepped over the mock victim as he hurried on his way. What they say is of the group that was in a rush 10% stopped to help, but of the group that was not in a rush that had some time to spare 63% stopped and helped. This study suggests that the convictions of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important in the end in guiding one’s actions than the immediate context of your behavior.
All of these studies suggest that we as individuals must be very cognizant of the world around us and to influence it in a positive way, to show a good character, we must be aware of our surroundings and slow down. Those with truly great character do the right thing no matter if they are late for a meeting nor are they influenced in a negative way by their surroundings.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ronald Reagan Library
Posted on March 28th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Interviews, Spiritual Growth.
I was raised in a home of democrats who thought Ronald Reagan was a “B actor” and an “idiot”. It was a great adventure and learning experience visiting the Ronald Reagan Library. The audio tour was done by Ronald Reagan himself (his voice). It was very interesting. The library is on top of a hill side over looking Simi Valley. It is a beautiful ranch style library/building. A few observations:
- Like most of us Reagan’s views were formed by his family of origin. His mom and dad routinely donated their time and resources to those in need, and Reagan worked 7 days a week, 12 hours per day at his first job as a teenager. He was influenced by his mom’s belief in God, God has a plan for us that we must trust in even if life gets hard, hard work is key to success, and help others because we are all in this together
- Reagan’s distrust of big government seemed to stem from his fear and hatred of tyranny and communism (the ultimate form of big government). Juxtaposed to this distrust was Reagan’s firm belief that government was necessary. During the air traffic control strike, he told the air traffic controllers that as government employees their jobs were essential to the safety and security of the U.S. and therefore if they did not return to work in 48 hours they would be fired.
- Reaganomics (my understanding) was less taxes (Reagan was a firm believer in taxes but taxes to pay for services at the community level)…and by less taxes it stimulated companies and individuals to create more jobs, more wealth etc….
- You can tell a lot about someone when they are under stress, and when Reagan was shot (very seriously), he was calm and humorous. He told the surgeon, “I hope you are a republican.” The surgeon replied, “Mr. President today we are all republicans.” (a GREAT read is the JAMA article about his injuries and their treatment)
- I am always a fan of anyone who has a deep and abiding relationship with his wife, and he clearly had that. He adored his wife, Nancy.
- Speech after speech he made it clear that he wanted peace but he believed that peace could only be accomplished by a strong military–not to be used but to prevent war. He turned out to be right and was successful in helping to eliminate communism.
- Reagan while being interviewed by Jimmy Stuart, no less, about his experiences on Air Force One before he was president. He tells the story of when he flew in Air Force One to do some diplomacy for a president before him. It was during the oil embargo and they were running low on fuel and needed to land in a country that said they wouldn’t refuel a U.S. plane. His advisors at the time told him that this country would refuel their plane if they wouldn’t fly the U.S. flag when they landed. Reagan said, “We will find somewhere else to refuel.” The country reconsidered and allowed them to refuel and Reagan flew the U.S. flag when they landed.
- When Reagan cut federal taxes as president, the federal government collected 40% MORE money from tax payers! It seems counterintuitive, but it turns out that if you lower taxes, people hire more people and those people all pay taxes; therefore lowering taxes/less taxes=MORE not less money for the government. Who knew?
Saint Therese’s Little Way
Posted on March 25th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Evil and Suffering, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.
When Saint Therese aka ‘the little flower’ felt shattered by her tormenting doubts, “God lowered Himself to me, and instructed me secretly in the things of His love.” What God showed to her she called the Little Way, which she defined as “the way of trust and absolute surrender.” It is “to expect everything from God as a little child expects everything from its father.” For Therese, sanctity “consists in a disposition of heart which makes us humble and little in the arms of God.” “My way,” she writes, “is all confidence and love.”
Not A Copy But An Image: Thoughts from The Shack
Posted on March 24th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Book Reviews, Men on the Path, Spiritual Growth.
In his amazing book: The Shack, Paul Young writes a parable with a dialogue between a guy named Mack and the Trinity: Jesus, Papa aka God, and Sarayu aka The Holy Spirit. Here is a section that explains the Christian walk beautifully and helped me to refocus and better understand my Christian walk.
Jesus says, “Mack, just like love, submission is not something that you can do, especially not on your own. Apart from my life inside of you, you can’t submit to Nan, or your children, or anyone else in your life, including Papa.”
“You mean…that I can’t just ask, ‘What Would Jesus Do’?”
Jesus says, “Good intentions, bad idea…my life was not meant to be an example to copy. Being my follower is not trying to ‘be like Jesus,’ it means for your independence to be killed. I came to give you life, real life, my life. We will come and live our life inside of you, so that you begin to see with our eyes, and hear with out ears, and touch with our hands, and think like we do…”
Mack says, “This must be the dying daily that Sarayu was talking about…”
“I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”-Galatians 2: 20
God’s Love: The Story of the Prodigal Son
Posted on March 9th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Apologetics, Bible Study, Evil and Suffering, Love, Men on the Path, Parenting, Sermons, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing, marriage.
Mike Erre gives us a special glimpse into what the parable of the prodigal son truly meant to a 1st century audience. It was an incredible picture of God’s outrageous love for us.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Don’t Worry #3: Accept the Worst Case Scenario
Posted on March 4th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Parenting, Spiritual Growth.
In this 3rd segment regarding how to stop worrying, I pull some key points from “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Dale Carnegie. The 3rd key is simple: Accept the worst case scenario.
“Step 1. I analyzed the situation fearlessly and honestly and figured out what was the worst that could possibly happen as a result of this failure.”
“Step 2. After figuring out what was the worst that could possibly happen, I reconciled myself to accepting it, if necessary…After discovering the worst that could possibly happen and reconciling myself to accepting it, if necessary, an extremely important thing happened: I immediately relaxed and felt a sense of peace that I hadn’t experienced in days. ”
“Step 3. From that time on, I calmly devoted my time and energy to trying to improve upon the worst which I had already accepted mentally.”
“I probably would never have been able to do this if I had kept on worrying, because one of the worst features about worrying is that it destroys our ability to concentrate. When we worry, our minds jump here and there and everywhere, and we lose all power of decision. However, when we force ourselves to face the worst and accept it mentally, we then eliminate all those vague imaginings and put ourselves in a position in which we are able to concentrate on our problem.”
“The same idea was expressed by Lin Yutang in his widely read book, The Importance of Living. “True peace of mind,” said this Chinese philosopher, “comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think, it means a release of energy.” That’s it, exactly! Psychologically, it means a new release of energy! When we have accepted the worst, we have nothing more to lose. And that automatically means we have everything to gain!”
“If you have a worry problem, apply the magic formula of Willis H. Carrier by doing these three things: 1. Ask yourself,’ ‘What is the worst that can possibly happen?” 2. Prepare to accept it if you have to. 3. Then calmly proceed to improve on the worst.”
True Sight
Posted on March 3rd, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Evil and Suffering, Spiritual Growth.
Please enjoy this incredible and inspiring video:
The Secret of Happy Couples
Posted on February 21st, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Spiritual Growth, marriage.
New research points out that happy couples do a few things well:
- They spend a lot of time focusing on positive moments
- They spend a lot of time focusing on keeping passion alive
- They spend a lot of time focusing on keeping a positive attitude
These are ancient principles. The research points out that it is not about the negative or bad times, and it is not even about how we deal with those negative or bad times. It is ALL about looking at the good, being grateful, counting blessings, quality time, communication, and celebrating life’s positives every chance we get.
“Numerous studies show that intimate relationships, such as marriages, are the single most important source of life satisfaction. Although most couples enter these relationships with the best of intentions, many break up or stay together but languish. Yet some do stay happily married and thrive. What is their secret?
“A few clues emerge from the latest research in the nascent field of positive psychology. Founded in 1998 by psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, this discipline includes research into positive emotions, human strengths and what is meaningful in life. In the past few years positive psychology researchers have discovered that thriving couples accentuate the positive in life more than those who stay together unhappily or split do. They not only cope well during hardship but also celebrate the happy moments and work to build more bright points into their lives.
“It turns out that how couples handle good news may matter even more to their relationship than their ability to support each other under difficult circumstances. Happy pairs also individually experience a higher ratio of upbeat emotions to negative ones than people in unsuccessful liasions do. Certain tactics can boost this ratio and thus help to strengthen connections with others. Another ingredient for relationship success: cultivating passion. Learning to become devoted to your significant other in a healthy way can lead to a more satisfying union.
“Until recently, studies largely centered on how romantic partners respond to each other’s misfortunes and on how couples manage negative emotions such as jealousy and anger – an approach in line with psychology’s traditional focus on alleviating deficits. One key to successful bonds, the studies indicated, is believing that your partner will be there for you when things go wrong. Then, in 2004, psychologist Shelly L. Gable, currently at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her colleagues found that romantic couples share positive events with each other surprisingly often, leading the scientists to surmise that a partner’s behavior also matters when things are going well.
“In a study published in 2006 Gable and her coworkers videotaped dating men and women in the laboratory while the subjects took turns discussing a positive and negative event. After each conversation, members of each pair rated how ‘responded to’ – how understood, validated and cared for – they felt by their partner. Meanwhile observers rated the responses on how active-constructive (engaged and supportive ) they were – as indicated by intense listening, positive comments and questions, and the like. Low ratings reflected a more passive, generic response such as ‘That’s nice, honey.’ Separately, the couples evaluated their commitment to and satisfaction with the relationship.
“The researchers found that when a partner proffered a supportive response to cheerful statements, the ‘responded to’ ratings were higher than they were after a sympathetic response to negative news, suggesting that how partners reply to good news may be a stronger determinant of relationship health than their reaction to unfortunate incidents. The reason for this finding, Gable surmises, may be that fixing a problem or dealing with a disappointment – though important for a relationship – may not make a couple feel joy, the currency of a happy pairing.”
Suzann Pileggi, “The Happy Couple,” Scientific American Mind, Jan/Feb 2010, pp. 34-36.
Chest Pain Quality Improvement Lecture
Posted on February 8th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing, medicine.
I had the pleasure of teaching on chest pain to the nursing staff and paramedics. Please let me know your thoughts. Below are the lecture slides and handout/quiz slides.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Don’t Worry #2
Posted on February 6th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Parenting, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.
As I pointed out in Don’t Worry #1, living in the ‘now here’ is a powerful way to combat worry. In Dale Carnegie’s book: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, his first point is: Live today! Don’t worry/focus on yesterday or tomorrow.
“…twenty-one words from Thomas Carlyle that helped him lead a life free from worry: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”"
“What I urge is that you so learn to control the machinery as to live with ‘day-tight compartments’ as the most certain way to ensure safety on the voyage. Get on the bridge, and see that at least the great bulkheads are in working order. Touch a button and hear, at every level of your life, the iron doors shutting out the Past the dead yesterdays. Touch another and shut off, with a metal curtain, the Future the unborn tomorrows. Then you are safe, safe for today! Shut off the past! Let the dead past bury its dead. Shut out the yesterdays which have lighted fools the way to dusty death. The load of tomorrow, added to that of yesterday, carried today, makes the strongest falter. Shut off the future as tightly as the past. The future is today. There is no tomorrow. The day of man’s salvation is now. Waste of energy, mental distress, nervous worries dog the steps of a man who is anxious about the future. Shut close, then the great fore and aft bulkheads, and prepare to cultivate the habit of life of ‘day-tight compartments.’ ”
“Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.”-Roman poet Horace.
“life ‘is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour.’”
“This speech contains twenty-six words that have gone ringing down across the centuries: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6: 34)
Haitian Earthquake Survivors Praise God
Posted on February 1st, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Evil and Suffering, Interviews, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.
A friend and partner of mine just shared this video he took when he was caring for Haitian’s in an orphanage converted to a hospital. The Haitian’s spontaneously errupted into praise songs to God.
Also here is a link to a powerful letter from a surgeon who just returned as part of Samaritan’s Purse…
Haitian Earthquake Survivors from Jim Keany on Vimeo.
Part #4: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew and The Pursuit of God
Posted on January 20th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Sermon Notes, Spiritual Growth.
Part 4 artificiality
Tozer points out one final source of burden: Artificiality.
“Another source of burden is artificiality. I am sure that most people live in secret fear that some day they will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed to peep into their poor empty souls. So they are never relaxed. Bright people are tense and alert in fear that they may be trapped into saying something common or stupid. Traveled people are afraid that they may meet some Marco Polo who is able to describe some remote place where they have never been.This unnatural condition is part of our sad heritage of sin, but in our day it is aggravated by our whole way of life. Advertising is largely based upon this habit of pretense. `Courses’ are offered in this or that field of human learning frankly appealing to the victim’s desire to shine at a party. Books are sold, clothes and cosmetics are peddled, by playing continually upon this desire to appear what we are not.”
Finally to conclude our miniseries, Tozer points out the solution, once again, to our artificiality, pretense, and pride: meekness. Only through meekness will our burdens be lifted and only then can we find rest for our souls.
“Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at Jesus’ feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. Then we will not care what people think of us so long as God is pleased. Then what we are will be everything; what we appear will take its place far down the scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed. Only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear other than we are.The heart of the world is breaking under this load of pride and pretense. There is no release from our burden apart from the meekness of Christ. Good keen reasoning may help slightly, but so strong is this vice that if we push it down one place it will come up somewhere else. To men and women everywhere Jesus says, `Come unto me, and I will give you rest.’ The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong Son of God Himself. He calls it `my yoke,’ and He walks at one end while we walk at the other.”
Part #3: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew and The Pursuit of God
Posted on January 14th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Healing, Sermon Notes, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.
Part 3 Pretense and Little Children
Tozer proceeds to share another of our burdens: Pretense.
“Then also he will get deliverance from the burden of pretense. By this I mean not hypocrisy, but the common human desire to put the best foot forward and hide from the world our real inward poverty. For sin has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been the infusing into us a false sense of shame. There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression. The fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts. The man of culture is haunted by the fear that he will some day come upon a man more cultured than himself. The learned man fears to meet a man more learned than he. The rich man sweats under the fear that his clothes or his car or his house will sometime be made to look cheap by comparison with those of another rich man. So-called `society’ runs by a motivation not higher than this, and the poorer classes on their level are little better.”
Tozer then points the solution to our pretense. The way of the child.
“Let no one smile this off. These burdens are real, and little by little they kill the victims of this evil and unnatural way of life. And the psychology created by years of this kind of thing makes true meekness seem as unreal as a dream, as aloof as a star. To all the victims of the gnawing disease Jesus says, `Ye must become as little children.’ For little children do not compare; they receive direct enjoyment from what they have without relating it to something else or someone else. Only as they get older and sin begins to stir within their hearts do jealousy and envy appear. Then they are unable to enjoy what they have if someone else has something larger or better. At that early age does the galling burden come down upon their tender souls, and it never leaves them till Jesus sets them free.”
NEVER Judge a Book by Its Cover!
Posted on January 13th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Music, Spiritual Growth, you tube clips.
A brief reminder that we spend too much time judging each other without looking at what is on the inside.
Part #2: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew and The Pursuit of God
Posted on January 12th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Healing, Sermon Notes, Spiritual Growth, Uncategorized, Vital Signs of Healing.
Part 2 Pride and Meekness
The first burden that A.W. Tozer discusses in Chapter 9 of The Pursuit of God is PRIDE.
“Let us examine our burden. It is altogether an interior one. It attacks the heart and the mind and reaches the body only from within. First, there is the burden of pride. The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? The heart’s fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.”
Tozer proceeds to point out the link between Jesus wisdom in Matthew 5:5 regarding the meek, and His ability to lighten our burdens (Matthew 11:28-30)
“Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, `Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.’
The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto…As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings.”
What if…we have it all wrong? What if there is…
Posted on January 8th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Apologetics, Book Reviews, Healing, Love, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing, doctrine, marriage.
What if….we have it all wrong? What if there is a God that loves and adores YOU? What if there are angels? What if there is a heaven? What if there is a celebration filled with dancing, rejoicing, singing in heaven? What if there is a celebration right NOW over YOU?
Sally Beth Roe, a character in Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti, becomes a Christian, but Peretti provides us with a glimpse of what is occurring in heaven during the very moment that Sally Roe becomes a Christian. It is a remarkable moment of angels celebrating and the lamb of God embracing her. We have NO idea.
“Above, as if another sun had just risen, the darkness opened, and pure, white rays broke through the treetops, flooding Sally Beth Roe with a heavenly light, shining through to her heart, her innermost spirit, obscuring her form with a blinding fire of holiness. Slowly, without sensation, without sound, she settled forward, her face to the ground, her spirit awash with the presence of God…All around her, like spokes of a wondrous wheel, like beams of light emanating from a sun, angelic blades lay flat upon the ground, their tips turned toward her, their handles extending outward, held in the strong fists of hundreds of noble warriors who knelt in perfect, concentric circles of glory, light, and worship, their heads to the ground, their wings stretching skyward like a flourishing, animated garden of flames. They were silent, their hearts filled with holy dread…As in countless times past, in countless places, with marvelous, inscrutable wonder, the Lamb of God stood among them, the Word of God, and more: the final Word, the end of all discussion and challenge, the Creator and the Truth that holds all creation together–most wondrous of all, and most inscrutable of all, the Savior, a title the angels would always behold and marvel about, but which only mankind could know and understand. He had come to be the Savior of this woman. He knew her by name; and speaking her name, He touched her. And her sins were gone…”-pg 321, Piercing the Darkness by Peretti
Edwin Abbot in his book Flatland shares with us, through parable, mathematics, and physics, the very real possibility of dimensions and realities so very close to us, but we remain unaware of them. What if string theory is true? What if there are dimensions just beyond our reach? What if God and the heavenly realm is all around us, surrounding us, embracing us?
What would it be like to get a glimpse into heaven uninhibited, over joyed, overwhelmed in celebration? Here is a brief video of a wedding that brought laughter and joy to my heart as I imagined….dancing and rejoicing in heaven over US!
Part #1: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew 5 and Chapter 9 of The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
Posted on January 7th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Men on the Path, Sermon Notes, Spiritual Growth, marriage.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Matt.5:5a
I started the New Year resolved to read through the Bible (again). As I read Matthew chapter 5, I was struck (again and again) by its beauty and transforming power. On the same day, I just happen to pick up A.W. Tozer’s book: The Pursuit of God that I have been reading for months and turn to chapter 9 which starts with a discussion of the beginning of Matthew chapter 5–’coincidence’? Unlikely.
Tozer points out that most of what constitutes evil, pain, and suffering in our world comes from you know who….you and me!
“In the world of men we find nothing approaching the virtues of which Jesus spoke in the opening words of the famous Sermon on the Mount. Instead of poverty of spirit we find the rankest kind of pride; instead of mourners we find pleasure seekers; instead of meekness, arrogance; instead of hunger after righteousness we hear men saying, `I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing’; instead of mercy we find cruelty; instead of purity of heart, corrupt imaginings; instead of peacemakers we find men quarrelsome and resentful; instead of rejoicing in mistreatment we find them fighting back with every weapon at their command…these are the evils which make life the bitter struggle it is for all of us. All our heartaches and a great many of our physical ills spring directly out of our sins. Pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed: these are the sources of more human pain than all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh.”
His words are oxygen to a patient gasping for air. Christ alone knows how to ease our suffering, our pain, our burdens…
“Into a world like this the sound of Jesus’ words comes wonderful and strange, a visitation from above. It is well that He spoke, for no one else could have done it as well; and it is good that we listen. His words are the essence of truth. He is not offering an opinion; Jesus never uttered opinions. He never guessed; He knew, and He knows.”
“`Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Mat 11:28-30) Here we have two things standing in contrast to each other, a burden and a rest. The burden is not a local one, peculiar to those first hearers, but one which is borne by the whole human race. It consists not of political oppression or poverty or hard work. It is far deeper than that. It is felt by the rich as well as the poor for it is something from which wealth and idleness can never deliver us. The burden borne by mankind is a heavy and a crushing thing. The word Jesus used means a load carried or toil borne to the point of exhaustion. Rest is simply release from that burden. It is not something we do, it is what comes to us when we cease to do. His own meekness, that is the rest.”
In coming posts we will examine our burdens…