Sunrise

This morning I'm sitting on the patio as the sun rises.  Birds singing, breeze swirling around me, beautiful clouds reflecting the rising sun, trees swaying with the breeze.....all celebrating a King.

The sun has just crested the trees and will cross the sky until evening.  Then, once more, evening comes and another sunrise tomorrow.  Each day gives me opportunity to be, to do, to make choices but I only get this day once and what I do with it will eternally be resolved as each second passes.

My part in this great play of humanity is to love and serve my King and the people he puts in my path.  Each person I meet is someone he made to worship him.  I can help them do that and find him more easily or make it harder.  I can leave a sweet taste on their lips for the experience or sow a bit of resentment and anger in their lives.

At the beginning of a new day I have just 24 hours but hundreds of choices and each choice will glorify my King or make it harder for others to see him.  

Humanity around me is stirring.  Life for this new day is beginning.  My part in it is to serve my King well and help others find this amazing life he has given to me.

Lord, today in this 24 hours, may my life make you most glorious and winsome to those who encounter me.  May they see YOU in me.

The real problem

There is a lot of debate about why violence has increased in our country, why school shootings are now so common.  The debate on one side blames guns and on the other it blames a culture awash with violence.

But there is a clear cause that most do not want to acknowledge and a real reason for the increased violence.

This insight into the real cause is sprinkled throughout the Bible and clearly spoken of in numerous places, but our culture never bothers to consult the owners manual to find out what is really happening.  If they did they would deny the solution God gives.

So, as a result, this kind of violence will continue and increase.  Whether guns or knives, bats or rocks it will go on because we refuse to acknowledge and address the real cause.

Here it is. Hidden in plain site.

“There is no faithfulness, no love,

    no acknowledgment of God in the land.

There is only cursing, lying and murder,

    stealing and adultery;

they break all bounds,

    and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

 Because of this the land dries up,

    and all who live in it waste away…”

Hosea 4

Because we have turned our backs on God this is our outcome, this is our result.  This is what life looks like without God.  No matter what solutions we legislate the problems will only get worse.

It will not stop until we turn once more and bow to the God who made us.  

What we are seeing now is a culture without God.  

That's the real problem.

Whose are you?

On his way to Rome in a ship doomed to destruction Paul spoke to the crew and passengers these words, "For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me."

His words spoke to me and I read them again and again, "the God to whom I belong and whom I serve...."  This is a profound insight that each of us needs.  It answers the question's, Whose are you?  Who rules you? 

Actions spring from an understanding of who is in charge.  If I'm my own boss I can do as I please.  As many in the pro-choice movement declare, "it's my body, I can do as I choose."  And as one heavily tattooed man declared, "it's my house, I can decorate it as I please."

But....if I am not my own, if I belong to someone else then I have an obligation to respond to his instructions, his rule.  That is the defining question of eternity-  Whose are you?

In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul wrote these words to his readers, "You have been bought with a price, you are not your own, therefore glorify God in your body." 1 Cor. 6:19-20  

With these profound words Paul gives direction to every Christian, every Christ follower that we have a sovereign and he is Lord of our lives, our decisions, our actions.  That truth is the one thing that separates a Christian from the world around them. We have a master who rules us, we are not the masters of our lives.

Years ago William Ernest Henley wrote these words, they describe the soul of the man without God, but they also describe the soul doomed to crash on the rocks.  Here are his insightful words,

Out of the night that covers me, 

      Black as the pit from pole to pole, 

I thank whatever gods may be 

      For my unconquerable soul. 

In the fell clutch of circumstance 

      I have not winced nor cried aloud. 

Under the bludgeonings of chance 

      My head is bloody, but unbowed. 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears 

      Looms but the Horror of the shade, 

And yet the menace of the years 

      Finds and shall find me unafraid. 

It matters not how strait the gate, 

      How charged with punishments the scroll, 

I am the master of my fate, 

      I am the captain of my soul. 

Whose are you?  Who's the master of your soul? That answer determines much about your life and end of your journey.

Mine

One truth most are unwilling to deal with is this-

God has written on every soul this word, "mine."

He has claimed each of us as his own.  

He made us, 

he saved us, 

and he claims us. 

We are his.

That claim of ownership by the creator is the battlefield we fight upon.

In that battle is a war with eternal outcomes where we each, in response to God's claim,  declare of our souls "mine!" or bow in response and worship.

The great battle of eternity is one of ownership.  And with that battle are eternal outcomes.  

Ownership has outcomes.  When I steal from God what is rightly his by claiming in response, "I am owned by no one. I am my own!"  we steal from God not only his property, but declare void the price he paid for ownership.

God made us.  After our first rebellion his response was redemption.  He gave the highest price to purchase back the creation he had made.  When that creation claims to owe him nothing and steals his property how can we think there is no outcome for those actions?

Who do you acknowledge as the one who owns you?  

God has claimed you twice.  Will you declare his claim void or bow in worship?  

That is the battlefield we each will fight upon. We will either bow in worship or steal what rightly belongs to God and that second choice cannot end well.  Worship or rebellion.  What will you choose?

Abide in Him

"And now, little children, abide in him...."  1John 2.  Jesus and John both invite us to 'abide in him.'  What does that mean in your life?  How do you do that?  What should it look like to 'abide in him?'  This is an invitation to a discussion on the most important relationship you will ever have...how do you have that relationship, how do you abide in him in the day ahead?

This invitation into an abiding life, a dwelling in him life is an invitation to enjoy and rest in the very life of God.  How do we do that?  How should we do that?  What do you do to abide in him?

Those are the questions we must answer if we are to even begin to abide.  'Abide in me' were words of invitation from God himself.....how do we begin?

That is the greatest invitation in the history of man, an invitation to abide in, dwell in, rest in God himself.  The invitation has been extended.  I wonder how many will respond, or will we be too busy?

Reflections

"I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread."

Psalm 37

As I read this morning I thought back on my life.  Now, like David, I can look back over many decades and reflect on God's provision and care for me and my family.  Like David I can say, with amazement at how God works, that he has taken care of us even when we didn't now we were in danger.

It's funny how we rarely see God's provision in real time, but as we reflect we find he has walked with us every step of our lives.  He never leaves us or forsakes us. He is, indeed, a good and kind Father caring for his children.

I was young, now I'm old, and yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

The great and wonderful God of eternity has cared for us every breath of our lives

And so, this morning, I breathe out these words, "thank you, Lord, you are much too kind.  Thank you."