The wrong answer

I had a very busy day getting ready for my surgery Friday, went to bed very early and then woke up in the wee hours of the morning.  Its been awhile since I did a post, so I started looking though my pictures.  Then, I came across this little jewel.  Its an answer found on a high school exam and frankly, I laughed when I saw it.  It was seemed especially funny, being the day after our elections, when everyone is trying to put a "spin" on what happened Tuesday.  However you put it though, the Democrats didn't do so well and the Republicans did.  Which reminded me of this verse from the New Testament.

John 8:32 (WEB)

32) You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Lies try to bend and shape the truth into a new reality, something more palatable to those who don't like the face value of reality.  The truth is just that, the truth.  If you want truth that matters, listen to Jesus, otherwise believe what you want fibula's and all. 

Try me!

This little can seems to shout: Try me!  And to many out there I imagine the mere thought of bread in a can sounds crazy.  But, I have had this in the past and it IS A TREAT!!!  Sometimes the best things in life are a complete surprise, just as this bread was the first time I tried it.  Life has so many surprises in it that I can't even begin to make a list.  But, if I did, this little passage from the Psalms would be on it.  Read on to see what I mean.

Psalms 139:17-24 (WEB)
17) How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum!
18) If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
19) If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20) For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain.
21) Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?
22) I hate them with perfect hatred. They have become my enemies.
23) Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
24) See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
(Psalms 139:17-24, WEB)

The Psalmist desires to know God and his thoughts and that is a wonderful thing; but to kill those he would classify as wicked?  Isn't hatred wrong?  Problem passage, perhaps?  But if God's word is truth (and of course it is) then the hearts of the misguided as well as those who are super-spiritual must be considered.  Whatever the condition of the speaker's heart, he felt it was right because he entreats God to "try me".  I like this passage because of its genuineness, its searching for God.  A person with a heart that really seeks after God will eventually turn from all hate and reach out to those who really need to seek after God.  I wish there were a lot more "try me's" in the world and a lot less hatred... we would all be better for it.

The intellgent among the intelligent

Not everyone is smart.  Most people are just "average"; whatever that means.  However, even the most average of the average have something above average about them.  Case in point is a young lady I know; she didn't do well in school (but did graduate high school) and if you talked to her, you went away with the impression that she was a bit of an "air head".  BUT, she could clean house better than anyone I have ever met and is a wonderful mother.  Today, with a world full of ladies who have other priorities than being a housewife, she is a shining star!!  Who says God doesn't know what he is doing?  Consider the following....

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (WEB)

18) For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.
19) For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”
20) Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21) For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.
22) For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom,
23) but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks,
24) but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25) Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26) For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;
27) but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;
28) and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are:
29) that no flesh should boast before God.
30) But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
31) that, according as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”

People come up with all sorts of ideas, some good and others, well, junk.  No matter how smart you are and how confident you are right about everything, there will come a day when you will come face to face with your maker.  Then what?  Your intelligent design theories, your humanistic superiority and all the grandiose theoritical concepts you can muster will face one overwhelming fact; you are dead and have to answer for what you did in life.  Don't wait until its too late; do accept intelligent design, that is, God's design for your life.  You can read about it anytime... its in your BIBLE.

What will it do?

I wish I knew what kind of car this was because it is beautiful!!!  Very sleek and stylish and somehow I just know there is a very powerful motor under that hood.  I can imagine driving it very fast on a sea coast road with the hood down.  Too good to be true?  Maybe, but I guess I will never know (unless someone with very deep pockets just happens to feel generous).  How do you tell the great cars from the not-so-great?  One way is to drive them.  Christianity is like that too; its not just something that looks good, its something you do because its who you are.  Consider this passage from the book of Philippians. 

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (WEB)
1) I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:
2) preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.
3) For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;
4) and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables.
5) But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.
 (2 Timothy 4:1-5, WEB)

Timothy was not a charismatic person, he wasn't showy or powerful, but he was committed and Paul knew it.  Timothy just needed a little encouragement.  And it took!  Later in life Timothy became more and more outgoing and I was surprised to learn that he was killed while engaging in a march against idol worship.  He just didn't look the part, he lived it.  Perhaps that is a lesson we all could learn.  Its one thing to look attractive (like the car in the photo) and quite another to get busy and DO SOMETHING!  Although, I must confess, that somehow the phrase zoom, zoom keeps rattling around in my head.

Relax

My friend Bruce sent me this picture recently.  A very restful scene from Nova Scotia. I can almost imagine myself sitting in this gazebo whiling away the hours looking at all those beautiful flowers.  Nice place for a vacation; Bruce must have had a ball!!! Rest is a hard thing to come by because the reality of life is that we are all soooo busy that taking time to relax often just never gets on our agenda.  But spiritually, rest can be a reality....

Hebrews 4:1-11 (WEB)
1) Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.
2) For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.
3) For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4) For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God rested on the seventh day from all his works;”
5) and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.”
6) Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter therein, and they to whom the good news was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,
7) he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”
8) For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.
9) There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
10) For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.
11) Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
 (Hebrews 4:1-11, WEB)

Rules and regulations are hard work.  Imagine trying to keep 413 of them?  This was the problem faced by the faithful Jew and no matter how hard he worked... sooner or later, he did something wrong.  The good news is that Grace solves the problem.  Jesus as high priest of a new covenant has done the work, now its up to us to follow him and receive mercy when we make mistakes.  To me, that means a relaxation better than any time spent in any gazebo, anytime, anywhere.  Rest accompanied by love is the very best thing I can possibly imagine.

More than a nice paint job

Now, this is one cool paint job.  As soon as I saw it, I was reminded of a book I read last year called "His Majesty's dragon".  I enjoyed it so much, that I read all the books in the series.  The dragon in the book was an awesome creature named Temeraire who was so big he could eat an entire cow at one meal.  Its hard for me not to think of another dragon which is found in the Scriptures, one who was as evil as Temeraire was good. 

Revelation 12:7-9 (WEB)
7) There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war.
8) They didn’t prevail, neither was a place found for him any more in heaven.
9) The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

The dragon described in the Scriptures was evil and lost.  He will always lose because evil is weaker than goodness.  I really like the photo though and will try to remember Temeraire and not Satan when I look at the picture in the future.  If you have some time, read "His majesty's dragon", I think you might enjoy it.

Luminaries

This picture brought back memories.  My wife and I were on the trip home to New Jersey and we had a stopover in Florida.  It was late and we couldn't sleep, so we took a walk on the beach.  Even though it was winter, yet the air felt like May and the cool breeze made the walk delightful.  More than all this, there was that MOON!  So big and beautiful it was overpowering.  How big an impression did all this make on me; judge for yourself, its been over a decade since that walk.  The thing is... Christians are to be like that moon: luminaries.  The God of heaven shines on our hearts and we are never quite the same.  Jesus put it this way:

Matthew 5:14-16 (WEB)
14) You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden.
15) Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house.
16) Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Nothing you probably haven't heard before, but the more God affects you, the more others can see HIM in you.  That is exactly as it should be.  Something to think about the next time you see a full moon.  And, of course a trip to Florida couldn't hurt either!