MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

Well, I would like to report that since my last blog post that I have been setting the world on fire with the Gospel message. Sadly, as the Spirit convicts, I have not. It is for this reason that I have greater admiration and respect for those who daily risk their lives for the sake of the Gospel. My life reads as a series of missed opportunities. I don't know how many times I've had the chance to tell someone the good news of Christ, and for whatever reason, have held back. Fear, embarassment, general dislike of the person, (hopefully not the latter) all perhaps have played a part, or perhaps more worrisome is the thought that, maybe I don't really believe what I claim to believe. If it was really true, wouldn't I be compelled to share? As I write this, my spirit is downcast. All I can do is cry out to HIM who is merciful and say, "I'm sorry." I trust that God's grace, which is sufficient to cover a multitude of sin, will once again cover my transgression, and I pray that the next time the opportunity presents itself, I won't miss it. It is my hope that this will encourage you to do the same should you find yourself passing on opportunities as well.

God's Megaphone

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” -- C.S. Lewis


Have you ever had one of "those" weeks. Recently our church family experienced a tremendous tragedy. A young life was taken from us. I don't claim to know why and can say nothing that will really provide any comfort to those who are mourning, apart from the fact that through Christ we have hope for reunion in Heaven. It's times like these that make ministering to and with others a great burden, but it is also times like these when God's presence can be most actively experienced.

I don't know if it was just the jolt of the tragedy or a culmination of factors, but God chose, once again to reveal his heart to me. Through my sadness and frustration, I was able to catch a glimpse of God's heart for the nations.

I can't imagine the pain of losing a child, but God can. He gave up his child on our behalf. And he invites all children of the earth to be reunited to him through this sacrifice. Unfortunately, some of his children chose to reject him, others never receive the opportunity because not enough of his "accepted" children share their joy and Good News with others. This thought hit me like a hammer. I felt the raw pain in my heart and then tried to imagine what God must go through when I realized just how many of his earthly children are needlessly suffering a spiritual death. It was overwhelming.

To borrow an idea, God had used his megaphone, and for now, it's got my attention. How about you?

Where Does the Time Go?

Once again I sit at my blog wondering the age old question, where does the time go? My children have gone through another round of birthdays (well almost), my school year finished and is now getting ready to restart, and I never even managed to post once since mid-May. It wasn't that I didn't want to, it just wasn't a priority. In the world of blogging this might not be so important, but in the world of global evangelism time is critical. Avoiding a long-winded commentary about time in other places around the world, all I will say is there is no wonder why we are instructed to be ready in and out of season to proclaim the Gospel. We don't know when Christ will return, but we do know that it could be any day. The Bible says the day of the coming of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. We should plan accordingly. We don't want to be waiting for the bridal party and find that we have run out of oil at the wrong time. Also as I think about the potential shortness of time before Christ's return I have to remind myself of the urgency. How many of my friends, family, or other loved ones will not get to experience the benefit of Christ's redemption b/c I couldn't find the time? How many souls around the world will miss out on the great eternal party with the Father b/c the time wasn't right? I guess I'd better take my own advise and make the most of the time I am given.

Little People

Today I was inspired to spend a little more time with my children. So we brought out the Little People. I was amazed at the depths of imagination that little plastic horses, unicorns, farms, dinosaurs, planes, and zoo trains could unravel. It caused me to marvel at the creativity of our heavenly father a little more as well.

The thing that really got me though was the amount of joy on my children's faces as I, their earthly father spent a little time with them telling stories, putting cities together, and acting out their favorite scenes. I realized just how important it was that we spend time with our heavenly father. HE is always there, ready to share in our victories, our sorrows, and the day-to-day of life.

Our heavenly father is also at work constructing a heavenly city for us. One we will be called to through faith in Christ Jesus. How much joy this thought brings to my face. I hope that it will do the same for you.

On Jesus and Bin Laden

I found a picture of Jesus washing the feet of various world leaders, including Bin Laden. This made me stop and ponder a few things. Namely about justice, heavenly grace, and my need for the latter.

The death of Osama Bin Laden caused me to think a bit today on the notion of justice. I believe a bit of justice was served with Bin Laden's death. Perhaps, (as I believe) the role of temporal government is to insure that justice is granted to those who have been victimized under legal statutes. The wrongdoer punished as they say.

But what about the role of heavenly justice? For me, I have chosen to believe in a faith that offers both absolute mercy and absolute justice. For me, this "contradictory" fulfilment is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Those who do wrong including myself can be forgiven because Christ has paid the penalty for our transgression. If this is true then hopefully the way I relate to others reflects this belief without hypocrisy, malice, or falsehood.

This led me to another thought. What would my reaction to this news have been if I had learned that Bin Laden had converted to Christianity before his death? Would I have looked forward to seeing him in heaven as the heavenly father would have? Would I rejoice over his conversion as the angels certainly would have? The fact that I cannot answer definitively "yes" on these questions reminds me that I am still in need of God's grace and mercy.

The Right Tools for the Job

I recently had to do a brake job on my truck. It was long overdue. The rotors were trashed and the pads were almost non-existent (another blog topic I'm sure). In my defense it was a used truck and I had been extremely busy since I bought it and hadn't really noticed any major problems with the brakes. After all they stopped me when I needed them to.

As I prepared to change the brakes and rotors I discovered that I did not have the necessary tools to do the job right. I did some investigating and discovered that I needed a "T45" socket to loosen the caliper pins, so off to Autozone I went. Imagine my dismay when I got back put the socket in the pin only to find out that it was too small! The set it came with didn't work either as the next size up was too big. I thought I was Goldilocks for a moment. I returned to Autozone and picked up the next smallest "assortment" set of sockets I could find and fortunately this time it worked. After about 4 hours of work all was back together, running and stopping smoothly.

The next day I reflect on this and realized there were some implications for spreading the Gospel message here. Too often we attempt to witness with the wrong tools. We bring a knife to a gunfight so to speak. The apostle Paul points out that ALL Scripture is God-Breathed and useful, likewise the book of Hebrews tells us the word of God is alive and active, yet despite these affirmations, frequently we fail to see the truth of these words. I believe this is because of two reasons, one the hardened heard of sinful man (something only the Spirit of God can change), and two the ineffective use of God's word.

The Bible is our toolbox for witnessing to the World, yet we have not trained ourselves with the content. Others don't hear the Gospel message clearly because we have presented it incorrectly, out of context, or without a proper understanding of the culture/background of those to whom we present it. (A missionary friend of mind highlighted this issue by telling of a culture where Judas was actually celebrated as the hero of the Gospel story because in that culture guile and trickery were a respected talent to have.)

I once heard an joke about how not to use the Bible and it went something like this: A preacher was teaching his congregation on how to use the Word and he told them they should open it up and do whatever it said. One member read from the scriptures, "and Judas went and hung himself." This was quickly followed by another voice reading from a different passage, "now go and do likewise!"

So the question becomes what should we do? My answer, go back to Autozone (or the toolbox) and get the right part. We need to become familiar enough with God's word that we can use it effectively and be able to pull out the right "tool" for the right job.

Spare Tires and the Gospel

I was recently reviewing my Internet activity and realized that I hadn't updated my blog in quite some time. "What good's a blog if you're not going to use it?" I said to myself. I discovered that it, like a few other things, had been marked with the distinct signs of inactivity, my waistline for example. My blog had become an old spare tire, hanging around with no useable purpose. This also got me wondering about how I share the Gospel message. Was I letting the Good News turn into an old spare tire? Was I keeping it all to myself like a spare tire tucked away in a trunk or underneath a car? Was my gospel message undersized like those emergency spares you hope you never have to used? Or perhaps was my gospel message too flamboyant and over-the-top like those huge super-swamper spare tires you see hanging from 4x4s that will never see the mud? I don't know the full answer to these questions, but I'll bet that each of them are true to some extent. What should I do? Perhaps the best solution would be to change tires altogether. I need to quit relying on Gospel "spares" and settle in for the long haul with a fresh set of "Godyears," tires that will take me to the people and places I need to share the Gospel with most effectively. Happy Traveling Photo by Agnardan Danielsson found on Flickr