Thursday, January 24, 2013

Joy while facing trials? Really? - James 1:2

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds" (James 1:2 NIV)

Whenever I read this verse, the human part of me just can't seem to get past the word "joy". To induce the emotion I'm blogging about, let's say a friend came up to you and told you about a particularly challenging situation and you were to respond that they should consider it "pure joy" that they were going thru it. This is the dilemma I'm blogging about: what does the passage say we should say? Now, no one in their right mind would respond that way. It's the Bible, though, so why not? I think its important to understand why not (in the case of this particular verse, of course).

As Christians, we need to remember when someone shares about a significant life challenge, everything we say is going to affect them one way or the other for Christ; positive or negative.  It's the very reason many say the best action is to listen and not solve. That said, why does James seem to be saying we should be joyful in our "jams"?

For all those purists out there, I am NOT mocking the Bible. I am actually making a point. While I said I wouldn't do this, ... the New Testament was written in Koine Greek. The Greek word used here is "cara" (Strong's 5479 - for those that look at this sort of thing) and it means, surprisingly enough joyful.

Now, I'm in trouble.  It tells me to "consider it pure joy" when I'm facing troubles, and the Greek Lexicon give me no release.  When I looked for its use elsewhere in the Bible, I found one verse that delivered me from my guilt.  James 4:9, the very book that gave me this difficult advice, said the following: "... let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom."  An antonym - yes!  When you use the same Lexicon that let me down the first time and look up the word "gloom" you find its meaning to be downcast or to cast ones eyes down ("katepheia" or Strongs 2726 for all those I have converted to this word study craziness).  The opposite of casting your eyes down is casting your eyes up!  That I can live with.  Yeah! Relief!

My point is that many times when we are trying to project Biblical adherence with disciplines that don't portray authenticity, our witness suffers.  Here we are trying to make them feel better with advice that just makes them feel bad or worse guilty.  You know, I would like to have a maturity where, when difficulty strikes, I could take great joy in how I know God will work in and thru it, but I am just not there yet.  That said, I wouldn't want my witness to reflect that either (since it's not true).  Knowing that what I'm really called to do in this passage is to look heavenward for answers is something I can live with.  THAT's a habit of holiness I can sink my teeth into.  That's a comfort I can convey to others.

Have a wonderful day!

Tim

Monday, January 21, 2013

Google Maps Will Only Get You So Far - Proverbs 19:21

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord ’s purpose that prevails. (Proverbs 19:21 NIV)

It's Monday morning and I think it only fair I choose an easy one. To make matters worse, It's also Inauguration Day in the Nations Capital and my commute was, to say the least, complicated. My ability for industrial thought today is diminished. My apologies. So, ... what's to say here that has not already been said?

You know, when I'm planning a route online to somewhere I don't usually go, there is a high probability of some measure of failure. For all those out there who have used online mapping websites, you can relate. It's an almost certain losing strategy to put our directional hope in something or someone with absolutely no accountability for our successful arrival.

There are a couple of words here that make this passage thought provoking for me. First it's the word "heart". When I plan a route that ends up going "south" on me (sorry, I couldn't resist that), I'm annoyed. When my "heart" is in something and it goes sideways, my disappointed runs much deeper. So, a good strategy for life should always be to minimize disappointment. Right? (Wow an amazing revelation - but for a Monday this is huge!) The question is, How do we accomplish that? Well, the short answer is to match your "heart plans" with God's purpose.

Sound easy? Well, the answer IS easy. The challenge is in the implementation. For all Program Managers out there, I'm certain I hit close to home. Basically, we must be praying, we must be reading, we must be attending, we must be congregating... we must be actively pursuing God. Even then, it's not a quick solution. Relationship building with God is not unlike relationship building with people; it takes time. Remember the old saying that it's not the amount of time you spend its the quality of the time? While it is true that any time spent seeking God is "quality time", but in order to better understand as well as be "in tune" with the mind of God you will need to spend "quantity time".

The last comment I have here is on the word "purpose". Notice the verse does NOT say "Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord ’s plans that prevail." The author states that it's the "Lord's purpose" that prevails". God has the "big" picture here and he WILL accomplish His purpose; you can guarantee that. I've often said that I don't want the "big" picture because, to use a phrase from a well known movie, I can't handle the truth.

So when we plan our routes in life, we need to make sure we are connected to the right content provider. If we allow God enter His destination for our lives, every turn we make will be the right one.

Happy Monday!

Blessings, Tim

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Give 'em a Candy Bar - Matthew 18

Ok. Here is the verse:

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17 NIV)

When I was in College, I lived with my Grandmother during a couple of summers.  When you were upset or angry about something, my Grandmother figured you needed a candy bar.  She probably figured that any issue could be cured with chocolate.  I'm of the mind that she is not too far off.  I love chocolate!

Personally, it has been my experience that difficulties, interpersonal challenges / arguments... whatever you wish to call them many times stem from a lack of focus in the Church.  We have all heard and read that Churches, in order to stay healthy, need constantly to be focused on "Mission".  I'm not certain I ever really disagreed, but time has taught me the truth in this wisdom.

Mission work can be defined in many ways.  The bottom line here is that is not just working with the poor in foreign countries.  It can be working with the poor and disadvantaged in the USA.  It can be working with poor in your own county or your own neighborhood.  Mission work is truly any way you reach out to and work with others as ambassadors of Christ's love.  As a Church, we need to be constantly reaching out to our communities, our country and out world.

Mission causes us to focus on the "Love one another" command from Christ.  When we help others we are really carry out Christ's command to love one another.  The early Church was started with this kind of giving back to others.  It keeps us focused on loving, in Christ's way.

Mission work turns the focus from ourselves to others.  No great shock here, but when we are busy (really busy) we tend to forget about our problems, our tiffs, our arguments, etc.  My Grandmother used to like to keep me busy.  Being a parent myself these days, I totally understand that tactic.

All in all Mission work is the gift that keeps on giving.


Friday, January 18, 2013

The Search for Truth - 2 Timothy 3:7

Now, I should say this before we get too far.  There are 10 readings per day with this Bible Reading Plan.  Thus, one might think it impossible not to have something on which to blog each day.  This is true, and I actually may find myself blogging more than I think.  Difference here is that I will admit now that fatigue will play a definite part.  Some mornings I will do well to complete my 10 readings.  (That said, all with the gift of encouragement... hit the comment button here and there.  Encouragement will be welcome.)

Now, one of today's readings is from 2 Timothy Chapter 3.  It is in this chapter we find that well known verse "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness", (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV)  While I love this verse, the one that actually captured my attention was the below verse:

"always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." (2 Timothy 3:7 NIV)

I am not unlike many.  I love to learn.  I enjoy reading as well as watching biographies, documentaries, etc... Biographies provide me with an appreciation of the the struggle behind the strength, the story behind the glory.  The whole idea of learning from others is to somehow attain a knowledge of what was the secret to a persons success.  Put simply - Why are successful people... well... successful?

First, most successful people are willing to believe in something and work tirelessly to make that "something" happen.  In a word: endurance.  You struggle, you test, you gather data, until you have achieved your goal.  You never give up.

Second, they stopped learning (per se) and started "knowing".  I have heard and read many times of people who were "searching for the truth".  Emily and I enjoy doing family research and love happening on a document that shows a relative existed; where they were born, married, etc.  We print it out, bookmark it and it gives us a clearer picture of the story of our existence.  People are unsuccessful in finding the truth because when they happen on it, they are unwilling to believe.

How does this all apply to Christians?  Bottom line: Don't just read and memorize scripture (a good and productive discipline), understand and apply scripture.  That said, we as Christians need to understand the bottom line and work the rest backwards.  God knew there was no remedy for our sinful nature.  Thus, He sent Jesus: the perfect and final sacrifice allowing us access to God the Father thru God the Son.  We need just accept Him and ask God the Spirit to indwell us.  We then can read the documents that have endured all these many centuries and attain a clearer understanding of the story behind the Glory and the struggle behind the strength.

We then need to stop searching and start loving.

Blessings, Tim

Thursday, January 17, 2013

My First Post - Job 16:2-5

Job is probably one of the books of the Bible which takes little ability read and relate.  I think we use it more to the negative than the positive, but it's always fun to use the phrase "the patience of Job".  The fact is that Job was probably not considered super patient in the daily, just patient in that he endured.

Here is the passage from Job Chapter 16 Verses 2 thru 5:

“I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!    Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?    I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.    But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief. (Job 16:2-5 NIV)

Here are my thoughts:

Wow.  We have all felt like this at one point or another.  How many times have we experienced some sort of challenge, confided in a (so called) friend, only to receive a lecture on "better living".  One of the several things we can gleen from the story of Job is the importance of developing a greater ability to share the grace of Jesus.  Whether a friend is experiencing a difficulty that was "self-inflicted" or one that was beyond control, it remains one that was neither expected nor welcome.  Our place as friends, then, is to share the grace that was and IS Jesus.  Jesus died for our sins NOT due to our worth as people, but due to our worth to God.  God knew our capacity to sin was greater than our capacity for relationship with Him; thus, He knew we needed an out.  Our out is Jesus. He came to us in the midst of our brokenness, in the midst of our stupidity and said simply, "I love you and still want you to be called my friend".  As that age old song says, truly, what a friend we have in Jesus.

Reading thru the Bible in a Year

Happy New Year!

Begining around the 2nd or 3rd of January (2013), I began my quest to once again read thru the Bible in a year.  As I have done before, I am using a Bible application written by a company called YouVersion.  My first association with the YouVersion team was using my Blackberry.  I have since graduated to an iPhone and use the same application on that device.  I feel certain this application is available for Android phones as well, but I'm not certain of this.  Among other things, this application provides several methods to enable one to read thru the Bible in a year.  The one I used before was named "Old Testament New Testament".  It would give you four or five Chapters to read per day.  After 365 days, you have read thru the entire Bible.  The one I chose this time is called "Professor Horner's Bible Reading System".  It's goal is to get you thru the Bible in around 9 months.  There are about 10 Chapters to read each day.

I thought that I would use this forum to share any thoughts that I might have from time to time.  They are just my thoughts.  They will NOT be done with lots of research or commentaries or Greek lexicons - just me sharing my reaction to a particular Bible passage.

That said, my hope and goal will always be that these thoughts bring increase to God and NOT my ability to share complete and wonderfully worded commentary.

I look forward to your sharing with me your thoughts and reactions as well.  You can use the "Share" button to do so.

For His Glory, Tim