Honed to Perfection

You can tell a lot about a person by looking at the friends they keep. In other words, your friends will mirror you. Whether they were already like you or you became like them (or are becoming like them) there are definite similarities between you and your friends. When I first understood this concept I challenged it, too. I knew my friends and didn't want to be defined by their behavior, but I couldn't help it. It was true. The friends I kept looked an awful like me, or at least the me I was becoming.

Through the years I've paid quite a lot of attention to who I hang out with. Now I don't mean that I weigh carefully who I should or shouldn't be friends with, I try to be friendly with everyone, but I've watched who I naturally gravitate toward and it has changed over time. It's really true that my closest friends are the ones that reveal who I most want to be like. They reflect my ideals. My friends are mirrors of me, and when I look at my friends today, I'm very pleased because I really like who they are and who they are helping me become.

Friends are great influencers. Not only will they mirror us, they shape us, too. One of my greatest friends (second only to my wife!) is Steve. You've probably heard me talk about him and our relationship many times. But our friendship is not just about being with each other, it's much more about shaping each other. It's our mutual love and respect for Christ and each other that makes us push each other to be better. There's an expectation, an accountability in every conversation, in every meeting. We are pushing to become more like each other, more like Christ. Every time we meet we are honed just a little more.

"You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17, The Message)

I don't mind if you check out my friends. I'm proud of them, and I hope they are of me. They are making me better all the time. I like what I'm becoming because of them.

What do your friends say about you?

Peace ><>

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Cost of Living

It seems funny to me that by living in ways that are upright, moral, and pure can get us in hot water. When I was a kid I remember several times when my "friends" wanted me to do things I didn't find appropriate and when I declined they labeled me a "goody two-shoes." (okay, I never really understood this phrase, but most of us know that it means someone who acts better than others; one who tries to live an upright life.) At that time of my life it devastated me. I wasn't so sure I wanted to be "better" than others, yet I didn't want to be defined by the actions of my friends either. So I was in a dilemma.

As an adult the same thing has happened. When I haven't wanted to do the things my friends or colleagues were doing, they quit asking me. There were many parties I never got invited to, gatherings that I was never told about, even class reunions where I never got the invitation. I wasn't any fun according to those people. But I was trusted.

When I became a real Christian as an adult, that's when I really found out what the cost would be to live. I left two companies that I felt were compromising their morals and asking me to do the same in order to do business. At one place of business I found a group of Christians that made work much more pleasurable but it was the non-Christians that made it so difficult.

Living a moral life, a life to please God, costs something. It may cost a few friends. It may cost money (the lower income of honest gain). It may cost good jobs. It may mean that daily we'll take a ribbing for living so purely, morally. It may mean we get left out of fellowship. But I'm sure that this is not a problem anymore.

"Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe. You'll never get blacklisted if you live like this." (Psalm 15:5, The Message)

I've discovered that I have better friends, more secure friends, more dependable friends through my faith than I have ever had anywhere else. And when the going gets rough, those other people will seek us. They've learned who they can trust. It's us. When those who didn't want to be friends with us really need a friend, who will they call?

You!

Living to please God puts us in contrast with the world. Yet it is that other-worldly living that draws people to us. In the short run it may cost us to live for God. In the long run, it makes all the difference in the world!

Peace ><>
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Popularity Contest

I've thought a lot about my High School Days since I recently received an invitation to my 25th High School Reunion. I've been on Classmates.com to get updates and to see what old friends have logged on. There are very few of those classmates that I have kept in contact with so it seems a bit foreign. Those days stir up some old memories and old feelings, some of which regretful.

I was one of the "cool" kids. The way I dressed, the way I acted. I was friends with almost everyone so was popular. I was concerned about what people thought of me. I was careful to keep the right alliances in order to keep my popularity. But that had its problems.

Few of my really "cool" friends went to my church. The ones that did were not active in youth group, at least not that I remember. If they would have been, I'd have been there too. But I wasn't. I had a growing faith, but for some reason I was too cool for some church activities.
I was afraid of what my friends might think of me.

"If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world's terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God's terms and no longer on the world's terms, the world is going to hate you." (John 15:18-19, The Message)

This passage continues to challenge me. I like it when I'm popular. But I like it even more when I know that God is pleased with me. I have accepted the fact that I have to give up my popularity with the world when I take sides with Jesus. In fact, the closer I get to him, the less and less I care about what the world thinks anyway, because I've discovered the world is fickle and didn't really care about me all that much anyway.

When I left high school, I thought I had tons of friends. By the time my freshman year was over I attempted to reconnect with some high school friends over the next summer. What I discovered is that just as I had moved on, so had they. Most of the phone calls I made were never returned. And to this day I have never talked to most of those "friends." For a long time it bothered me. It doesn't anymore. God had other plans, other friends.

Today when I look at the friends I have made and keep, I recognize that to have kept those old friendships would have meant I would have never experienced the new ones I have experienced over the past 25 years, especially my friendship with Christ. That is the one that has made all the difference in my personal growth and where I have found the greatest acceptance.

I'll go to my 25th reunion. I'll surprise most of them with my vocation. (Most of them won't see that coming!) I'll meet spouses and talk about great memories with old friends, I'll share my faith and my story as I listen to others. At the end of the night I may have rekindled a friendship or two but now for the right reasons because I really don't care anymore what they think of me.

Jesus has called me his friend and that's as popular as anyone can get!

Peace ><>
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Disconnected Religion

Some days we don't take our faith very seriously.

It's not that our faith wavers from one day to the next. It's more likely that our focus shifts because of other stimuli that are present in our lives. On some of those days we may not focus on study or on prayer although we may still "check in" with a short prayer or with a simple reminder to ourselves that we do have faith and then we move on with life. Most often, we live disconnected from our faith.

This disconnection is really putting life in one category and faith in another. And it's not faith at all, rather it's a belief in something, rituals (such as prayer) to keep it active, and hope that life will get better or easier through it. But that's not faith. That's religion. And religion, even when integrated into our lives, isn't what God expects of us.

Religion is rules, rituals, actions that put us in a better view of God and in God's better view. And the Christianity that many have been taught and even still live is more religion than it is faith.

I know that my own teaching has sometimes bordered on religious practice. I often focus my teaching on reminding us that we have great responsibility to act according to our faith, to take seriously what we say we believe, to serve, to give, to pray. But I'm not advocating religion. Rather I teach and try to provide opportunities to relate to God.

"But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe - Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise." (Galatians 3:25-27, The Message)

We are to live faith. That faith is being in close relationship with God. It's a freedom to live not by practices that might please the Almighty, but inviting God to share in them with us. Our baptism is the beginning of not living disconnected from God anymore.

It's our acceptance of God's personal invitation to share our whole lives with God.

That's what faith is all about!

Peace ><>
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Believing, praying, waiting, getting

"And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he's listening. And if we're confident that he's listening, we know that what we've asked for is as good as ours." (1 John 5:14-15, The Message)

I know that God answers my prayers...when I believe.

I'm not saying that I don't believe, but there are times when I pray and I wonder, does God agree with me that this is right to ask, to answer? I've thought much about praying "if it be your will" but then its as if I don't have faith or that I'm not close enough to God to recognize what God's will is.

This is the dilemma when we pray, to have the courage to: ask boldly, to believe beyond reason, to wait patiently and wait with eager anticipation that God will answer.

If we only had enough courage, or is it faith. According to John's letter if we truly believe that Jesus is God's Son, then we will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have eternal life. And if we know that we have this real life we have the freedom to know God's heart, ways and will. If we will only take advantage of it.

Prayer is not the real problem. Faith is not the real problem. The real problem is commitment; commitment to know God, to ask God's help, to expect God's presence. The greatest sin most Christians commit is the sin of omission; not doing the things we ought to do, like ignoring God, failing to pray, failing to spend time just knowing God.

While it's true that baptism tells us that we are God's and it is our claim, our yes, back to God, we play a great part in this relationship. We have to work at knowing God, relating to God, relying on God.

Christ opened the lines of communication and is awaiting our call.

So call already!

Peace ><>
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What is the Meaning and Purpose of Baptism?

Here are some highlights from today's message.

We make many Commitments, things we announce to others.
They are based upon what we believe, upon what we think is important.

We act according to our priorities.

It's when we take control of our lives when our priorities and our commitments do not align.

It's only under God's control that can align them.

Baptism is a reminder of God's "yes" to us and our commitment to God.

This reminder can realign us when we stray from where we are supposed to be.

Remember your baptism and your place in God's family. Live according to God's priorities and find the freedom God gives us.

Peace ><>
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