This morning I was so pumped. I found myself awake and alert at 5:00 a.m. so up I came and prepared to do some study while everyone else was sleeping soundly, which I did. I even had time to read the paper. So I sat down, began to think and pray about the scriptures I had just read, opened up the computer and began to blog, except the blog page never came up.
I tried for over a hour before finally giving up and preparing for the rest of my day. (early appointment) How frustrating. And what I had to say was good. But for now it is lost. If I regain it, I'll try to post later in the day.
So, sorry for you who were waiting or prepared to be inspired. I was!
Peace ><>
pc
ps: It's just been in the last half hour that my blog page was coming up right to post!
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
"Stuff" Happens
I'm stingy sometimes. I like my own things and because I like my things, I rarely throw things away. It was only just recently that I got rid of my 8-track tapes even though I haven't had an 8-track player for years. (and when I looked on e-bay, I decided the music I'd be listening to just wasn't worth the cost!) Why is it that we like our stuff so much we want to hang on to it so firmly?
We do the same with cars, houses, and insigificant stuff. We do the same with money!
I'm guilty. I like using the money I get for my own things. I guess I just like things. (and I know I am not alone. This is a societal sickness and why places like Shopshewana survive. It's an illness that's related to "knick-knack nausea". We just want more and acquire more stuff!) I was reminded of this the other day when I entered the hidden domain under the stairs in our house. There are stacks of rubbermaid boxes filled with children's books, toys, knick-knacks from several redecoratings ago, and the most "valuable" kids keepables.
Maybe you don't have these, but they are boxes that are marked with the name of each of our children and inside are their first shoes, Christening dresses, blankets made especially for them when they were born, most loved toys, clothes, and the list could go on. We re-discovered boxes literally filled with beanie babies, Elmos, Mickey Mice and china dolls. All of this happened on Friday afternoon just after we cleaned the family room.
The biggest question is, "why?" Why have all of this stuff? While it is true that we don't have nearly as much under the stairs as my parents do in their basement, we still have too much. We hang on too long to what we don't need. And we are not nearly as generous as we ought to be.
"Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.
God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,
He throws caution to the winds,
giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
never run out, never wear out.
This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God."(2 Cor 9:6-10 , The Message)
Giving can be such a freeing activity. It will reveal to us the very generous nature of God that we cannot see until we too are generous. Paul challenged the Church at Corinth to pray about their gifts, about their generosity and give in order to experience the extravagance of God.
I need to do the same!
Anybody want any stuff?
Peace ><>
pc
We do the same with cars, houses, and insigificant stuff. We do the same with money!
I'm guilty. I like using the money I get for my own things. I guess I just like things. (and I know I am not alone. This is a societal sickness and why places like Shopshewana survive. It's an illness that's related to "knick-knack nausea". We just want more and acquire more stuff!) I was reminded of this the other day when I entered the hidden domain under the stairs in our house. There are stacks of rubbermaid boxes filled with children's books, toys, knick-knacks from several redecoratings ago, and the most "valuable" kids keepables.
Maybe you don't have these, but they are boxes that are marked with the name of each of our children and inside are their first shoes, Christening dresses, blankets made especially for them when they were born, most loved toys, clothes, and the list could go on. We re-discovered boxes literally filled with beanie babies, Elmos, Mickey Mice and china dolls. All of this happened on Friday afternoon just after we cleaned the family room.
The biggest question is, "why?" Why have all of this stuff? While it is true that we don't have nearly as much under the stairs as my parents do in their basement, we still have too much. We hang on too long to what we don't need. And we are not nearly as generous as we ought to be.
"Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.
God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,
He throws caution to the winds,
giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
never run out, never wear out.
This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God."(2 Cor 9:6-10 , The Message)
Giving can be such a freeing activity. It will reveal to us the very generous nature of God that we cannot see until we too are generous. Paul challenged the Church at Corinth to pray about their gifts, about their generosity and give in order to experience the extravagance of God.
I need to do the same!
Anybody want any stuff?
Peace ><>
pc
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
O Let the Son Shine In.
Even though we don't want people looking at us, but the life and message we are carrying, still people look at us. (see yesterday's post) We still have to do our best to become the people God wants us to become. Paul said it this way in the Message,
"Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly … in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all." 2 Cor 6:3-10, The Messgae)
Okay, so the message is difficult. We have a great responsibility as Christians. We carry a precious message that can get misinterpreted very easily as people look at our lives. If we say one thing and do another, we may turn people off to the saving grace of God. And that is not a part of God's greater plan.
God's purpose for us all is to live disciplined lives, one step-at-a-time lives that open us up to the freedom God gives, but not using that freedom to live selfishly. Simply put, God wants us to live like we're in glass houses, showing the world the freedom of God, the grace of God, the beauty of a God-life.
How do we do that? Don't be ashamed of who you have been, who you are or who you are becoming. Paul told the Corinthians, "Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively." That means being ready to reveal your faith, your life, your heart to anyone who looks your way. It means opening up the blinds and the curtains of your life and let the Son shine in and your life shine out.
Remember that old Sunday School song, O let the sun shine in, face it with a grin, open up your heart and let the Son shine in...
But do it so the world can see, too!
Peace ><>
pc
"Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly … in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all." 2 Cor 6:3-10, The Messgae)
Okay, so the message is difficult. We have a great responsibility as Christians. We carry a precious message that can get misinterpreted very easily as people look at our lives. If we say one thing and do another, we may turn people off to the saving grace of God. And that is not a part of God's greater plan.
God's purpose for us all is to live disciplined lives, one step-at-a-time lives that open us up to the freedom God gives, but not using that freedom to live selfishly. Simply put, God wants us to live like we're in glass houses, showing the world the freedom of God, the grace of God, the beauty of a God-life.
How do we do that? Don't be ashamed of who you have been, who you are or who you are becoming. Paul told the Corinthians, "Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively." That means being ready to reveal your faith, your life, your heart to anyone who looks your way. It means opening up the blinds and the curtains of your life and let the Son shine in and your life shine out.
Remember that old Sunday School song, O let the sun shine in, face it with a grin, open up your heart and let the Son shine in...
But do it so the world can see, too!
Peace ><>
pc
Monday, July 24, 2006
Is IT In You?
"If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we are not much to look at." (2 Corinthians 4:7-8, The Message)
I've always loved the idea that God has placed his marvelous Good News in ordinary clay jars. Paul uses this term to describe not only himself, but us! We are those jars. Simple, fragile, stained, cracked, well-worn and well-used jars. Not that the message is better suited for such containers, or that it makes the container any better, rather so that the message could be seen for what it really is!
The message of Christ doesn't make us perfect, even if it does promise us perfection.
The point is (by Paul) there is something about our ordinary-ness that God wants to use. It's not about being perfect as a Christian. It's not about knowing theology or having the ability to defend the faith. It's about being who we are, altered by what we carry inside us. What shines, then, is not our lives but Christ's life that lives in us.
I'm not always proud of my actions or my words sometimes. I'm definitely not perfect. But I do carry something precious that I want everyone to see in me, Jesus Christ.
So, don't look at me, look inside of me. Look at what's motivating me, what makes me tick and my eyes light up. It's Jesus, plain and simple...
...in a plain and simple container (with a few blemishes and cracks).
It's in you, too!
Peace ><>
pc
I've always loved the idea that God has placed his marvelous Good News in ordinary clay jars. Paul uses this term to describe not only himself, but us! We are those jars. Simple, fragile, stained, cracked, well-worn and well-used jars. Not that the message is better suited for such containers, or that it makes the container any better, rather so that the message could be seen for what it really is!
The message of Christ doesn't make us perfect, even if it does promise us perfection.
The point is (by Paul) there is something about our ordinary-ness that God wants to use. It's not about being perfect as a Christian. It's not about knowing theology or having the ability to defend the faith. It's about being who we are, altered by what we carry inside us. What shines, then, is not our lives but Christ's life that lives in us.
I'm not always proud of my actions or my words sometimes. I'm definitely not perfect. But I do carry something precious that I want everyone to see in me, Jesus Christ.
So, don't look at me, look inside of me. Look at what's motivating me, what makes me tick and my eyes light up. It's Jesus, plain and simple...
...in a plain and simple container (with a few blemishes and cracks).
It's in you, too!
Peace ><>
pc
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