I Sing Because I'm Happy; I Sing Because I'm Free!

Dear Fellow Travelers,

          I have already shared this story with my GCF congregation, so, hopefully, they will be patient with me, as I share it with you. 

The other day, I was in Publix doing some grocery shopping. As I walked down one of the aisles, I was singing (to myself, or so I thought!), and out of the corner of my eye I saw an elderly lady smiling. I smiled back and continued shopping (and singing!), thinking she was just being friendly. Soon our paths intersected at the meat counter. I was still singing (to myself, or so I thought!). I was about to pick up a package of pork chops, when she tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Your song make my heart very glad!” Before I thought, I said, “Hallelujah!” She responded with, “Praise the Lord.” 

To be sure, no one has EVER told me that MY song made their heart glad, so this was a first and I was a bit shocked (everyone has made it clear to me that I cannot carry a tune in a bucket!). Even so, I engaged her in conversation. She was from Nigeria and spoke with very broken English. I had to really listen to her, which was a good thing—always is. [Yes, I know that some of you are now thinking that I misunderstood her, that what she really said was, “Your song make my heart very glad that you do not sing for a living!] 

Anyway, on to the point. 

I asked her how long she had been a Christian. I will never forget her response—never! This was her answer: “I was born into Christianity, but I became a disciple about 15 years ago.” 

For now, I am not going to comment on her statement, other than to tell you that it struck my heart like an arrow from Heaven. After you have had ample time to digest what she said, I will offer my “two cents worth.”  

By the way, I was singing, “I sing because I’m happy; I sing because I’m free; His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches over me.”

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29 NASB).

Watch over Your Heart!

Dear Fellow Travelers,

          One of the members of my congregation asked me this question via instant message: “What does Proverbs 4:23 [“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life”] mean, anyway?” Since I could not properly answer with another instant message, I decided to take this route.

          First off, it has nothing to do with HDL, or LDL, or total cholesterol, nor does it have to do with avoiding butter, pork fat, beef fat, and sitting too much; in fact, it doesn’t even have anything to do with genetics. I suppose one could include these in his interpretation, but it would be somewhat of a stretch.

          Although the term “heart” is used quite frequently in the Scriptures, defining it is rather difficult. I, therefore, do not mean to imply that the following attempt is anywhere near perfect, but for the sake of this discussion, I will offer the following: the heart is the central, vital core, the essence of one’s being. 

          Having offered that definition, allow me to say that understanding this verse requires seeing it within the context of vss. 20-22: “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their whole body.”

          Within this light and context, it become obvious that we must have something within our hearts that is worth our oversight, and that “something” can only be the words of wisdom and life that Solomon is providing in this book he has authored. We can assume, then, that Solomon is encouraging his reader to spend the time necessary to give attention to his words, to the words of wisdom that he offers. Once we have given them our attention, we must not allow them out of our sight, seeing to it that they remain in the citadel of our being, our hearts. In other words, we must be very careful not to allow another to rob us of the wisdom of Solomon’s words, to dilute their significance for our lives.

          Why? His words are life to those who find them, and health to all their whole body. Remember: Out of our hearts flow the springs of life and we, certainly, do not want these springs to become polluted with religious sewerage.

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29 NASB).

Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away?

Dear Fellow Travelers,

          Yesterday marked the 18^th anniversary of my mother’s physical death. Today marks the 1^st day of my two granddaughter’s high school career. 

          It is very difficult for me to believe that it has been 18 years since Jesus escorted my mother into that Celestial City we call Heaven, but it has—every day of it. I was sitting by her bed in the Medical Center of Central Georgia looking directly at her, as she took her last breath. Before she could completely exhale that last breath, the Spirit of the Living God breathed into her a fresh infusion of the Breath of Life, and that mortal put on immortality—absolutely, positively, no doubt about it. For Mama, time ceased to exist. For those of us she left behind, the clock has, however, continued to tick—second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, and year by year. So far, 18 years have come and gone—roughly, 567,648,000 seconds!—but for Mama, not even one second has passed. I can only imagine (can barely do that!) what she is experiencing, but I can tell you with certainty that she has no desire to re-enter this crazy, time-centered, sin-infested jungle in which we live. Even after 18 years, I still miss her, but I am so thankful that she is at Home, not her home-away-from-home, but her Home, Home.

             For some reason, this made me think of Willie Nelson’s song: Well hello there. It's been a

 long, long time.  How am I doing? Oh well, I guess I'm doing fine. It's been so long now and it seems

 that it was only yesterday. Ain't it funny how time slips away?

          At this point, however, the thought of time slipping away ain’t so funny. I am in no particular hurry to join Mama because I am eager to watch Sydney & Caroline enjoy these incredible days of their lives. In all probability, these will be some of the best days of their lives, and I want to watch them enjoy them. There will be boyfriends galore, cars (eventually, I hope), dancing recitals, cross country races, lots of studying for courses like math, biology, language, history, chemistry, information science (didn’t have this in my day!), and body sculpting (didn’t have this in my day, either!), dances, and proms. Before I can blink my eye, there will be SAT tests, college visitations, career choices, and who knows what else. All in all, the next four years will last for roughly 126,230,400 seconds (not very long at all!), at which time they will be leaving home, to find their own homes. 

          No, it really ain’t funny how time slips away, but thankfully, when the time allotted for me, does finally slip away, this mortal will have put on immortality, too!

         

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29 NASB).

My Plumb Line

August 8, 2011 [Monday],

Dear Fellow Travelers,

          Yes, I am the pastor, so my opinion is probably biased; however, it is my humble opinion that those of us who attend Grace Christian Fellowship are very blessed and extremely fortunate. Yesterday’s service evidenced that quite well. I wish each of you could have been with us.

          Anyway, during my message I mentioned the fact that the Apostle Paul had some very strong words to say regarding the message of truth, i.e., the gospel of Jesus Christ. Take a careful look at them: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:6-9 NASB). 

          In other words, Paul was making it very clear that there is but one gospel, and that gospel is the one he preached. Since this is Holy writ, I must take the position that his words are truth—absolute truth—which means that it would behoove each of us to familiarize ourselves with what he taught. I believe that so strongly, that I have spent most of my adult life diligently studying his writings. As a result, I have unwittingly developed a mental plumb line that I use when I am preparing to teach, when I am reading what someone else has written, and when I am listening to someone else teach. I offer it to you for your consideration:    

My Plumb Line

1.    Jesus, not man, must be the heart and essence of the message.

2.    Salvation must be depicted as all God’s doing—period.

3.    Salvation must be depicted as God’s choice for man, not man’s decision for God.

4.    Faith in Jesus must be involved in salvation, but this faith must be depicted as God’s gift to the sinner, not something the sinner somehow gained on his own.

5.    The efficacy of the blood of Jesus must be in the blood itself, not in man’s choice.

6.    Sin must be depicted as being exceedingly sinful, and the sinner must be depicted as being totally depraved—helpless, hopeless, and with no inclination for Jesus whatsoever.

7.    Forgiveness must be depicted as being extremely costly, not to man, but to Jesus, i.e., we could never earn it or deserve it.

8.    Forgiveness must be depicted as being perfect and permanent.

9.    Redeemed man must be depicted as being as righteous as Jesus is righteous, not as a forgiven sinner.

10. The Law must be depicted as the power of sin, not our means to righteousness.

11. Redeemed man must be depicted as being free from sin—its power, its guilt, its condemnation, and its shame.

12. The Law must be depicted as the ministry of death, i.e., it must be depicted as that which brings death, not life.

13. The bread & wine of the Eucharist must be presented as signs of the body and blood of Jesus, signs that, when received by a believer, become in the believer what they signify.

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29 NASB).

The Government Will Rest on His Shoulders!

Yes, I enjoy writing but sometimes less is more and this is certainly one of those occasions. I do not think I need even to comment on the following passage of Scripture, other than to remind you that Isaiah came along, long before Jesus entered this earthly scene, and what an incredible word of encouragement he left for those of us who live today:

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6 NASB; emphasis mine).

Peace and grace,

Anger and Fear

Dear Fellow Travelers,

          I have a friend who lives in some faraway place, on the other side of the border, just beyond the jumping off place. He has one of those not-so-Southern accents, the kind that makes you listen twice as hard, if you want to understand what he is saying. Sometimes you do; sometimes you do not. Thankfully, he sent the following to me in printed form. I thought it worth your reading. No, my friend is not the author, but you can give him credit, if you like.

ANGER

What is not love is fear. Anger is one of fear’s most potent faces. And it does exactly what fear wants it to do: It keeps us from receiving love at exactly the moment when we need it most. Our greatest need, when fearful, is to be able to express how scared we are. Instead, of course, we are often tempted to express anger, meekly hoping that somehow, someone will read our minds and say “I know you’re only angry because you feel so scared. Come here and I’ll love you”. There are those rare moments when the other person is involved enough to do that; in the vast majority of cases, however, our anger will send others further and further away from us, increasing our pain and increasing our terror. What we give to others stays with us. That is true of both love and fear. Anger, then, is not to be denied but surrendered to God. Our prayer is to be shown an alternative way of conflict resolution. We want both to be in touch with our anger and to release our anger. What we do not want is to project our anger onto someone else in the false belief that we will then feel better. Such behavior offers only temporary relief. Before we express our anger to others, the attitude of empowerment is to express our anger as well as our pain to God. He can handle it. The line “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord” actually means just that. When the anger mounts, call on God. Tell Him First.

          You think about that—

         

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29 NASB).