Shine

Matthew 5:16 in the NLT reads like this:

"Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your Father in Heaven."

I love the way that Jesus uses descriptive language to communicate what it means to be doing the stuff that God delights in.  A city in a hill is a vivid example. It can be seen at night for hundreds of miles away!

Its like Jesus is saying "Hold them high, lift them up, Let them shine out for everyone to see. 

And the why of it? So that God gets all the glory for every hungry mouth fed, every naked body covered, every person visited in prison, every act of justice, kindness and mercy done in Jesus Name.  

I visited a church planting couple in an inner-city multicultural setting. There is a family in their church who are not yet born again. When asked what keeps them coming that responded, "We feel loved by everyone here." His church loves and cares for people and lets love fly and shine.

 I am so thankful for my friends who model Jesus love every day! You rock...BIG.

Happy in this skin...

How often do humans search for an identity that is not there own? Wall street marketers are in constant study finding out who buys what and why...and how do they  get them to buy more!  Advertisements work hard at  influencing  the public into thinking that if they  just use this toothpaste,  all your relationship problems are over. Or this deodorant (AXE or somthing) and you are an instant success with the opposite sex. (Hey that stuff smells like what is used to take paint off a railing!)

After 29 years of marriage to Judy  (red hair) there is no more need to pose for effect, we just love and accept the wonderful way we age in grace!

The recent political scene had an interesting development that  was funny. When Sarah Palin made her debut thousands of soccer moms across America (and other parts of the world) had to have her look and shades! And me with NO stock in the eyeglass company! Dang it!  So what is the story. We look for an identity or fashion or "look" that makes us happy in our skin, for a while.

I recently met a great Elvis impersonator. He is more like Elvis than  Elvis but he really isn't Elvis! He just has the Elvis identity. What if there was Elvis for a day, globally? (There goes that tangentral mind again) 

Could it be that God has made us to be unique and not like everybody else?  How do individual's crafted by the Master Designer of life find out what is the true them..or the true you? How do we discover the real person inside us made to press the warm earth with our feet and raise our eyes to drink in the brilliance of sunkissed  clouds draped over misty mountains. 

Is this wisdom only in the old heads of the sages or can young hearts thrill to the self-discovery of their true purpose in life. (I have spent many years looking for Ron and at last I am finding where  this tangentral brain dances and why!) 

I think something very special happened in the creation of people. Jeremiah gives a clue when he says " I knew you before I formed you in your mothers womb..."

 The Hebrew word for "formed" is "yatsar" meaning to form of fashion. Literally fashioned in Gods heart and hands, individually. Just like a master craftsman makes a work of art, we are fashioned, specially, individually, purposefully as one of Gods masterpieces.  So if anyone says to you, "Your are a real piece of work!" be happy and say thank you!

So back to happy  in this skin. If we are fashioned so specially then there is a certain something that I can contribute to this  collective called humanity; in the Name of  the One who made it all. This skin feels really good!

 

Calling James Dobson bad names

I have a friend who sent a comment to my Facebook saying "I think James Dobson is a tool"  Being a kind of old _art I really needed to know just what a tool is!

 I didn't think it was good and my friend confirmed that it was not complementary at all.  

I like my  careless friend and I understand his disdain for right wing politics and  political postures that can alienate anyone who doesn't see issues with the tolerance that some liberals are asking for. 

I confess that a lot of right wing stuff needs a love tune up!   But calling James Dobson a tool? This isn't good and here is why. I am old enough  to remember the Presidents counsel on pornography and the thankless months that Dr. Dobson spent testifying before congress trying to show the Government the degrading effects  that this stuff has on a nation. His family was threatened, his picture was inserted in crude images, in short he paid the price for serving.

I am also thinking of the thousands of families that have been healed (some I have refered to FOF personally) by the ministry of Focus on the Family. Counselors are arranged, intervention takes place, children are helped, gays are given compassionate help out of a destructive and lonely lifestyle and the list goes on and on. 

Then  there are the "next to free"  Pastors encouragment seminars that they sponsor for the weary people in ministry. Judy and I have been on the recieving end of these at times and we thank God for the refreshment from the press of peoples demands on us. 

In short, FOF isn't perfect (is anyone?) but the ministry is ready willing and able to serve anyone who calls. (If you don't believe me call them) And their rescources are free to anyone in need.

Check it out, think of the hundreds of thousands of children alive today just because Focus on the Family's ministry pro-actively saves children from abortion. (See smiling faces above)

So calling a man like James Dobson a "tool" is foolish and unloving  at the least. If I have 1/1000th  of the impact on my community that James Dobson  has had on his,  I will go home a happy man. You have my thanks James! 

And friend, do your homework before you judge a good man or woman  you disagree with. 

Finding new life one conversation at a time.

It is truly amazing what one conversation can yield in strengthened relationships, new insights and deeper understanding of people.

Jesus was teaching one day when the religious "powers that be"  brought to Him a woman caught in a moral trap, adultery. It was a test of Jesus moral DNA and it was designed to trap Him in His dealings with her.

 The stage was set, or set up, to convict Jesus of something that would give the Pharisees the right to centure him or worse.

Then he did that thing he was so famous for...he revealed the true heart of the Father in a few words...a simple conversation...a lesson in self-examination.

"Let Him who is without sin among you cast the first stone." He said.

He stooped to the ground, and  wrote,  perhaps dates, times, places or  secrets that only God could know. And one by one the Pharisees left, the oldest first.

Mercy, indeed, triumphs over judgement. 

How many of the Pharisees that day left that circle of judgment with a corrected heart?

 How rich is the discovery of Gods grace to a broken tearstained woman's face,  who needed love more that rocks thrown to break  her bones in punishment.

How redeeming is Jesus statement to her, "Go and sin no more."  

This was  one conversation that could start a whole new life for a troubled soul.

 Isn't that just like God?

Hi friends, 

Looking forward to the coming year, there is a flood of ideas spinning in my brain,  that are future looking. The first is the initiative  of informing   a new president of the values that I am hoping will prevail for our nation. 

The new president  won on a platform of CHANGE! What does change really mean. There are some things I don't want to change.  One of those things  is the security of my country against a very hostile enemy.

 After eight trips to the middle east and countless conversations with Muslims, Jews and Christians, I have learned that most of them  want to live in peace but are frustrated with the radical fringe of extremists that will stop at nothing to wipe out all freedom from free thinking people. Their motto (The radicals)   is "First the Saturday people (jews) and then the Sunday people (christians)"  They, (the radical fringe) mean  the elimination of these two groups.

 I want my president to stand vigilant against the compromise of the safety of this nation. Can he do that? Will he defend our  blood-bought freedom and honor the heritage of our Founding Fathers,  who fled tyranny to birth a new Nation? 

 I am concerned for my children and grandchildren who call America home. I am concerned for the nations of the world who look to America for guidance in troubled  times.

 I am longing from my new president,  substance,  rather than the political rhetoric that is all to common in the winning of an election. Yes,  I long for change; change that strengthens our grip against injustice at home and abroad  and preserves the nation that champions the worlds ability to speak and life free. Change?