I’ve never been a big fan of wrestling, maybe because I just don’t get it. Two people engaged in a struggle to overpower the other and get them to a point of immobility or submission. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good fight and seeing two guys engaged in conflict is quite entertaining, but wrestling is different. In fighting there is a clear outcome and you see the evidence of the fight, but in wrestling it’s not so obvious. After a wrestling match, if you didn’t see the match, you may not be able to determine the victor over the defeated.
Honestly there are times in my life when I feel the same way. I often wrestle over issues or causes or convictions that I’m not sure what winning or loosing looks like. I often see some type of injustice in the world or in my life and when I don’t I have a sense of exactly what to do, I feel like I’m wrestling myself. There are times when I think know what I should do, but I fail to do something about it and it feels like I’m loosing. Then there are times when I don’t know what to do and it causes me to react and I get a sense that I’m winning. What I am beginning to realize is that it’s time to stop wrestling and start fighting.
Is it time to pick a fight in your life with something besides yourself? When was the last time you stood up for injustice by refusing to buy something? Or spook up for someone who couldn’t by writing a letter? Or run in a cause just because you could? Or supported an organization that’s helping people put there lives back together? I don’t care what you fight for just stop wrestling over what to do and just pick a cause and fight for it.
God fought for us so that we could fight for His causes. He calls us into conflict with the world, not ourselves.
Jude 1:3 - I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.
Vander's Thoughts
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Trash
Thursday is trash day. Every Wednesday night we have to take our garbage and refuse that we have collected throughout the week and bring it to the curb, so that I t can be picked up and trucked to a far away place where we no longer have to deal with it any more. But we always have trash.
We are always creating trash. Open something new and you instantly have trash. Something gets old and it turns into trash. You can even turn something perfectly fine into trash when you drop it or forget that it’s on the roof of your car (another story).
Trash is a burden. No one likes trash day. No one likes taking out the trash. No one likes the smell of trash. I bet the Trashman doesn’t even like trash!
It’s interesting that when someone makes a mess of their physical body, we say they’re “Trashed”. And the same is true when we make a mess of our lives, we “Trash” it.
God didn’t make trash when he made us and He never intended us to become trash, but we sure do create a lot of trash with our lives in terms of outcomes. There are trashed relationships, trashed marriages, trashed brain cells, trashed lives all because we didn’t take out the trash in our lives in the first place. Unless we let God work in our lives and help us deal with the trash, all we will do is trash our lives and make a bigger mess.
When God works in our lives look at what the bible says will happen…
“(He) will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned.” Matthew 3:11 (The Message)
I know it’s not fun, but in life everyday is trash day. Deal with it.
We are always creating trash. Open something new and you instantly have trash. Something gets old and it turns into trash. You can even turn something perfectly fine into trash when you drop it or forget that it’s on the roof of your car (another story).
Trash is a burden. No one likes trash day. No one likes taking out the trash. No one likes the smell of trash. I bet the Trashman doesn’t even like trash!
It’s interesting that when someone makes a mess of their physical body, we say they’re “Trashed”. And the same is true when we make a mess of our lives, we “Trash” it.
God didn’t make trash when he made us and He never intended us to become trash, but we sure do create a lot of trash with our lives in terms of outcomes. There are trashed relationships, trashed marriages, trashed brain cells, trashed lives all because we didn’t take out the trash in our lives in the first place. Unless we let God work in our lives and help us deal with the trash, all we will do is trash our lives and make a bigger mess.
When God works in our lives look at what the bible says will happen…
“(He) will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned.” Matthew 3:11 (The Message)
I know it’s not fun, but in life everyday is trash day. Deal with it.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Floaters
This past week we took a little adventure and went floating down a local river. I can honestly say I have a new favorite way to relax. There is nothing like letting the current of a river pull you along at an undetermined course and once in awhile surprise you with a rapid.
Floating is a cool thing but it is also one of those words we often associate with laziness or having no direction in life. Which makes me realize that there really are two ways to look at floating, I can go floating and do nothing or I can go floating and do something. I know it sounds contradictory, but let me explain.
Floating in a river i have the benefit of being pulled in the direction that the river determines. The river is flowing in one direction and I can know where I am headed even though I don’t necessarily know will happen on my way. It is my responsibility to pay attention to the current and what is happening around me so I don’t get into a bad situation. If I don’t position myself correctly on the river I might flip my tube or worse pop it.
It is the same reality in life when trusting God’s plan for our lives. God has a plan for our lives that carries us along like a river. The more I trust His overall plan for my life I can navigate the ripples of life and adjust my course in an enjoyable manner. If I were to ignore the sovereignty of God over my life I can get caught in unsuspecting torrents and not know what to do thus flipping my world upside down. I can float trusting God and use the instincts and wisdom to guide me or I can float aimlessly in life and see what happens and then blame him when I don't like the outcome.
The bible speaks of two types of floaters in this world, the one who trusts and rests in God and the other who ignores and fights Him. I like the first type of floater because the way I see it, I can both rest and live in Him. I think I'll continue to float like this because it just seems much more enjoyable this way.
Floating is a cool thing but it is also one of those words we often associate with laziness or having no direction in life. Which makes me realize that there really are two ways to look at floating, I can go floating and do nothing or I can go floating and do something. I know it sounds contradictory, but let me explain.
Floating in a river i have the benefit of being pulled in the direction that the river determines. The river is flowing in one direction and I can know where I am headed even though I don’t necessarily know will happen on my way. It is my responsibility to pay attention to the current and what is happening around me so I don’t get into a bad situation. If I don’t position myself correctly on the river I might flip my tube or worse pop it.
It is the same reality in life when trusting God’s plan for our lives. God has a plan for our lives that carries us along like a river. The more I trust His overall plan for my life I can navigate the ripples of life and adjust my course in an enjoyable manner. If I were to ignore the sovereignty of God over my life I can get caught in unsuspecting torrents and not know what to do thus flipping my world upside down. I can float trusting God and use the instincts and wisdom to guide me or I can float aimlessly in life and see what happens and then blame him when I don't like the outcome.
The bible speaks of two types of floaters in this world, the one who trusts and rests in God and the other who ignores and fights Him. I like the first type of floater because the way I see it, I can both rest and live in Him. I think I'll continue to float like this because it just seems much more enjoyable this way.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
24
We measure life in 24 hour increments. No matter how many times we attempt to step back and look at the big picture of our life, every morning the alarm clock tells us it’s time to check back into the reality of the moment and face the day. And at the end of each day we get about 6-8 hours of sleep to prepare for the next one. Before we know it a year has passed and we wonder, "Did 8760 hours really just happen?"
The pursuit of a better life isn’t about the changes we make as much as the changes that happen when we allow God to change us. All of us are going to be tomorrow what we are becoming today and God wants to usher those changes in our lives right now.
I think Micah was right on when he wrote to God’s people about how to live without regret right now.
“But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don't take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.” – Micah 6:8 (The Message)
It’s not that complicated but we have to start now before another 24 hours passes us by. Are you ready to take God seriously?
The pursuit of a better life isn’t about the changes we make as much as the changes that happen when we allow God to change us. All of us are going to be tomorrow what we are becoming today and God wants to usher those changes in our lives right now.
I think Micah was right on when he wrote to God’s people about how to live without regret right now.
“But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don't take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.” – Micah 6:8 (The Message)
It’s not that complicated but we have to start now before another 24 hours passes us by. Are you ready to take God seriously?
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Change
I was speaking to a good friend today and I realized something that seemed so simple yet hit me as profound wisdom. I hope you can relate.
We were talking about our unwillingness to change and how when it comes to our idiosyncrasies many people will say, “That’s just they way I am.” And I get it, I’m as off center as the next guy when it comes to my routines and quirks. I also understand that we can resist change because we have grown use to ourselves, but from a spiritual standpoint, change is not an option.
God wants us all to change. Christ died so that you and I would change. To say, “That’s just the way I am” is to reject God’s transformation within each and every one of us. We may not like to do something or face personal change, but that was the old person, not the new man created to be like Christ. The true expression is to say, “That’s who I was”.
But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. – Ephesians 4:20-24
We can’t accept who we are becoming until we reject who we were.
We were talking about our unwillingness to change and how when it comes to our idiosyncrasies many people will say, “That’s just they way I am.” And I get it, I’m as off center as the next guy when it comes to my routines and quirks. I also understand that we can resist change because we have grown use to ourselves, but from a spiritual standpoint, change is not an option.
God wants us all to change. Christ died so that you and I would change. To say, “That’s just the way I am” is to reject God’s transformation within each and every one of us. We may not like to do something or face personal change, but that was the old person, not the new man created to be like Christ. The true expression is to say, “That’s who I was”.
But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. – Ephesians 4:20-24
We can’t accept who we are becoming until we reject who we were.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Paint
I finally got around to start painting some of the walls in our new home. I’ve come to realize that I enjoy painting, but could never do it for a living. No matter how motivated I am when I start, I get to a point when I’m finished even before I am finished. I can only tape and cut and roll and brush for so long before I start to feel trapped in painter’s purgatory.
In spite of this I like to paint because painting is an easy way to make a house feel more like a home. We paint to cover up what was. We paint to hide what has been. We paint because for $18 a gallon we can make our homes feel a little newer, no matter how old they are.
However, there is a big difference between painting to make something seem newer and painting to cover-up a flaw. If you try and paint over a crack in the wall or peeling paint, no matter how much paint you use the flaw underneath will still show through. To truly make it new, you would have to fix the crack or scrap the old paint off and then paint.
The problem is that we often try and do this very thing in life. There are areas of our lives that are flawed and imperfect and rather then deal with the true issue we try and cover it up. We cover it up with our pretend smiles when we really are feeling depressed, or when we make up excuses every time we let someone one down. Worse yet we often act like there is nothing wrong in a relationship when in truth we know we’ve caused someone pain by our words. And the saddest thing is that we really believe no one can see who we really are underneath, but the truth is it always shows through. Always.
Every one of us has flaws. We need to accept this fact and rather then try and pretend they are not there, deal with them so that we can change and stop trying to cover them up.
I resonate with this verse in Colossians because it deals with this. God calls us to live authentically before Him and before others. When we do we experience the transformation and therefore the renewal He wants for us, not the cover-up we are so good at.
“Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your new Creator and become like him.” Colossians 3:9-10
It’s almost as if this verse is saying that we are all like walls full of cracks and flaws, but when we stop trying to cover it all up and hand God the paint and brush, he truly starts to make us new. New with His character. New with His life. Renewal that only comes from Him.
God’s not finished with me and you just like I’m not finished with the painting in my house. Three rooms down and only ten more to go
In spite of this I like to paint because painting is an easy way to make a house feel more like a home. We paint to cover up what was. We paint to hide what has been. We paint because for $18 a gallon we can make our homes feel a little newer, no matter how old they are.
However, there is a big difference between painting to make something seem newer and painting to cover-up a flaw. If you try and paint over a crack in the wall or peeling paint, no matter how much paint you use the flaw underneath will still show through. To truly make it new, you would have to fix the crack or scrap the old paint off and then paint.
The problem is that we often try and do this very thing in life. There are areas of our lives that are flawed and imperfect and rather then deal with the true issue we try and cover it up. We cover it up with our pretend smiles when we really are feeling depressed, or when we make up excuses every time we let someone one down. Worse yet we often act like there is nothing wrong in a relationship when in truth we know we’ve caused someone pain by our words. And the saddest thing is that we really believe no one can see who we really are underneath, but the truth is it always shows through. Always.
Every one of us has flaws. We need to accept this fact and rather then try and pretend they are not there, deal with them so that we can change and stop trying to cover them up.
I resonate with this verse in Colossians because it deals with this. God calls us to live authentically before Him and before others. When we do we experience the transformation and therefore the renewal He wants for us, not the cover-up we are so good at.
“Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your new Creator and become like him.” Colossians 3:9-10
It’s almost as if this verse is saying that we are all like walls full of cracks and flaws, but when we stop trying to cover it all up and hand God the paint and brush, he truly starts to make us new. New with His character. New with His life. Renewal that only comes from Him.
God’s not finished with me and you just like I’m not finished with the painting in my house. Three rooms down and only ten more to go
Monday, February 28, 2011
Stained
Maybe you have or maybe you haven’t run into the blogs that are ripping on Rob Bell for potential discovery that he is a Universalist from his upcoming book, Love Wins: Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Now I really don’t know what Bell believes about the reality of Hell, frankly because I haven’t asked him personally and the book doesn’t come out until March 29. I guess we will all just have to wait until then to see or if you’re lucky enough to have his cell number, give him a call and ask him.
The buzz about Bell’s new book seems to be centered on the description that a loving God doesn’t send people to Hell. And the truth is, why would a loving God want to send people to Hell? In fact why would anyone want to send someone to Hell? Oh wait, there are some people out there aren’t there that are pretty content saying that they are okay with some people going to Hell, but isn’t that what Bell is addressing in his book? Why is it that we have come to think that God is okay with the whole Hell thing? Yes He did create it, but why?
Now I’m not quite ready or have the room to deal with the problem of evil here in my blog, but what I do know is God is good and we live in a world that once was good, but it went bad. And because of Christ there are some really good things happening in our world today, but the world is not the way it should be. I believe God has done something and is doing something about the state of the world that you and I live in.
Imagine if you just bought a new expensive shirt and the first time that you wear it you spill hot sauce all over the front of it staining it (never happens to me). At that moment you would have two choices: throw it away or wash it out. Hopefully you are on the side that decided to wash it out. It only makes sense since you bought it to enjoy it for a long time. Now to remove the stain you would soak the shirt, then add a cleansing agent and finally work out the stain until it was perfectly clean again. But what would you do with the dirty water? You would throw it out right? Exactly.
God created this world perfectly good, nothing wrong with it at all. And then it got stained by sin. God in His perfect wisdom decided not to destroy the world, but to start a cleansing process that took care of the stain of sin. We are currently in the midst of that cleansing process and the stain is still affecting this world. Eventually the stain will be completely removed from this world and when that happens the stain has to go somewhere. That’s why there is Hell, to contain the stain of sin and keep it from affecting God’s perfect creation anymore. God’s grace allows us to remove the stain of sin from our lives and be made right with Him. He would never force this on us it is our choice to receive this grace and be made right.
So you see Bell is right at least in his statement that God doesn’t send people to Hell, people decide where they want to spend eternity; either in the perfect environment of our Creator or in the cesspool with the rest of the stain.
I’m not into stains and don’t want others to be stained either. How about you?
The buzz about Bell’s new book seems to be centered on the description that a loving God doesn’t send people to Hell. And the truth is, why would a loving God want to send people to Hell? In fact why would anyone want to send someone to Hell? Oh wait, there are some people out there aren’t there that are pretty content saying that they are okay with some people going to Hell, but isn’t that what Bell is addressing in his book? Why is it that we have come to think that God is okay with the whole Hell thing? Yes He did create it, but why?
Now I’m not quite ready or have the room to deal with the problem of evil here in my blog, but what I do know is God is good and we live in a world that once was good, but it went bad. And because of Christ there are some really good things happening in our world today, but the world is not the way it should be. I believe God has done something and is doing something about the state of the world that you and I live in.
Imagine if you just bought a new expensive shirt and the first time that you wear it you spill hot sauce all over the front of it staining it (never happens to me). At that moment you would have two choices: throw it away or wash it out. Hopefully you are on the side that decided to wash it out. It only makes sense since you bought it to enjoy it for a long time. Now to remove the stain you would soak the shirt, then add a cleansing agent and finally work out the stain until it was perfectly clean again. But what would you do with the dirty water? You would throw it out right? Exactly.
God created this world perfectly good, nothing wrong with it at all. And then it got stained by sin. God in His perfect wisdom decided not to destroy the world, but to start a cleansing process that took care of the stain of sin. We are currently in the midst of that cleansing process and the stain is still affecting this world. Eventually the stain will be completely removed from this world and when that happens the stain has to go somewhere. That’s why there is Hell, to contain the stain of sin and keep it from affecting God’s perfect creation anymore. God’s grace allows us to remove the stain of sin from our lives and be made right with Him. He would never force this on us it is our choice to receive this grace and be made right.
So you see Bell is right at least in his statement that God doesn’t send people to Hell, people decide where they want to spend eternity; either in the perfect environment of our Creator or in the cesspool with the rest of the stain.
I’m not into stains and don’t want others to be stained either. How about you?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)