Cool....

Cool….. I have a new appreciation for it.

I have often thought about what it might have been like to have lived in The Garden.

Tending it would have been pleasant, before the ground was cursed, “…through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground…”(Gen. 3:18,19)

Life in The Garden was perfect in the beginning. Everything was provided and readily available…..everything except the fruit of that one tree, the one that brought knowledge of good AND evil. It was the only thing off limits.

It was a great life in The Garden, in the company of Creator God Himself. And it was cool…when He came to visit, it was cool.

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” (Genesis 3:8)

Cool of the day….humm. I haven’t felt that in quite some time !! Or cool of the night for that matter !

God has repeatedly provided protection from the heat of the sun.

He provided a shade vine for Jonah, even though Jonah had disobeyed. “…the LORD God sent a vine and made it grow up over Jonah. It gave him more shade for his head. It made him more comfortable. Jonah was very happy he had the vine.” (Jonah 4:6)

He provided protection from the sun beating down on a tribe of people traveling in a desert. “God spread a cloud to keep them cool through the day” (Ps. 105:39)

I have a house with air conditioning that keeps me about 20 degrees cooler than the temperature outside. I have plenty of water, enough even to water some of the flowers and plants I enjoy. He provided me a shade in a giant sweet gum tree in my back yard…

Even though I too disobey Him at times..…

I will to walk with Him in the cool of the day.

I will to walk with Him in the heat of the mid-day sun.

I purpose in my heart to walk with Him, right behind Him, in His steps.

Even and especially when it is not easy and not popular.

Cool or not…

Shade....

Shade… I have a new and deeper appreciation for it….

Never in my lifetime do I remember such intense heat. Maybe it’s been this hot and dry before….maybe I’m just old and soft now.

I have always loved sitting in the deep shade of the sweet gum tree in my back yard. I prune the limbs each year so that the limbs make an umbrella around where my swing and chairs sit. We have bird feeders and squirrel feeders, a bird bath…invitations to share our shade.

When the hot sun beats down with intense heat, we look for something to put between it and us. We look for something to make a shadow for us to stand in, away from the direct sun light.

When life beats down with it’s own intensity, we again look for relief and escape.
Where do you go?

“…….LORD, you are my God. I will honor you. I will praise your name. You have been perfectly faithful. You have done wonderful things. …..You have been a place to hide when storms came. You have been a shade from the heat of the sun….” (Isa. 25:1,4)

“I look up to the hills. Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD. He is the Maker of heaven and earth.
He won't let my foot slip. He who watches over me won't get tired.
In fact, he who watches over me won't get tired or go to sleep.
The LORD watches over me. The LORD is like a shade tree at my right hand.
The sun won't harm me during the day. The moon won't harm me during the night.
The LORD will keep me from every kind of harm. He will watch over my life.
The LORD will watch over my life no matter where I go, both now and forever.”1 (Ps. 121:2-8 personalized by me )

Think you’ve been left out? Is the heat on? Can you not find the comfort of shade from the intense circumstances of your life?

Maybe this phrase I left out of verse one is the key….….“ A song for those who go up to worship the LORD.”

Do you only want the shade? Or do you enjoy and value the Maker of it?

Do you seek His Face? Or only the blessing of His Hand?

“God is serious business, take him seriously; He's put the earth in place and it's not moving. So let heaven rejoice, let earth be jubilant, and pass the word among the nations, "GOD reigns!"(1Ch. 16:30,31 The Message)

“For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods.
(1 Ch. 16:25NIV)

Love....

Love…Is it a feeling? Is it an emotion? Can it be achieved? Or is it super-natural zap from a little red cupid arrow?

What does it mean to love?

I read a line in a fictional story about a real person, Bathsheba. Speaking of the husband her father had chosen for her, ‘…I will show him the respect and obedience he deserves. But love cannot be commanded.” (Rivers, Francine (2009-01-10). A Lineage of Grace (p. 316). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition. )

Love can not be commanded? Hummm….tell that to Jesus.


"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (John 13:34)

The problem arises from our definition of the word. What do you consider love to BE?

Does it accompany physical attraction?

Jesus was NOT loved because of his physical attractiveness, regardless of how many pictures of a good looking man you see…..scripture is plain, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. (Isa. 53:2)

I fear that in our culture, we misuse and overuse the word love. We say it quickly. We use it easily. And we forget we even say it….and something so easily forgotten can not be love.

Disappointed....

Disappointed… You can’t be disappointed if you don’t have expectations.

I don’t know how you do that. How do you NOT have some sort of expectation?

I find that while trying to keep an opened mind, while not setting unrealistic expectations…I just end up having LOW expectations.

I suppose it’s better to be pleasantly surprised by having low expectations blown away…than it is to be sadly disappointed when high expectations are unmet.

I realize that I recently set some very low expectations.

I expected what I have experienced in the past. I expected that ‘same ole’ same ole’…..
What a pleasant surprise to have those expectations unmet !
What a joy to find that some ‘same ole’ things’ are not.

The apostle Paul had the dilemma as well. “I do admit that I have fears that when I come you'll disappoint me and I'll disappoint you, and in frustration with each other everything will fall to pieces-…(2Cor. 12:20 The Message)

I had a face-to-face meeting with a friend I‘d never met. I do admit that I had fears that when I came, I would disappoint him, and he would disappoint me…and that the friendship would fall to pieces….

I was tempted to opt out of the meeting.

I am so thankful that I did not.
I am so thankful that God’s people are one, regardless of the sign-out-front.
I am so thankful that my un-met friend now has skin on.

I am even thankful that God has shown me my sin in acting out of my own experience and passing judgment on others based solely on those experiences.

Giving...

Giving… I have a problem with it sometimes. The hardest thing is not deciding IF…..it is deciding what to give and who to give to.

I don’t consider myself stingy. I do struggle with my flesh and selfishness, yet I don’t think I am completely selfish. I know there is fault within me, and I pray “God, see what is in my heart. Know what is there. Put me to the test. Know what I'm thinking. See if there's anything in my life you don't like. Help me live in the way that is always right. (Ps. 139:24 NIrV)

Having spent quite some time this morning listening to some challenging messages about who Christians are and how they impact the culture they live in, I drove down a nearby street and was twice approached while at a stop light by people asking for money.

The accusing voice came. “so….are you going to give? You have a cross around your neck, may I remind you that Jesus said “Give to every man who asks you.” (Yes, He did say that, in John 6:30 and Rev. 12:10 speaks of the accuser.)

It is a dilemma.

I am thankful for the whole of scripture, and thankful for the teaching of Paul…

“For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.” (2Thes. 3:10)

There ARE people who need help.

Yet somehow, if a person can stand on a concrete sidewalk, beside lanes of hot asphalt with hundreds of cars going by, in the heat of a scorching Texas day,

…could they not be doing something besides asking for handouts? Seems to me like they are working awfully hard just to NOT work.

Face-to-face.....

Face-to-face…. I anticipate a face-to-face encounter.

In this age of technology, there are many people I call ‘friend’ with whom I have never had a face-to-face meeting. It is a concept I’ve wrestled with over and over. Do I ‘know’ these people? On the other hand, do I even ‘know’ the people I see and touch?

How do we come to ‘know’?
Do we need to ‘see’? Is seeing with our eyes the only way to ‘see’?

( If seeing with eyes is required, then blind people would ‘know’ absolutely no one! )

So….knowing someone has little to do with sight., perhaps even time and space. Relationships come in many ways, shapes, and forms.

As I anticipate this face-to-face meeting with a friend, I think about meeting Jesus face-to-face.

I ‘know’ Jesus. He is my Savior, and my very best friend. But I have never shook His Hand, never looked into His eyes. I ‘know’ Him thru the Words of scripture, and through the power of His Spirit. Our relationship is spiritual. It is genuine. It is real. And it’s the most treasured relationship I have…..

After this coming encounter with a friend, I will know him better. Our relationship will have a new facet….face to face.

How I anticipate a face-to-Face meeting with my Best Friend !! One day I will meet Him face-to-Face. One day, our relationship will be changed by a face-to-Face encounter. A physical encounter to enhance the spiritual relationship that exists now.


“ Now I see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then I shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” ( 1 Cor. 13:12 NIV personalized by me )

“ Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2 NIV)

Whether you know Him or not….you WILL meet Him face-to-Face. And you will bow…“all created beings in heaven and on earth--even those long ago dead and buried--will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father. (Phillipians 2:10 The Message )

Glory !!

Inoculation....

Inoculation…. The idea is to get just a little bit of it, enough to make you have a few symptoms, but not have the real thing…

I was inoculated for small pox when I was a child. I remember the needle, and I remember having a giant scab on my arm.
I was inoculated for flu a few years ago. I also remember that needle, and I remember that it made me feel so bad I decided not to do that again. Why be sick on purpose? (That may be unwise. The real flu can be deadly.)

What have you been inoculated for?

Have you been inoculated against sin? Or, have you been inoculated against the gospel of Christ?

It’s not an original thought. It is a concept I heard from an evangelist. I was a little taken back, but the point is very valid. Many people have been inoculated against the gospel of Christ by ‘religion’. They have had a small dose, enough to give them a few symptoms, but they don’t have the real thing.

Are you ‘going to church’ and getting a tiny little dose? Only to leave the building unchanged? "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." (2 Peter 2:22)

Maybe you leave the building having swept away a little of the dirt in your life. Did you decide to stop some behavior that is sinful? But you have nothing in its place? Do you operate on your own willpower? Jesus warned….

"When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn't find anyone, it says, 'I'll go back to my old haunt.' On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse than if he'd never gotten cleaned up in the first place." (Luke 11:24-26 The Message)

Operating on your own willpower, however strong it is, will fail. Eventually. Permanently. If you don’t have His Presence within you, you have no inoculation against sin. And sin WILL kill you. Eternally.

Praise God, I am inoculated…. against sin! But I had a dose of religion for many years, and it kept me from having the full blown relationship with Christ that I enjoy today.

Jesus, The Christ, came so I can be healed from the rampant disease of sin, the disease that kills.

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” ( Luke 9:24)

Thank You Jesus, I didn’t just get a few symptoms and live thru it.

I was sick, and died….in order to live!

And live eternally….in the Presence of Almighty God.