My coffee cups!

     I have several coffee cups that are my favorites.  They each have their own history and message.  They all hold coffee and keep the heat well.  My criteria for coffee cups is how my large hand fits them.  I need to have two fingers inside the handle.  Anything less and I get rid of the cup.  Going to coffee with friends becomes problematic when the restaurant has cups with small handles.  I've been known to bring my own from time to time when I know what kind of cups the restaurant uses.  When I am shopping thrift stores I am always looking for cups that are unique and just right.  Some have messages on them and others are plain.  All hold coffee and keep it warm.  You can sense from the thickness and weight of the coffee cup whether it's well made and can do the job.  Not all heavy cups do the job though.  It's important to be wise when amassing coffee cups.  Travel mugs fall into an whole separate category which won't be addressed today.
     My favorite cup is one my daughter Sara gave me a few years back.  She lives in the Bay area of California.  She took a couple of pictures of me with her and had them put on the cup (color).  The cup can almost fit 3 fingers!  It's both broad and tall so it holds a couple of cups of coffee.  When I use this cup I email her and tell her "I'm having coffee with Sara this morning."  I also have a "Life is Good" mug.  It has that saying on the front of the cup (if you are right handed) and a picture of a stick picture of a smiling man sitting on a beach chair.  On the back of the mug are these words:  "Do what you like and like what you do."  This cup probably holds the coffee heat the best of any of my mugs.  It's a great mug to use on less than nice weather days.  I also have a large glass mug that has engraved the letter "S" in old English fashion.  The glass tends to dispense the heat of the coffee cup quicker than I like.  This cup doubles as a great tea cup.  It has an elegance that doesn't really fit me or who I am.  However, I like the cup because it fits me.  I also like the "S". 
     So, what do these coffee cups have to do with my Christianity?  For beginners, they each have their own story.  They are individual in nature and all fit me.  They have remained constant companions for many years.  Memories spill out of them every time they are used.  They have sat beside my Bible while I'm doing devotions and patiently waited for me to finish before being refilled.  They are reminders of some constants in my life like Jesus.  They don't have any preset agenda other than being available when I want or need them.  They are a source of strength to me unlike paper cups we use at church.  Finally, they are symbolic of the necessity of the elements of Christianity that hold fast and are a testament to the world.  They deliver decaf just as easily as they do caffeinated coffee (or tea) being all things to people.  Jesus can be brought into every area of our lives. Perhaps you will not look at coffee cups the same way. 

Just what was I thinking?

     Whenever I think, I get into trouble.  Ever find yourself in those "no win" situations?  For me, thinking is a large part of the cause of problems and situations where we find ourselves one down or maybe even out for the count.  We are an intelligent species who prides themselves on our ability to be top of everything.  However, when it comes to thinking we are at the bottom of the food chain.  You see, it all began a long time ago in an obscure garden with two people, one snake and a tree with fruit.  The snake provoked Eve to "think" and in so doing caused her to make a choice opposite of what she knew to be right.  In her case thinking took her outside of the realm of blessed and she, of course, passed it onto Adam.  Adam was still enthralled with a "woman" :) and hadn't been thinking until approached with the forbidden.  He too began to think and his fall was as great as Eve's.  So, what was there before thinking?  God had created everything including Adam and Eve and presented to them everything they could ever need.  What did he ask for in return?  He asked to be obeyed.  Quite simple until we begin to think. 
     ALL of their needs were taken care of for all time.  God overlooked nothing.  That's the way he is though.  God always takes into account everything and of necessity offers only the best of what we need.  Satan, on the other hand, has nothing to offer that even comes close.  So, Satan offers what he feels we should want, what we are entitled to, what we feel less than if we don't have.  God is good and cannot contain anything bad.  Satan is bad and cannot contain anything good.  God says "I will take care of all of your needs.  I will never leave nor forsake you."  He means it too!  Satan says, "What about me?  What about what you want that you don't have?"  He means it too.  Ultimately this comes down to your choice.  Are you content and feel blessed with ALL of your needs being met even before you ask for them?  Or are you feeling cheated and need this, that or more of everything?  Again, it's your call.  Eve said, "Okay Satan, I'll eat of the fruit."  Adam said, "Okay Eve, I'll eat of the fruit."  Their lives and ours were forever changed from one of contentment with all our needs being met to lives where we are never satisfied with what we already have.
     What would happen if you and I really believed that God takes care of all of our needs?  What if we never found ourselves in a position where we had any need of asking for anything?  What if our days were filled with thanking God for all the blessing he has heaped upon us?  What if we focused only on the love of God towards us?  Would your life be different?  Mine would.  I try to make the leap from time to time with partial success.  It's difficult getting past the programming we have inside of us.  DNA dictates we continually have this temptation from Adam and Eve to be the god of our own world.  If you don't think so try going through one (1) day without asking for any of your needs to be met.  Use that day to be thankful for all that you have been blessed with instead.  We fail to honor God and what he has done for us.  This includes our cheapening the grace of God through Jesus' death and resurrection.  When we try to manage our world we are telling God to butt out!  Not exactly a thank you for all he has done. 
     Here is the key.  We must stop thinking.  God has already taken care of that for us.  No subject that comes up in our lives is unaddressed by Scripture.  Dwell on the Word.  Continually sing God's praise and thank Him for all he has done.  You won't have time to think.  You won't have time to fail as Satan desires.  You are more than conquers through Christ who lives within you.  Live like it.  Stop thinking. 

Has the world gone crazy recently?

     While I would like to say that humans live in a civilized society, events around the world seem to say the opposite.  I understand struggle and desire to be better.  I don't understand those who would take that away.  The world needs answers but only adds questions upon questions that go unaddressed.  Just what should be the Christian response?  That's a great question.  Especially when we have any number of individuals and groups trying to shut down Christianity at every turn.  The times seem to dictate a change in the wind.  Destruction and desecration are more the rule than the exception.  Trust has further eroded and faith has taken major hits from which it's doubtful that mankind will recover regardless of how resilient we are.  The Bible says that our world condition must become worse than it was in the days of Noah before the end and the return of Christ.  One need to only read that account to understand that we are not there yet. 
     Individuals, groups, and even nations are demanding that the Christian and their beliefs go away.  That those who claim Jesus as Lord are to be quiet, roll over and play dead.  Prejudice, racism, bias, and the like are blamed on the Christian resulting in federal courts ordering Christians to do what is against their beliefs and the Word of God.  Yet, the time isn't here and is still a long way off before Christs return.  What is the Christian to do?  Our own nation has risen up against that which is right (Christian or not) and abandoned the concept that our nation was founded on Christian principles.  The very tenor of the populous has been changing slowly and seems to now be accelerating toward destruction.  This much like the frog placed in a pan of water that is slowly heated until the frog is cooked rather than escapes.  There is no hope for the world according to the Bible.  There is hope for the believer according to the Bible.  The difference comes within the interpretation of what the Bible says.  The Bible is clear that all Christians have to stand firm to the message of the Gospel.  The book of Revelation is clear that at the end of days the Lord will conquer evil and the Christian will be rewarded for their stand for Christ.
     Tolerance has become a weapon of the world against the Christian belief system.  The equation is that if we don't abandon our faith we are not tolerating others.  How does this work.  In a society focused on appeasing who yells the loudest versus those who are quiet bastions of the faith it's not hard to see who wins.  Whole groups of people mobilized by their hate of the Christian faith are continually battering those who stand for that same faith.  Eventually something has to give.  If you and I give up our being a new creation in Christ, we have done nothing to stand for Christ or the message of salvation.  Yet, standing for the faith can lead to many levels of punishment up to and including death.  The "crazy" world is basically asking Christianity to go away and for those with faith to give it up or die.  Believe it or not this is all prophecy from the Bible before the time of Christ and even after his coming to earth in order for mankind to be saved.  The bigger question is: "How solid is your faith?"  Would you be willing to die for Jesus?  Would you stand firm in your faith if they killed someone you loved when you didn't recant that faith? 
     If you think the world is crazy now; just wait until tomorrow.  It's got to get worse before it will get better.

"I have the right!" "No you don't!"

     What if we lived in a world where we were respected, listened to and imitated because we lived as God wants us to live?  "That would be great!" you might say.  "Wow! What a concept!" might come out of your mouth.  Truth be told, this won't and can't happen even though it's supposed to happen.  Especially within a Christian community.  Individual or not, we are challenged to present Christ to those around us in HIS manner and not ours.  The Bible is very clear that we who say we live for Christ and have given our lives to him have given up our rights.  For, as Paul says, "it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me."  Many in the Christian faith (term used loosely) simply do not believe or embody this though.  There is a paradox set up when we give our lives to Christ.  The paradox is we know that God's calling is for all of our life and not just sections we can stand to live without.  I know that this is as old as creation itself.  Evidenced by Adam and Eve all the way through the last chapter of the book of Revelation this truth has showed one of the reasons Christians have ineffective lives.  If we are to claim something then we need to embody that claim.  What if Jesus went all the way to the cross but then said, "Just kidding.  You are on your own!"  Where would we be left except fallen and without hope. 
     I was once approached by another therapist who asked me what I would say to a premarital counseling situation where the couple wanted input about a prenuptial agreement.  I told him I would not be a part of it.  He asked why.  I told him that a prenuptial agreement wasn't Biblical and was only a sign that neither party really expected their relationship to succeed.  Further, it destroyed the concept (Biblical) that the two shall become one.  We speed up at yellow lights so that we don't have to stop for the red.  We omit the details and call it truth when it's deception plain and simple.  Our tendency to "hedge our bets" are nothing but selfish choices intended to take care of  "me" first and foremost.  When we do any of these things we become the god of our world.  Don't think so?  Try this on.  When the choice is made to terminate a pregnancy, who makes that choice?  I haven't ever read a Scripture that supports abortion.  When as a people we pass laws enabling men and women to seek the help of a physician to end their lives due to whatever justification; God is eliminated from the equation.  Our world is upside down and backward.  Whenever we don't get our way (playing god) we cry foul and demand our rights.  As a Christian this ought not to be. 
     In a sermon I once told the people of the congregation that I could go to the church parking lot and point out those who were intending on sinning.  They chuckled and laughed a bit nervously as I continued.  Those who had radar detectors would be those who planned on breaking the law.  They were "hedging their bet" in order to get away with speeding.  We do this, don't we.  We have any number of gymnastic moves we have incorporated into our lives where we have claimed we "have the right."  All the while God is saying, "No, you don't."  Since it's the tax season I will share another area of pure selfishness on the Christian part.  Many give to church AND keep track (sometimes the church does this for them) of how much they give so that they can turn around and claim the "donation" on their taxes.  If we give to God then it's his.  Since we insist on using the tax deduction, we are then taking the money back for our purpose.  We haven't really given it to God in the first place and believe we have earned that money when all along God has blessed us with EVERYTHING we have or can conceive of having.  If we give something away it is no longer ours to reclaim.  If I give my life to Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me. 
     The real question Christians should be asking is: "Lord, show me those areas where I have not handed my life over to you."  When he shows us our response should be only one choice.  We should surrender that area to Christ with the heart that believes what Christ has for us is way better than what we can wrangle on our own.  Yes, in the world you have the "right".  However, Christ calls us to be in he world but not of he world.  We are to take Him into all the world so that the world can see Him and believe in Him, and come to salvation in Him.  No, I don't have the right.  Neither do you.

Expectations

     When I look at my life I am almost overwhelmed by the expectations that are involved in practically every sector of my life.  Expectations of myself, others, professionals, God, and the list goes on and on.  To balance this there are also sectors of my life where there are no expectations.  These came about by various means but usually relate to disappointments, failures, losses and other negative experiences.  Without the positive and negative "expectations" life would be mundane and without hope of more.  My expectations have brought trouble to life for myself and others.  Not intentionally in every case; but nonetheless the trouble surfaced interfering with more aspects of my life than I want to consider.  My expectations have also brought positive change and success in various areas of my life.  Should we not look at expectations we will most likely not appreciate the toil of God and others bringing "better" to our lives.  Expectations are the juice that keeps us hopeful and focused on the goals we have.  Whenever we have expectations of others that focus tends to change over time.  Some people rise to the occasions while others never see the occasions to rise to in the first place.  Despite the years and lessons learned I still tend to have expectations where I haven't learned to either tone them down or abandon them entirely.  It's the way I am wired.  I expect a lot from me and subsequently a lot from others.  Call yourself a Christian and the expectation scale moves even higher. 
     My high school senior class voted me "Most likely to fail."  Not exactly flattering.  I didn't wake up one day and say to myself, "I think I will be a failure."  I know no one who does this.  It's not that we aren't aware we will fail somewhere in our day or life.  We will fail.  I just don't like others telling me that I am "Most likely to fail."  They don't have the right to speak that into my life.  Ever.  Yet, we see the school bully, the outcast group, those with questionable scruples and the irreverent fulfilling other peoples expectations of failure all the time.  This phenomenon did not begin with me and certainly won't end with me.   I might add that I have failed in many different areas of life.  My failures do not define who I am though.  I could also add that I have succeeded more than I have failed.  Which do you think my senior class wants to believe?  How have they succeeded in their lives?  Did they live up to personal and corporate expectations?  I don't know where many of them are nor what they have done or are doing.  I don't care to as I have no expectation they could possibly add anything positive in my life.  As long as I keep my expectations low of others I won't be hurt or disappointed when they think and act that way.  That is also directed back to me. 
     God has placed expectations on me to be the man of God he intended me to be.  This was from before I was formed in my mother's womb.  The knowledge of who we are find firm footing in He who formed me and put all my days before me.  Yet, I kick against those expectations.  The Word says he has good planned for me and that he will never leave nor forsake him.  So why do I bring about my destruction even though I know this?  Was it because of how I was taught?  Did it have anything to do with those who hurt me?  Was I a victim of someone more insecure than I?  Yes to all of those.  Here is the key.  Don't miss this point.  I am not perfect and neither are you.  I am not perfect and neither are you.  The Bible says that we cannot live a sinless life.  So, understand that even though I try to do this I will inevitably fail to meet the "perfect" standard.  This is not an excuse to try.  It's a reality needed to understand why we absolutely need the grace of God in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  He took away all the expectations of mankind and replaced them with the acceptance of God just as I am.  He expects me to be who he created me to be.  Nothing more and nothing less.  If God accepts me "just as I am", why can't you?  If God accepts you "just as you are", why can't I? 

Proverbs 25:25 says, "News from a far country is like water to a thirsty soul."

     A month ago on 2/16 I was going about my chores when I suffered a heart attack.  I called 911 and was taken to a great hospital where they evaluated me and recommended surgery to bypass 2 blocked arteries.  On 2/23 I had that surgery and obviously am back to writing.  God has been very gracious to me in my healing and continues to bless me.  To say I was scared when I called 911 is the greatest understatement I have ever made!  I was terrified!  My first thoughts were about all those I loved who are involved in my life as I am in their life as well.  My children, spouse, relatives, friends and my church to name a few.  I even had a couple of my enemies inquire and make well wishing overtures.  The news from a far country is not just a one way journey.  I depend upon those with whom I am connected and they are dependent upon me.  So, we communicate.  Now, in this era, we text, email, write and sometimes even talk!  By the time I had been in the hospital for 2 days there were thousands of people praying for me all over the United States and even overseas!  I was and am overwhelmed!  Thank you for being part of my healing from a far country.  My soul was thirsty and you gave me drink in the form of prayers and thoughts.  God bless you.
     Often we go through a crisis and tell ourselves we are going to change this or modify that.  We may even pledge to God to be more and better for Him.  Words are easy to speak but often lacking in conviction and determination.  That's where we find ourselves all too often when we are going through things.  Kind of like saying, "If you can get me to a gas station I won't speed again."  Bargaining doesn't work because we still believe that we can be god of at least part of our world.  The heart attack was a real wake up call.  Except for the grace of God, I wouldn't be here writing this.  Instead you would have come to my funeral and that would have been that.  God isn't done with me and has a plan for me.  He has my attention fully!  The far country has come near.  In that emergency room God caught my heart's attention (no pun intended).  The news was that I was not, will not and cannot be the god of my world.  Ever.  I did not go to the far country (heaven) that day or any day since.  One day I will but for now God has spared my life.  Like Paul, I do long to go home to be with Jesus and am not afraid of my journey to the other side.  Yet, like Paul, I know that God wants me to be able to give the far country to others who do not have an assurance of life after death.
     The "far country" began in Genesis and ends in Revelation.  We interpret the "far country" with the knowledge and wisdom given to us from God.  The news from the far country is that Jesus is the Christ.  It is he, who though God, came to live among us.  It was he who was brought to death on the cross so that we could be free from death.  Rising from the dead Jesus unlocked the doors to heaven to all who would believe.  He's coming again to take us who love him home to be with him.  This is the news from the far country.  This is the news that brings water to the thirsty soul.  There is so much water that we are asked to give water to those around us.  Why?  Because they too need news from the far country.  We are not just talking about how my aunt loves to hear about my garden or my sister about my latest guffaw.  These are from the far country as well.  However, the news from the far country is in Jesus.  Nothing more or nothing less.  Jesus.

Guess what?

     On February 16 I had a heart attack followed by open heart surgery last Monday.  Needless to say I am recovering. I am taking a break from the blog while I actually do recover.  I appreciate your thoughts and prayers. 
     Thanks,
     Steve