screaming

Colossians 3:1-17 (NIV)…
1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices

10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I suppose I could go on about this some more; wouldn’t that be fun?! I keep waiting for this to get old but every time I sit down here I am urged to write more. Sometimes I question the urge and choose not to write. Other times I walk away convinced that my mind is not right at the moment and my mental position is possibly in question. Sometimes I just shake my head and wonder if it makes any difference at all.

Today was one of the times where I was urged and so chose to respond by acting. My inspiration at this moment comes from receiving an email with the verse of the day. I value that email and today was no different. Occasionally I read the verse and delete it. Other times I save it intentionally with the plan to use it in a blog post. Today however I was immediately struck with the desire to scream it out on paper in the form of my writing.

I know that Paul was battling Colosse, an ancient philosopher of his day, but Paul’s words are as important today as they were then. Verse 8 tells us what we are to get rid of, then verse 15 sums up how we are to live following our transformation in Christ.

If you want to scream with me I’ll understand.

Lately

In the last couple of months I have been asked about peace, almost as if I have some clearer understanding of it due to the fact that I write about it. Maybe that’s all it takes, just living it out, to become an expert. Regardless, I still get asked and when it comes up I am learning refined answers not because of who is asking but because I have written so much.

Condensing this thought seems fair, especially in light of the thousands of words that flowed from my computer that are in relation to this subject. Before condensing a topic like this however it is fair to say that doing so is not an easy task. My basis for this ongoing dissemination of peace has been nothing short of God breathed in my opinion. I have pulled from countless scriptures, books and quotes. Mostly I have culled the red letter of the Bible to find Jesus’ own thoughts on this very issue.

Answering the question of why I believe that peace is possible is easy; proceeding to tell someone that they too could live this way is a whole other problem. My faith has been tested here, it has been proved here and it has flourished here. My walk feels more like a walk finally, like maybe I have the ability to keep up. I know that God is still leading me and I know there may be times that God carries me, but my understanding of what and why I believe are having a profound impact on me. My outward expressions are growing and as they do, my very opinions about peace are becoming a part of my mainstream discussions.

Believing that peace is possible is not the first question. First you must ask yourself; how big is my God? If you don’t think peace is possible in your sphere of influence then you put limits on God in your life. If God is not big enough to bring peace in your own life, then you need to question your very faith in Him. That is a discussion for another time.

The results of conflict are seen every day, we do not have to look far to see their wide reaching results. The results of peace are also seen every day but they are not mentioned nor spoken of in the same way. Your actions as they pertain to your sphere of influence are the source for discussion all the time. Where there is conflict there is also gossip and talk relating to outcomes from conflict, regardless of the scale we are talking about here. Where there is peace there is room for discussion about so many other things. Where there is peace there is space for positive energy and progress. Nothing bad ever comes from peaceful times.

Today we need to start with bringing peace into our everyday lives, our daily commutes, our encounters with our neighbors and mostly our lives at home. At best you have 12 people (your sphere of influence) you see everyday on a daily basis that you can honestly say you know more than just their names. They might include a spouse, children, parents, coworkers and friends. Think about the 12 people in your life and really contemplate what you are doing right now to bring peace in your everyday life.

The law “every action has an equal and opposite reaction” is based on two things moving and being involved. This law is based on physics, gravity and inertia, but most commonly it is a law that is best witnessed by watching two people interact. When one person pushes, the other pushes back. In the same way, when two people are in conflict with each other, one person acts and the other person reacts in a similar but usually opposite manner. In order to seek peace, one must look closely at the first act committed and examine the why.

Take the time to think through your interactions with those in your sphere and discover if you are truly interested in peace or conflict. I truly believe that we all want peace but we just don’t know where to start. Start today by acting in a peaceful way towards everyone around you. You will know the difference you make in an instant. You will feel the difference even quicker.

My life is not mine, and yet it is mine to live for Him. Peace to you all.

D

capitalism and Jesus

Capitalism and commercialization are funny ideologues aren’t they? We want companies that are successful that we also like so we can continue to buy from them regardless of the service they provide. We support these places of business based on our ideals but largely based on need and the ability to afford whatever it is that the business has to offer.

So based on this and based on our clear understanding of what capitalism truly is (more on that later), why all the upheaval with naming anything “Christmas” related as “holiday” related? This has become a huge issue in the past few years and is reaching a point where businesses are going to go through some real financial hardships for making the decision to go one way or the other.

If you are a Christian bookstore there is no argument here as to what you call this time of year, but if you are a major name retailer and you are trying to appeal to all of humanity in an attempt to capitalize on all sales, you are probably going to use the newer and more politically correct term of “holiday” instead of Christmas.

Funny thing here, if you walk in to a large retailer who uses the term holiday instead of Christmas, you are likely to find something really scary; the same products that are over at the store that uses the term Christmas instead of holiday. If that came across as sarcastic then I achieved my point. When you pony up the millions it takes to buy one of these large retailers then you can decide what you call your sale.

Now if your favorite retailer does the unthinkable and advertises their “holiday sale” and then they start selling Ouija boards and how-to kits for prostitution, maybe it’s time to really boycott them. If you are shopping for those items you are probably not real worried about what they call their sale.

The other day I was bombarded with emails relating to Costco’s decision not to have the word Christmas in any of their advertising. Before I write this next section, I have to ask a basic question that deserves an honest answer from everyone so deeply offended by the so called lack of the word Christmas from businesses during this time of year; at what point did you gain the right to corner capitalism in regards to Christmas? Your being offended is either a sign of ignorance or a complete failure to understand what this season is really all about.

Regarding this email that I received, when I got it I was shocked by the amount of people who were claiming they were going to boycott Costco and just not shop there anymore…ooof. Such thoughts make my head spin but I stopped the rotations long enough to write one of these people back. This is what I had to say…

“I certainly agree with you in regards to the offensive and the sometimes derisive nature of retailers and their blatant disregard for a very traditional celebration that has been going on for over 2000 years. However, here is an ad that I received via email and I see that 2 of the 3 greeting cards listed below are Christmas specific cards....so much for nothing Christmas related in any of their advertising.”

“With that noted, I certainly would question Costco's motive behind their decision, but I would hardly condemn it nor boycott them until I knew for a fact why they chose to use the term holiday instead of Christmas. If you read Costco's mission statement, they are not a Christian based company but they obviously care about their employees and the communities in which they serve. They are a very philanthropic company and are well known for their charity. “

“Most importantly, Costco is a for profit company that is trying to appeal to a very large audience of customers. And while I certainly agree that they should honor the very traditional holiday that Christmas is (and advertise items as Christmas gifts and not as holiday gifts), we need to remember what Christmas is REALLY about and that no matter how hard you look, you won't find it at Costco.”

I really don’t want to carry on about this for too much longer; I simply want to make an important point. What so many egg shell skinned individuals seem to lose sight of is what is in their very hearts and not what is found on the shelves of their local bobble shop. When a very public institution makes decisions that further anaesthetize certain peoples deeply held beliefs, you have a recipe for disaster and so public institutions typically cave in to pressure for fear of lost revenues.

As of yesterday, Costco announced that they are putting the words Merry Christmas back into all of their stores and their subsequent adverts. I suppose we should say a great big thank you to Costco because maybe they started selling jumbo sized miracles there.

I know this will rattle some and for those I have to ask why. Why do we put so much stock in what someone else is doing to bolster our own private faith? Why does it mean so much for a store to say Merry Christmas on their cakes when we are more than capable of spreading the news on our own? Why can’t you stop trying to inflict your own personal will on the rest of the world and let God inflict His will on your life? Why do you fight Him?

I pray for the leadership of stores like Costco because I know the reason they changed their policy this winter and it wasn’t because someone suddenly developed a conscience. The sad truth is that we live in a capitalist society and the owners recognized a very large section of the population that they were not being properly sensitive to and recognized the need to change in order to capitalize on those profits for the next two weeks.

So go on and shop happily in your local Costco and buy that Merry Christmas cake. Please don’t forget to pick up your bulk size baby Jesus while you’re there though, I would hate to see Him go to waste.

________________________________________________________________________
my life is not mine, and yet it is mine to live for Him. Peace to you all.

D

acting

OK, so by now you know that I write a lot about conflict and war and peace and all that, right? Fairly clear assessment that it is, I just have to dig into this more. I am not convinced by my own writings at this point, only that something isn’t right, something is not quite fitting into this puzzle I call enlightenment. You can call it anything you like but at some point we all make realizations about one thing or another and this is one thing that I am constantly at battle with…no pun intended.

Conflict has been discussed, so has war. Peace has been hashed over and over so much I might need to come up with a new word. There are so many buzzwords these days that peace is almost passé. We can talk about greed versus human desire and then discuss semantics; wouldn’t that be fun!? There has to be a great way to make this point, some words that just sum it all up, if only there was a book I could refer to…

I know, let’s look at the Bible. Maybe if we are lucky we can discover some hidden nugget of understanding amongst all those pages… (I think my sarcasm is making a play for my diplomacy).

Dear brother James has this to say in chapter one (The Message), versus 19-27:

19-21Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
22-24Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
26-27Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

Normally I would dive in with my own thoughts but let’s examine this set of verses together. 19 says listen first, speak second. 20 says that no good thing that is meant for God’s kingdom comes from our being pissed off. 21 says to be humble and let God do the work in us. Let’s break it down again.

19-21 says listen first, speak second, don’t get angry, remain humble and let God take control. That my friends, is diplomacy 101.

22 says to listen to the word and not let the word leave you. 23 says to act on what you hear. 24 is a warning of what happens when we listen but do not act. Recap!!

22-24 says listen, act and repeat. Listen, act and repeat. Say it with me.

25 is all about hope. For some the time has come when you catch sight of how amazing God truly is and want nothing more than what He has to offer. 25 is all about affirmation in living for Christ and knowing that there is great joy in serving God. Review…

25 is faith in action.

26 is another warning, especially for those who talk the talk but fail to walk the walk. 27 is a reminder of what the word religious means. When we have faith, we become religious in our actions. The word religious simply means faithful repetition of action. When we have faith in something, we should be religious about our actions as a result of that faith. Your religion is what you are faithful about repeating, over and over and over. 27 gives us all a clear directive on what our repetitive actions should look like. Take care of the homeless AND the loveless and guard against corruption from the godless world.

For the last several years I have been trying to share my views with many people. I have grown discontented with the minimal feedback I have received, although what has come has been extremely beneficial, so thank you to all who have shared your thoughts with me. Conflict is my big thing right now and I need to come to terms with it by asking God to sum it all up one day, I know He’s big enough.

My rants and ramblings are derived from a soul that has been searching for specific truths for a very long time. My run in with Jesus has brought me most of the answers but there are still a few truths that need to be flushed out. Namely is the understanding of why so many Christians hold on so dearly to the idea of peace as Jesus prescribed while also making excuses for going to war. Honestly, I may never resolve that one until I come face to face with my creator and we get a chance to chat.

As far as I can tell, we are called to be peacemakers in a rough situation. We are called to resolve conflict and shelve our anger. We are called to love one another and not hate, let alone murder. We are called to be like Him who came before us and showed us the way. In fact He showed us the only way.

It seems there are a lot of people listening. How many of us are acting?
_______________________________________________________
My life is not mine, and yet it is mine to live for Him. Peace to you all.

D

What is central?

Look at the foundation of any structure; the greater the structure, the greater the base. If your job is your base and you lose your job, what happens to everything else? If your spouse is your foundation and your spouse dies, what then?

Look even more closely at your faith. Christians have a unique perspective on more than just the here and now. Those who are living for Him on a daily basis are aware of something much bigger than they could ever be. It is the hope of eternity which is completely undeserved by us and yet He gives it to us freely.

When we look carefully at the base of our lives we probably can point to a few different attributes. There are the common things like our careers or our education. Most of us will point to a healthy and strong upbringing by our parents. Some will consider their capital assets as their base. Others will point to a God of some sort and claim that their faith is their base. A few will very specifically point to Christ.

If we phrased this in the form of a question, it would sound like this; “what is the base in your life, or rather, what is the foundation that your life is built on?”

In addition to the above answers, others might also list specific people such as their pastor, their spouse, their siblings, a close friend or maybe even a grandparent. Whatever your base is, examine it closely and ask yourself one very important question; what happens to you if your base is gone?

Of all the possible answers that you might give, there is only one that does not change and never goes away. A life based on Christ is one that will never fail, just like the house built on the rocks. Every other thing listed above is like building a house on sand. Eventually the water is going to wash it all away and you will have nothing left.

As I sit here tonight I am struck by the thought of the foundation that many people I know have used to build their lives on. There are some very real struggles going on right now in homes all around me, people are frightened and anxious. I am reminded that there is a lot of sand here in the high desert, but there is more than I thought.

My faith is an ever changing, every day maturing facet to who I am. As I continue to be molded by Him into the vessel that he needs me to be for His kingdom, I am distancing myself from others around me. I am reminded of what Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 10:32-39 (The Message);

32-33"Stand up for me against world opinion and I'll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I'll cover for you? 34-37"Don't think I've come to make life cozy. I've come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don't deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don't deserve me. 38-39"If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me.

With that said I hope that my thoughts are not misconstrued to say that I am not interested in being around other people. Honestly I would like nothing more than to talk to anyone at anytime, regardless of their opinions or views. The part I can’t stand however is when a view or an opinion takes center stage in such a way as to assume that my views and opinions don’t matter. At that point the conversation is pretty much over for me.

Most people I come into contact with are more close minded than open. I want to be as open as possible, as transparent as clear glass. My troubles are at the surface and I am trying to lay them at His feet. The constant issue for me is simply control; I can’t seem to get enough of it. I wrestle with God way more than I should. I like having things I can count on at all times. But with people that is a hard concept.

There are very few absolutes in my life. I know I can count on God; His word gives me that assurance. I believe that as long as God is on His throne (which is eternal), that my life belongs to Him and no one else. I can count on His grace and I know that while I have done nothing to earn it, it is freely given. I believe that as long as my dog is alive he will always love me too. Other than that I count on very little more. I suppose that seems like a narrow view but think about it.

Regardless of your worldly view or theology, you cannot count on the sun coming up tomorrow, nor can you count on the ocean being blue. You cannot count on the love of a spouse forever (although you should be able to), but unfortunately people change while here in this fallen world. You cannot say that your child will love you in 30 years. You cannot count on your car, your bank account, your pastor, your best friend, your job, your mother. If this is offensive I apologize, but coming to grips with your priorities can be very eye opening.

With that disturbing news I should retrace a few steps and mention that I love my wife very much and hope and pray that we are married for 60+ years like my grandparents. I love the consistency that she represents in my life. I love that God is in her life and that her walk is an ever maturing one. I love that we are raising our children together in a Christ centered way. I love the way my wife cooks, I love how she takes care of me and the kids. My wife means more to me than almost anything else. Only one thing comes before my wife and that is Christ (although my wife is a really close second).

Somewhere along the highway of life we choose our base, we choose our foundation. For some it is science, for others it’s some mystical creature that cannot be explained. For me it is my love for Christ. At the very center of who I am there is only one, and that is Jesus. There can be no other way. As long as I build from that basis I have no worries regarding eternity.

The trip up is the road between here and there.

________________________________________________________________________
my life is not mine, and yet it is mine to live for Him. Peace to you all.D