The Fowler's Snare

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

     -Psalm 91:3

Since most of us don't hunt our own food, other than to stalk good prices at the grocery store, the image of the fowler is somewhat lost on us. I recently read a book in which the main character has to rely on his survival skills, without any of the conveniences or inventions of modern life. One source of food which he finds is a type of bird that rests on the ground, but is difficult to catch, so he has to hunt the bird in a certain way.

This particular bird would fly at the first approach of anything it saw as threatening. So the hunter learned to not look at the bird or move straight towards it. Instead, he would look to the side of the bird and inch toward it in a way that was not direct, as if his attention was elsewhere, until he was close enough to spear the unsuspecting bird.

Isn't that how our Enemy approaches us, and how sin sneaks up on us? When we are faced with obvious sin, we flee. Like that bird taking off as the fowler closes toward him, we get out of there fast!

But when little innocuous things, maybe seemingly innocent things, sneak up, we don't immediately see the threat if we are not focused on doing God's will and if we aren't regularly in His word. It may be  a pass-time that consumes time we should devote to God, a relationship with the wrong sort of close friend, anger or malice that we allow to fester instead of forgiving, or any other "small" brush with sin that we indulge instead of running from it. We may not even notice as this "minor" sin infects our life and interrupts our closeness with God. And this interruption of communion with Him often leads to being oblivious to even more dangerous sins. Pretty soon, we are caught, ensnared by the things that crept up on us by seeming so harmless.

The secret to avoiding such a snare is told later in the same Psalm. Verses 9 and 10 say "Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh they dwelling."

To have God's protection and deliverance on a daily basis, we need to make Him our habitation. We must be daily living with Him - conscious of His presence, obedient to his commandments, and seeking His will - in order to avoid the daily snares.

Hoarding Your Own Hurt

There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
     -Ecclesiastes 5:13 (KJV)

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles
viaFreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I was reading my Bible today, Ecclesiastes 5:13 really stood out to me. In fact, I read it in another version to make sure I had correctly understood its meaning. The NIV translates the phrase about riches as"wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners".

The behavior of hoarding has become a common problem in our society. We have TV shows that reveal the accumulated junk and living conditions of the most avid hoarders. Hoarding has its own special psychological disorder associated with it. The issue shows up more and more frequently in our news. A recent WFAA report stated that "doctors estimate up to five percent of the population hoards." (Inside a hoarding house: Dirty secret for thousands in North Texas)

The WFAA article points out that hoarding has less to do with cleanliness than with an underlying emotional cause. For Christians who find themselves hoarding it is, in addition, a spiritual issue...as many emotional issues are.

Why do people hoard? The word "hoard" may conjure up an image of a dragon sitting greedily atop his pile of gold. For most people, though, hoarding is not primarily an issue of greed. Primarily, hoarding in the modern western world boils down to one of two things:

Fear: "But what if I need that someday?" 

Yes, you should probably keep your holiday decorations because you know you are going to need them in a few months. Realistically, though, are you going to need the hundreds of pages of first grade schoolwork you've saved - now that your first grade angel is in high school? (Pick a few special ones, and discard the rest.) Or what about the supplies for a hobby you gave up a decade ago but "might get back to someday"? Or the clothes you wore 10 or 15 pounds ago that you're holding onto for "when I get back in shape"? (Again, pick a couple of special outfits, if you must keep something as a goal or to celebrate, and give the rest to someone who needs and can use them.)

Laziness: "But that pile of first grade papers/bucket of supplies/closet is so big and cluttered. It will take forever to clean that!"

The Bible speaks over and over about the dangers of fear and the benefits of diligence and hard work. So fear and laziness should never be motivations for our actions. By hoarding, we mostly hurt ourselves and those around us, since the hoarded "stuff" cuts down on our physical space in which to enjoy life and sucks away our time and energy maintaining it, cleaning it, and finding things lost in it.

The Quakers have a word for all that hoarded stuff: "cumber". As in, it encumbers you. How are we supposed to serve God effectively and run the race set before us if we are runners weighed down by all that extra cumber? And how can we effectively minister to a world that needs God to meet their spiritual needs while we may, in fact, be hoarding uselessly away the very items that might be a blessing to them and meet their physical needs?

Now, off to clean the closet...and the first grade paper box.



Pondering Christmas

But Mary kept all these thing, and pondered them in her heart. 
      - Luke 2:19                     

When was the last time you thought, with any particular concentration or for any length of time, about what God has done in your life? Since it's nearing Christmas, we can likely all say that we counted our blessings about a month ago - on Thanksgiving. (That is, if we weren't too busy eating turkey, watching football, or entertaining guests to pause for longer than a brief blessing before the meal.)

Too often, we accept a blessing, a particular teaching or revelation - or even a miracle - from God gratefully at the time. And then we forget about it. We all have experiences and treasures from God, things with we should store up and remember. For any of us who are believers, the fact of our salvation would itself be enough to ponder. The Bible says that even angels desire to understand the miracle of redemption. (I Peter 1:12) Yet, after we are saved, God continues to pour blessings on top of that first miracle of spiritual birth.

This Christmas, as we reflect on the birth of Christ, let us also reflect on the things God has done in each of our lives personally. Let us be like Mary, and keep these things in our hearts not simply with a fleeting, hurried thankfulness, but with a true reflection and pondering of how great our Father's love is to us, and how many blessings He uses to demonstrate it.

Fishing Lesson #2

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. - I Peter 3:15-16

While we're on the subject of fishing, and we've established that we actually have to go look for fish where the fish ARE, we ought to talk about bait. If you're fishing, you can't just toss a hook and a line out there and hope some fish likes the hook. No one likes a hook!

If all we have to offer the world is criticism, pointing fingers, and a list of rules (a list which most people are sure are impossible and also would take the fun out of life), then it's no wonder that no one is listening to us. The world offers plenty of criticism...and no grace. It's not hard to find someone to point out your flaws...but it is rare to find someone who will point out that you are loved. And everywhere people go there are different rules. Contrary to the way most of us behave, whether it's how we actually believe or not, legalism and rules are not the selling points of Christianity.

Peter tells us to set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts. Have we done that? If so, is He THE Lord, or just one of a few other lords in out hearts? The rest of the verse, about being prepared to answer for the hope that you have, is a logical extension of that. If Christ is Lord of your heart, then the next logical result is that you will have hope. You'll have hope because you know who the Lord is, not just Lord of your heart but of your future and ultimately of the entire universe, and you'll trust Him and know that there is something to hope for. And that hope will shine brightly so that other people can see it.

In a world as dark as ours, real hope - not just optimism - is very rare, and people who have real hope stand out. You can't have hope and be able to NOT stand out. People are looking for hope, and if you have it, then they are going to want it. That's the bait. People will see there's something different about you.

Peter says have a defense ready - because people are going to ask you about it. It says to "everyone who asks you"...not just "in case someone asks you". It's going to happen if you are living in hope because people will be curious what's up with you. Your behavior will not make sense to them. So why are more Christians not living lives that make people wonder? That goes back to the first of the verse. "Set apart Christ as Lord." If we don't do that...then we don't have anything worth wondering about.

Basic Fishing Lesson

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 
-Matthew 4:19














Jesus told His followers that they would be fishers of men. This promise wasn't something optional. If we follow Jesus, we will BE fishers of men. So, why are more Christians not going fishing? We all have our reasons for not being more active in our spiritual fishing excursions. Most likely, we're not intentionally neglecting our jobs as fishermen. We're just distracted or too busy or too shy or...something. But fishing is something we ought to be doing. It's not a nice addition to the Christian life. Fishing for men, finding the lost, and pointing them to Christ is our primary mission as Christians. Jesus' last command to his followers before he ascended was...go tell others and make disciples.

("Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, bapitizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Matthew 28:19-20 )

With that in mind, let's have some basic fishing lessons over the next few days.

Lesson #1 is very basic:
The fish are in the water.

Perhaps one reason that some of us don't catch any fish is because we're looking in the wrong place. I sat on the beach quite a lot about a week ago, and do you know how many fish I saw flop up onto the sand waiting to be scooped up? Absolutely none. I didn't even SEE any fish in the water, even though I knew they were there. By just sitting on the beach, I was essentially ensuring that I would encounter ZERO fish.

If all we do to reach the lost is to sit in church every Sunday and wait for them to come in the door looking for God or for truth or even just for help...we're in the wrong place. The church is important, and the teaching that goes on at church is important. But it's not the only thing that we need to be doing in order to point people towards God's kingdom. The average person who is not a believer already is unlikely to come to a church, even when they realize that they need SOMETHING and don't know what it is, or even when they encounter a problem and realize they need help. Many professing Christians don't think of God, or even of the church, as our first response when we encounter a problem...why do we assume that non-Christians will just stumble onto that wise course of action when we don't do so ourselves?

Maybe some of us need to start our fishing expedition by getting outside of our comfort zones, taking our faith beyond the walls of the church, and finding a place where there are actually some fish to catch.


                                                                    

Caricature Conundrum

Earlier this month, a group drawing attention to freedom of speech sponsored a contest in Garland, Texas where artists were challenged to draw pictures of Muhammed. The group knew that this would be sensational and would precipitate discussion among a diversity of people including Muslims offended by the artwork, proponents of religious and speech freedoms, reporters and entertainers. They couldn’t be sure, but might have reasonably expected, that it would also precipitate violence surrounding the event, which it did.

Were these people wrong to point out that we have freedom of speech and that one person’s beliefs should not dictate what another person can say? No. Were they doing anything illegal? No. Did they do something that deserved a violent response…or was the violent response justifiable? Absolutely not!

Should we, as Christians, participate in similar events? I’ve seen plenty of Christian friends post everything from sympathy for the organizers... to praises for the heroic law enforcement that stopped what could otherwise have been a tragedy...to jokes mocking the killings of the dead men who were intent on violence. So where should a Christian stand on these issues?

It is my personal belief that Christians have no business either participating in or praising events like these. Other Christians may disagree, and certainly the organizers of the competition disagreed. (I don’t know if they are Christians or not.) That’s their prerogative. Here is why I say that we, as Christians, should have no part in this sort of events or behavior.

As Americans, we certainly have the right to draw pictures of anything we wish, including Muhammed. We have the right to say anything we want, with the small exception of the speech can’t violate any laws (such as committing perjury or fraud would if we used our speech for that). 

However, just because we “have the right” does not make it “the right thing to do".  We have the right to do many things as Americans that simply are not right as Christians. For example, we have the right to get a divorce for any reason whatsoever. We have the right to cheat on our spouse. We have the right to never set foot in a church and never open our Bibles to read them.  We have the right to spread gossip. We have the right to drink to excess. We have the RIGHT to do many things…but just because they are rights does not make them right.

The Bible has a lot to say about rights. Jesus had all the rights of God, but he gave those up to become a man and come to earth to sacrifice Himself for us. If we are truly his followers, we don’t insist on our rights at the expense of others.

I Corinthians 8:9 says, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” This passage is specifically talking about those of us who are Christians and who are setting an example to younger Christians of how to live in Christ, that we are not so insistent on our “rights” that we confuse them. How much more can it apply to those who are not Christian and who are watching us?

I Corinthians 6:12 emphasizes that just because we have the right to do something does not make it beneficial. And in I Corinthians 9, Paul points out that he had the right to expect the church to support him as he taught among them, but that he worked for his living (as a tentmaker…not exactly a glamorous career) while he was there so that no one would look at his ministry and say that he was just in it for the money and to be taken care of by others. Paul voluntarily gave up support which was his right because in so doing, he was a better witness to other people.

Romans 12:18 says “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  Does intentionally offending people for the sole purpose of offending them sound like living at peace with everyone as far as it depends on you?

The last commandment that Jesus gave when he was on earth was to go and teach all nations and make disciples of them. Does figuratively poking a finger right in someone’s eye by doing something you know is going to offend them sound like a good way to start off a teaching conversation?

Ask yourself, before you participate in an event like this or praise the people who sponsor it: Will this event point the Muslim who hears about it to Jesus? Will it make their heart more open to the sowing of God’s word by the next Christian who has an opportunity to witness to them? Or will it just harden their heart further when they see such a petty way that we use our “rights”.

I’m not saying that we need to tiptoe around and never offend someone of another culture or speak out about another religion. I won’t hesitate to say that Islam is WRONG and that their extremists such as the two gunmen in Texas are murderers (or would have been if they were not stopped by law enforcement first). I’m not saying that papers should not run political cartoons, even ones with Muhammed drawn in caricature, as a part of their everyday course of business. What I’m saying is that going out of our way to be offensive to other people is not Christian, and to praise or even give attention to those who do so is not Christian. To make jokes about the death of two men who were created by God - but who no longer have an opportunity for any eternity other than separation from Him is not Christian. Though all those things are permissible to us as Americans and are even seen by some to be patriotic…that does not mean they are Christian.

We should not be mocking those who follow Islam. We should be weeping for them and for how deceived they are. We should be taking any opportunity we have to point them towards Christ and to the salvation He offers.  And we should be on our knees before God begging Him to bring Muslims to him. When, if we were doing that, would we have time to participate or endorse such foolishness as that cartoon contest?

Our rights end where our duty to share Christ with others begins. THAT’S the purpose to which we should turn our speech and all the freedoms we have surrounding it.

How's That Do-Over Working Out?

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 
-Psalm 51:10

Last week, the story hit the news about the tragic death of a teenage heart transplant recipient. Only a year after receiving his transplant, he died while he was fleeing from police in a stolen car. He had allegedly burglarized a house and fired a gun at the elderly homeowner before fleeing from the cops. My first thoughts when reading this was, “How awful! How could he do that? What a stupid thing to do!”

There were thousands of other people on the transplant list who could have benefited from that heart.
About a month after the transplant, the young man had himself said that the new heart would help him stay out of trouble. He rejoiced over what he called his "second chance".

While we can look at his case and comment on how foolish he is, we should take a look at ourselves. If we’re Christians, then we’ve got a new heart. We’ve got a new spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, living within us. We get to start over with a clean slate. We don’t just get a new heart…we get an entirely new life. We get to be born again. It’s the ultimate do-over!

But how are we using that do-over. Are we just “doing over” the same old things we've always done? Are we stuck in the same habits, slaves to the same addictions? Are we still running on the hamster-wheel of sin and its consequences?

Consider today that if your DO-OVER looks a lot like the life you’re supposed to be DONE WITH, then some serious change needs to take place. Don’t fall back into the same old life.

Just like that teen, you have a new heart, a second chance that many people never experience. Don’t waste it!