Energion Direct

Category: Christian Living

  • William P. Tuck: Defining Our Neighbor in Today's World

    William P. Tuck: Defining Our Neighbor in Today's World

    by Dr. William Powell Tuck, friarsfragment.com, retired pastor, professor and author of The Forgotten Beatitude: Worshiping Through Stewardship, A Positive Word for Christian Lamenting: Funeral Homilies, The Church Under the Cross, and more!
    Jesus told his followers to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. (Mark 12: 28-34). Who is your neighbor? Jesus defined neighbor in his parable about the good Samaritan. Can you imagine Jesus telling a Pharisee, who even thought fellow Jews were unclean, that a Samaritan was his neighbor? Who did Jesus make a hero? A half-breed Samaritan! No, the Pharisees and other Jews would not have been too thrilled with that hero. In fact, when Jesus asked the Pharisee which of the three he thought had been neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves, he would not even say “Samaritan.” He replied simply: “The one who showed him kindness” (Luke 10:37). This parable focuses on those who talk a lot about religion but in time of need only walked by. The priest and the Levite walked by on the other side of the road and left the man in his pain after he had been robbed. The good Samaritan saw the need of his neighbor and came to his aid.

    Who then is a neighbor? My neighbor is anybody who needs help. A real neighbor reaches out with spontaneous love and extravagant graciousness to help someone in need. There is a need, and we reach out to meet it. Can we turn our back on the refuges in the world or shut our borders to them and still claim we are following the teachings of Jesus?

    The original meaning of our English word neighbor comes from an Anglo-Saxon word which meant “nigh boor” the person who lived “nigh”–near you. The person nigh you might live in the next hollow, on the hill nearby, in the valley below you–anyone nearby. But Jesus doesn’t want us to see our neighbor simply as somebody who happens to live next door, or on the next hill, or over in the next hollow, or in the valley, or on the next mountain peak. Any person who has a need is your neighbor and mine. Persons fleeing persecution around the world are indeed our neighbors.

    The test of real love is not in talk but in action. Love is not limited to feelings but is most visibly realized in service. The real neighbor in the parable of the good Samaritan was the one who reached out and ministered to another person in need. It is one thing to talk about love and another thing to practice it. Who is your neighbor? Any person who has any kind of need at all is your neighbor and mine. When you and I listen to the television news or read the paper and learn about hurting persons around the world, these persons are neighbors too. If we shut our eyes to the immediate needs at hand or around the world, we refuse to be neighbors as God wants us to be. Wherever there is hurt, pain, sorrow, hunger, prejudice, or disease, there is an opportunity to be a neighbor.

    But the tough question then arises: How can I really be a neighbor to others, even if I know there is a need? How can we love our neighbor as we do ourselves? That seems a tall command. Let me make several suggestions on how we can love our neighbor. First, to love my neighbor does not mean that I have to like him or her. If you and I are honest, there are a lot of folks who are hard to like! When we see some of the ugly things they do or say, they are not easy to like. But Jesus didn’t say that we had to like our neighbors, but we were to love them. This might sound like we are playing with words, but, I believe, there is a real difference.

    Now let’s be honest! We all do a whole lot of things from time to time that we don’t like about ourselves, but we keep on loving ourselves. And that is the same way we need to act toward our neighbors. The reason we can do this is because the love which Jesus is talking about here is not an emotion. This love is not based on goose bumps or our feelings. Agape is love that directs the will to actions. Agape is an effort of the will. This is the kind of love that Jesus is calling us to have here. You may not like what somebody does, but you can love them and try to overcome the bad behavior and respond to a higher way.

    Secondly, we can love another person as our neighbor if we treat him or her like we want to be treated ourselves. This teaching is summarized in the golden rule where Jesus taught: “Do unto others as you would have them do even also unto you.” If you and I would act toward other people as we want them to act toward us, then we could love them. This attitude means that you will not do anything to belittle another person, hurt them, or harass them. Your goal is to help them. You act kindly toward them because you know that is the kind of response you would like in return from them. When you and I treat other people as we want them to treat us, it gives us a different perspective toward them. If we see another person merely as someone we can manipulate, abuse, hurt, or criticize, then we do not see them as we want to be seen ourselves. We know that is not the way we act toward ourselves or want others to respond to us. We want to act toward them as we would want them to act toward us.

    Thirdly, you can love your neighbor when you recognize that you cannot be indifferent to another person’s needs since you are not indifferent to your own. You cannot ignore needs in your own self. If you never responded to any of your own needs, you could not really exist. You have to meet those needs in your own life, whether they be food, water, sleep, or friendship. Our awareness of our own needs should make us more sensitive to our neighbor’s needs. This awareness should keep us from shutting our eyes and folding our hands and ignoring our neighbor. He or she is a person who wants love and care.

    Fourthly, we can love our neighbors if we recognize that they are persons of worth and are loved by God, just as we ourselves have sensed that we are persons of worth and we too are loved by God. Even at times when we may feel the most unworthy and unacceptable to God, the good news is that God still loves us. Jesus expressed this in the way he reached out to persons in every walk of life. Tax collectors were among those who were often rejected by their fellow Jews in the time of Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus reached out to Zacchaeus and called Matthew to be one of his disciples. Mary Magdalene, who was most likely a prostitute, was also forgiven of her sins by Jesus. Jesus called his disciples from every walk of life to follow him. He communicated to all of them that they were persons of worth and were loved by him. He reached out to the hurting people of humanity–the blind, the lame, and the deaf. He reached out to people who were rejected and told them that God loved them.

    Jesus didn’t say that this commandment was going to be easy. Loving God with your total being is certainly not easy. Loving your neighbor as yourself is likewise not easy. But think of the radical difference there would be in our world if we could really love God with all our personality and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In the early church what often made the real difference in how society responded to the first Christians was not their theology but their love for each other. Others observing the early Christians would often remark: “Behold, how they loved one another.” Do they say that today? How can the world see that kind of love in the constant fights in our denominations, the quarrels in our churches, and especially in how we treat our needy neighbors around the world in their time of need. I for one want to welcome the stranger, the refugee, and the immigrant as my neighbor. “Behold how they loved one another” needs to be a refrain in the life of the church once again.

    We cannot build real communities on hate. They must be built on love. Helmut Thielicke has suggested that we need to turn the lawyer’s question around. We do not need to ask, “Who is my neighbor,” as the Pharisee asked. Our question should be, “To whom am I a neighbor?”i Needs are all around us in our world today. Jesus has told us that the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves is like the one about loving God. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus has instructed us. Let us as Christians get up and be about our Lord’s business as we confront the needs near us and around the world.

    i Helmut Thielicke, The Waiting Father (New York: Harper & Row, 1959), p. 168.

     
     
     
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2745′]

  • Chris Eyres: Thanks for the trust …

    by Chris Eyres, an Energion Publications editor and former English solicitor.
     
    I’ve just listened to an interview with Walter Brueggemann on the topic of money, and as a result have his book on the subject on my wish list. I wrote a fair amount about property a little while ago (this is a link to the earlier post in that series), and it is very good to hear Brueggemann endorsing my view that possessions and money are not to be regarded, if you wish to follow the Biblical witness, as being “yours”; I like the concept of “holding on trust” which he talks of.
    Of course, I anticipate the argument that we can’t actually run a society based on these Biblical principles. G.K. Chesterton wrote “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried”, and I am very tempted to agree. As I’ve written before, there seems evidence in Acts 2-5 that the very early church was trying to take a view of economics which was essentially communitarian (particularly Acts 4:32), but the experiment does not seem to have persisted all that long, and the injunction in Leviticus to hold a regular “year of Jubilee” when all debts were cancelled and all land returned to its original owners does not seem to have been followed for very long, if at all – certainly there is no trace of it in the historical record; I ask myself whether the Pauline efforts to support the Jerusalem Church were in fact famine relief, or whether trying to follow Jesus’ and the Hebrew Scriptures’ injunctions regarding property might have had significant negative effect, in which case there would be some justification in saying that Chesterton was wrong in saying the ideal had not been tried.
    (Read more …)

  • Henry E. Neufeld: Thanks for the Beer

    by Henry E. Neufeld, publisher, teacher, and author of Stories of the Way, When People Speak for God, Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic, What’s in a Version? and more!
     
    Sam (short for Samson, not Samuel), picked up the stein of beer he had just paid for, gave it an initial taste to savor the taste, and then followed with a gulp. He enjoyed his beer in the evening after a hard day of work.
    He took a quick look around the bar, searching for faces he knew. He wasn’t much of a talker, but he loved to sit with friends and just be there.
    Today, however, he saw a man he didn’t know sitting alone at one of the high tables, an empty stein in front of him. The only conclusion one could come to—and as usual, Sam came to it quickly—was that the man was wearing high quality clothes, but had been wearing the same ones for at least a couple of days. He was alone at the table, and he looked alone, absolutely alone.
    Sam walked over to the table. “Hi. I’m Sam. Can I buy you a refill?” he asked.
    The man looked back blankly, like he didn’t understand the question. Sam just stood there. He figured the man would figure it out in his own time.
    After what seemed like a couple of minutes, the man nodded and kind of pushed the stein over. It didn’t look very polite, but Sam didn’t care. Without knowing why, he sensed that was about all the man could do.
    He went to the bar, got the man’s drink refilled, paid, and went back to the table. As he sat down, he remembered what his pastor had said in church the past Sunday. He’d talked about being a witness, introducing people to Jesus. “Witness” didn’t make much sense to Sam. He understood introducing people to Jesus, but he could never figure out how you did it. If Jesus was one of his normal friends, he’d take him to one of his friends and say, “Hey Bob, meet Jesus.” Then he’d just sit there quietly and people would talk. He just couldn’t quite get to those intellectual things people kept saying about Jesus.
    (Read more …)
     
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2364′]

  • Thomas W. Hudgins: The First “Servant Song” in Isaiah

    by Dr. Thomas W. Hudgins, professor, author and translator of Dr. David Alan Black’s book, Aprenda a Leer el Griego del Nuevo Testamento.
    Isaiah 42:1-9
    You might never have heard the expression “Servant Songs” before. But I’m sure you have heard of Isaiah the prophet and the book in the Old Testament that was written by him. And I’m also sure that you have read Isaiah 53 before. You know, that’s the place in the Old Testament with verses like “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). This is no doubt the portion of Isaiah that Peter is pointing his audience to when he writes that Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the cross . . . for by his wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). But one thing you might not know is there are four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah, and the one we are most familiar with is actually the fourth—and longest. What are the “Servant Songs,” where are they, and what do they tell us about the identity of the Messiah? That’s our focus here, though we’re only going to focus on the first one.
    There are four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah: (1) 42:1–9 (though some restrict it to vv. 1–4), (2) 49:1–6, (3) 50:4–9, and (4) 52:13–53:12. Each refers to an individual by the expression “my Servant.” These passages are unique in Isaiah, who uses the word “servant” elsewhere in reference to Israel, in that they discuss specific activities that are attributed to the Messiah. John Oswalt writes this:
    “In all the other occurrences of ‘servant’ in chapters 40–48 a fearful servant, clearly identified as the nation, is assured of God’s continuing love and care . . . . No function other than ‘witness’ is mentioned. But in these ‘Servant Song’ references, while there are assurances of help, the emphasis is on the Servant’s activities for the world” (The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40–66, NICOT [Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998], 109).
    Calling them “songs” comes from form critical studies in the previous century. Were they actually songs? –No, at least they weren’t originally intended to be sung like the psalms per se. With that said, though, scholars began referring to them as songs because they saw in them parallels with Ancient Near Eastern liturgy. Has someone ever put these words to music? Sure. But I’m not inclined to think they were written after any Ancient Near Eastern pattern. These are the words given to Isaiah for him to proclaim to the generation who has stiffened their necks to their Master and become more disobedient than Israel’s livestock to their masters. In any event, the name “Servant Songs” stuck and it’s the default way people refer to these four discourse units in Isaiah.
    The first Servant Song is found in Isaiah 42:1–9. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of this passage. There’s lots here, so we can’t park and take the tour. Verse 1b reads, “I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” Notice that Isaiah uses the word “nations,” not Israel. That’s very, very, very interesting. I’m a Gentile. And unless you are Jewish, you are too. And I sure love seeing how the Gentiles were on God’s radar from the very beginning, even after he formed a special covenant relationship with Israel. The Gentiles play a huge role in Isaiah’s prophecy. One of the most familiar verses is found in Isaiah 9: “But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times he treated the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them” (vv. 1–2). And just a little further into Isaiah we find, “Then in that day, the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and his resting place will be glory” (Isaiah 11:10). The Gentiles are on God’s mind and of significant importance in his redemptive plan. Jesus spent time with Gentiles. Remember the woman at the well in John 4; John made a point to say Jesus absolutely had to travel through Samaria. Why? There was one person he had to talk to, and he waited for her by Jacob’s well. And don’t forget the demoniac on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee (Mark 5). That individual ended up being the only person impacted by Jesus and his message during that trip. Jesus definitely focused on the Jewish people during his ministry. After all, to them belonged the covenants and they were his people, both as their God and as a descendant, having taken on human flesh. But his mission was a mission to the world, and he modeled for his own disciples how globally focused they had to be if they were going to represent him well later in their endeavors to the ends of the world.
    The first Servant Song has a lot in it. One of my favorite verses about Jesus is also found in this first one, though most people might not be as familiar with it. Here’s what Isaiah tells us: “He will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice” (Isaiah 42:2–3). It’s verse three that I really love so much. But there’s an issue in verse two that we need to deal with: What does it mean that “he will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make his voice heard in the street”? Didn’t Jesus teach? Didn’t people hear him? And didn’t he cry out, such as the “Woes” found in Matthew 23? Of course. Verse two doesn’t say that Jesus will be utterly silent. It’s not even a reference to what we find later in 1 Peter: “and while being reviled, he did not revile in return; while suffering he uttered no threats . . .” (1 Peter 2:23). Isaiah is pointing out just how gentle the Messiah is overall and how gentle he would be when he took on human flesh and ministered in Galilee, its environs, and ultimately Jerusalem, where he offered his life as a guilt offering. Isaiah is pointing to how the Messiah would understand the importance of biding his time, withdrawing when need be, so that he could offer hope to those who otherwise had no hope and for whom leaders were confident no hope would come.
    And that’s the verse that really jumps out at me—verse 3—which explicitly refers to this gentleness, offering two beautiful descriptions of just how gentle he will be. First, he says the Messiah will not break a bruised reed. A bruised reed was useless. You could do anything really with a reed. It was like an all-purpose ingredient. But if it was bruised, a person would break it and discard it. Why break it? So you wouldn’t pick it up again and think you could do something with it. What’s Isaiah say? The Messiah won’t break it. He won’t discard it. Second, Isaiah says the Messiah is so gentle that he could walk by a candle that was just about to go out, and sure enough, it wouldn’t extinguish. Now for us, this imagery is probably closer to our world. You’ve used a candle haven’t you? Seen one that was just at the wick’s end? When a candle burns way down to the end of a wick, it doesn’t have much life left. In fact, you can put it out pretty easy. Just the slightest movement of air can strangle the life out of a dimly burning wick. But the Messiah would be so gentle that he could walk past the most faint of dim flames and somehow it wouldn’t go out. He’s that gentle.
    You’ll find the first half of the first Servant Song quoted in Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew records it in his account right before the religious leaders of Jesus’ day reject him as the Messiah and heir to David’s throne. When we think about the Messiah, specifically when we think about the Messiah in Isaiah, our minds immediately turn to Isaiah 7:14, 9:1–6, and, most definitely, the fourth and final Servant Song, Isaiah 52:13–53:12. We need to know those passages, and know them well. But if you’ve never turned your attention to the first three Servant Songs, take my advice and dig in today. We sometimes think the Gospels are the only place to go if we want to see Jesus. My friends, the whole of the Old Testament tells his story. It is the story of Jesus. And Isaiah contains four specific prophecies concerning the Messiah that share the phrase “my Servant.” It’s remarkable what Isaiah tells us about the one who would come and give his life on that cross. Amazing.

  • Allan R. Bevere: Politics of Witness: Introduction

    by Dr. Allan R. Bevere, pastor, professor and author of The Politics of Witness: The Character of the Church in the World, Colossians and Philemon: A Participatory Study Guide, and The Character of our Discontent.
     
    For the next few Thursdays I will be publishing a series of posts on a subject that is very important to me– so important in fact that I wrote a small book on the subject — The Politics of Witness. The reasons for this series is the continued misunderstanding of my position and those of us who embrace what I also refer to as a robust political ecclesiology. My position does not promote withdrawal from the culture or nation state politics, nor does it embrace a very untenable personal/public dichotomy. The reasons for this continued misunderstanding are found in the very context I desire to critique. I will post more on this over the next few weeks.
    While the subject of the church’s witness has hardly been ignored, I overtly tie the church’s witness to politics and politics to ecclesiology. I ask the church to consider the recovery of a robust political ecclesiology that sees the very life and witness of the ecclesia as its politics, and that the primary and central political posture of the church toward the nations is not one of influence in the political chambers of Washington D.C., but by embodying in its collective life what God expects of the nations. The church can only reclaim its mission and prophetic witness in the world by embracing the politics of witness. I seek a way out of a status quo ecclesiology and a completely uninteresting understanding of nation state politics. I believe that God is looking for a remnant to faithfully embody the politics of witness to the nations. (Read more …)
     
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2564′]

  • Chris Surber: A Blue Christmas and City Slickers

    by Dr. Chris Surber, pastor, director of Supply and Multiply ministry to Haiti, and author of A Cup of Cold Water, Rendering Unto Caesar: Examining What Jesus Said About Giving God What is His, and more!
    Published in the Suffolk News-Herald, December 5, 2016 in the Opinion Column:

    Sorrowing Old Man by Vincent Van Gogh
    Sorrowing Old Man by Vincent Van Gogh
    It’s almost cliché to say that people are suffering at the holiday season.
    To say, “Remember those who are less fortunate” is a kind of passive compliance with one of our more polite social norms. Give more, smile more, laugh more, have more compassion at the holidays.
    Down the street a 90-year-old man is mourning the first Christmas without the shining bride of his youth. A loving mother is spending the first Christmas without her little boy who just went off to the serve in the Army. It’s a sad Christmas for Mom, because her long-ailing father just slipped into eternity.
    These are real pains and deep sorrows that dropping seventeen cents into a red bucket can’t solve. We need a deep wisdom to find meaning at Christmas.  (Read more …)
     
     
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2771′]

  • Allan R. Bevere: How Does Emmanuel Come to Us?

    by Dr. Allan R. Bevere, pastor, professor and author of Colossians and Philemon: A Participatory Study Guide, The Politics of Witness: The Character of the Church in the World, and The Character of our Discontent.
    starO come, O come, Emmanuel
    And ransom captive Israel
    That mourns in lonely exile here
    Until the Son of God appear
    Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
    Shall come to thee, O Israel.
    O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
    Our spirits by Thine advent here
    Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
    And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
    Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
    Shall come to thee, O Israel.
    O come, Thou Key of David, come,
    And open wide our heavenly home;
    Make safe the way that leads on high,
    And close the path to misery.
    Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
    Shall come to thee, O Israel. – translator John Mason Neale (1851)
    When Mary wished for the coming of Emmanuel, it was very clear what she expected. She expected a this-worldly Savior who would deliver her in this world. She did not deny the resurrection at the last day; like all faithful Jews, she looked forward to it. But she also knew that what God had promised to do was to bring deliverance in the here and now. If all Jesus’ birth was about was some future salvation in the world to come, then why did Herod the Great perceive this young king as such a threat? If all Jesus’ ministry was about was a heavenly existence after death, why did the authorities string him up on a cross for treason? Emmanuel came to Mary as one who would make a difference in the present moment. A Messiah born into an unjust world, would seek to bring justice to those so oppressed.
    When we sing “O come, O come Emmanuel,” what do we hope he will do? How do we wait for Emmanuel, we who do not suffer from having too little, but from having too much? (Read more …)

  • William P. Tuck: Let's Come Alive to Life!

    William P. Tuck: Let's Come Alive to Life!

    by Dr. William Powell Tuck, friarsfragment.com, retired pastor, professor and author of  soon-to-be-released The Forgotten Beatitude: Worshiping Through Stewardship, A Positive Word for Christian Lamenting: Funeral Homilies, The Church Under the Cross, and more!
    virginia-2012Suddenly it dawned on me I was dying. I was beginning to allow routineness, habits, a style of living, patterns of observation, daily practices, customary ways or methods, and orderly procedure to groove for me a rut for life which leads only to death. I was startled with the realization that if I were to live, I must come alive to life.

    Alan Torey caught this thought when he observed that everyone must learn to understand the “Ah!” of things. Instead of AH, our age is more accurately characterized by BLAH. As we have grown older, we have lost our sense of wonder, excitement, awe, and the very thrill of living itself. The world has grown black and gray before our eyes, and the breathtaking color of life eludes us as a cloud covers our eyes like cataracts. We go through life partially or totally blind to its marvels and wonders.

    The other day I was carried back to the land of nostalgia as I listened to an old song over the car radio about a little boy playing in his tree house with a wooden toy horse and a purple bear named Biff. What adventures he engaged in! He fought off Indians, outlaws, and pirates along the flowerbeds, which became a pirate’s cove; the top of a lawn chair represented a mountaintop, and the flowers became a thick forest.

    I remember well those years. We have grown older, you say, and we have put away such childish things. What a shame to lose our child-likeness as we outgrow things!

    Is it not really to be dead already when you have lost your ability to be moved with awe by a sunset, stirred within by the beauty of the fall colors, a good book, play, movie or song, astonished continuously by the wonders of God’s creation and the inventiveness of humanity, awed with a sense of incredulity at the marvels of your own hand, your heart, a bee, an ant, a monkey, a skunk, a flower, or a newborn baby? You are no longer thrilled by your steamy breath on a glass door in freezing weather, the softness and whiteness of newly fallen snow, the unsure first few steps of a young child, or the breakthrough into the world of reading for a first grade child.

    Oh, the wonder of it all! Life is so wonderful and awesome, why is it that most of the time we remain dead to it? We are surrounded by mystery and wonder, but most of us simply take them for granted.

    Faith Begins in Wonder

    Do you not suppose that this is at least part of what Jesus meant when He said that no one could enter His kingdom until he became as a little child (Matthew 18:1-3)? Genuine faith begins in a rebirth of the sense of wonder and awe. Jesus knew us well, didn’t He? He knew there had to be something radical in our lives – a turning around, a reorientation, a new direction, a, new beginning, a new start. Why remain in death when we can come alive to life?


    tulip-single-in-washingtonScientists tell us that there are at least three characteristics of all living things. Living things take in food or some kind of nourishment. The big fish feeds on the smaller fish. The smaller fish feeds off insects and other smaller creatures in the water. The owl and fox hunt for mice. Flowers draw nourishment from the sun and the soil. Some animals or insects pursue their prey, while others simply wait for it to come to them, and they catch it as it passes by or bumps into them. A rock does not eat; it is not alive. Taking in food is a distinguishing trait of living things.

    Growth or the repair of one’s organism is also essential for life. When a branch is broken off a live bush or tree, it will repair itself and grow a new stem with more leaves. New life will go on. That is true with some insects, animals, or fish. If a portion of their anatomy is broken off, the body will repair itself. Rejuvenation takes place and a new part is grown. By contrast, a smaller rock does not grow into a larger rock. If my leather shoe sole gets a hole in it, it does not repair itself. It is not alive. I have to get it repaired. Growth for human beings takes us through stages – from a baby, to a child, to an adolescent, and finally to adulthood. Growth is a part of being alive.

    Anything that is alive also reproduces itself. Life continues through seeds, eggs, the birth of live babies to human beings and lesser animals. Reproduction is an essential quality of living things. Automobiles do not give birth to smaller cars. They are not alive; they are made.

    Bring these characteristics of aliveness over into the spiritual realm, and you will note that all three are essential if you are to be alive spiritually. A person who is alive feeds upon spiritual food as well as physical food. We cannot be nourished and sustained without it.

    When you and I were infants, we ate anything that we could get into our mouths. In fact, that is one of the things you have to do to protect a small child. You have to keep them from eating any and everything around them. When I was very small, one of my delightful delicacies was the black dirt underneath the front porch of my grandmother’s house. I enjoyed crawling under there and tasting that dirt. My parents had to keep me away from it. Children will sometimes eat paint off furniture, consume hair, swallow pennies, or all kinds of other things. We have to protect them from those harmful things, because we know that this kind of diet is not good for them.

    Some of us wonder why we have such a hard time growing spiritually. Look at what many of us feed on spiritually. We consume only those things which entertain or delight us. We spend little time in nourishing the spiritual side of life.

    Our desire for food arises out of a sense of need. We know that if we do not have food we cannot survive. This is also true with our spiritual life. Our spiritual appetite arises out of the need we have to be fed spiritually. This fall and into the season of Thanksgiving, I want to remain open to the wonders of the world around me and within me and be grateful!

    [slideshow_deploy id=’2745′]

  • Jude Lee: Prayerfully Preparing for a Short-Term Mission

     
    by Dr. Jude Lee, author of House Calls with Jesus: Stories of Redemptive Love
     
    baby-in-gods-handDr. Lee reading from My Utmost for His Highest on November 1st:

    Know ye not that … ye are not your own? – 1 Corinthians 6:19
     
    There is no such thing as a private life—‘a world within the world’—for a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ’s sufferings. God breaks up the private life of His saints, and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and for Himself on the other. No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves, we are called into the fellowship of the Gospel, and things happen which have nothing to do with us, God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have his way, if you do not, instead of being of the slightest use to God in His Redemptive work in the world, you will be a hindrance and a clog. The first thing God does with us is to get us based on rugged Reality until we do not care what becomes of us individually as long as He gets His way for the purpose of His Redemption. Why shouldn’t we go through heartbreaks? Through these doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us fall and collapse at the first grip of pain; we sit down on the threshold of God’s purpose and die away of self-pity, and all so-called Christian sympathy will aid us to our death-bed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, and says—‘Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.’ If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart. – Oswald Chambers, 1986

    The words God sends to us are always right on time and perfect in exhortation and conviction. Through our brokenness, His way of bringing us to know Him more and have in our being, humility of His making, He moves. One tiny step of obedience, letting go of one’s way, confessing pride, humbling self before Him and others…He does a mighty work. He is glorified for without Him we are nothing.
    He is faithful in preparing three of His little sheep, Mary, Cathy and myself to go to His other sheep in Guatemala. Faith, their mom, has been doing the study with us. She prays for us alot. We have been doing Seeking Him, a Bible Study which has been teaching us and changing our hearts showing us what is His revival, through humility, honesty, repentance. We are just starting the chapter on grace. It’s been a long time in coming to grace in the book but we have been filled with His grace as He has loved us to Himself and shown us Himself so clearly. He is doing a work of humility in each of us, bringing us to a place of honesty before Him and others we have not known so well before, and repentance is ongoing. The journey is just beginning. We pray it be a continual lifelong one.
    This is Mary and Cathy’s first mission trip overseas. We covet your prayers. Many of you have shared of your abundance as well as prayer so the little ones in Guatemala will have a bit of Christmas, some babies will be blessed with “hand-made prayed over” love-sent baby hats to keep them warm this winter, others have shared their other extras. Thank you so much for sharing in the joy of His gifts.
    Please keep in prayer:
    1. The Lord’s ongoing work through Bible Study to disciple the moms and youth to bear eternal fruit and change a generation, as well as a generation yet to be born, for Jesus (Psalm 22:22-31).
    2. His weary and worn children (adults and niños) will see Jesus through His Word and that those serving so steadfastly in Guatamala will be encouraged and strengthened by Him.
    3. We would stay well in our physical bodies and in our spirits, serve Him well, keeping Jesus and His way and will foremost in our hearts and minds. And as far as the medical part, that we would be just the tool in His hand.
    4. All of us sheep, State-side and Guatemala yield to Jesus for His humbling us, preparing us, breaking us, bringing us closer to Him at such a time as this that we would be passionate, on fire for Him. Time is short. Let us not waste the lives He has given.
    Jesus, You are faithful, humble and powerful in wisdom and grace, perfect in judgment and mercy. Thank You. You call, You work, You do a mighty change in our hearts and we are grateful. Keep us, Your sheep, near as You work in and through each of us in Guatemala and in the States, to know You more, to be captivated by You and to have no other before You. Your love is boundless, overwhelming in its mercy and grace and our recognition of the magnificence and unparalleled excellence of Your love brings us to see how undeserving we are and will always be. Yet, You pour out. This humbles us, Lord. Keep us there, that You would give grace…Your grace to us, grace overflowing so it reaches out beyond us into the lives of others for You and Your glory. Ah precious King…how great You are. Thank You. Thank You so much. Amen

  • Elgin Hushbeck, Jr.: Election 2016 – Initial Reaction

    by Elgin Hushbeck, Jr., Engineer, Christian apologist, and author of Christianity and Secularism, Preserving Democracy: What the Founding Fathers Knew, What We Have Forgotten, and How It Threatens Democracy, What is Wrong with Social Justice?, and Evidence for the Bible.
     
    time-election-coverMy reaction to the election can be summed up by relief, joy, hope, and worry, in that order.
    Relief
    On Election Day the election was too close to call. There were conflicting signs and it was easy to make a case for either Clinton or Trump wining. Perhaps it was the fact that I had seen so many other races that looked even more positive, and yet my candidate lost, so I feared the worst. I could not even watch the returns. When I got up this morning and looked at the news to see that Trump had won, my first reaction was a sense of relief. Relief that Clinton, probably the most corrupt person ever to seek the office of President will not be allowed to bring that corruption back to the White House. The combination of that level of corruption with the powers of the office of the President was something I truly feared.
    Joy
    As I began to look at the results in more detail, my relief turned to Joy. Not only did Trump win, but all the candidates I was supporting in my state, and virtually all I was watching across the nation won. Not only would Hillary not be President but we had held House and Senate majorities to work with him, and to keep him in check if need be. So I said a prayer of thanks.
    Hope
    My joy then turned to hope as I began to contemplate the ramifications. Finally, there was a good chance that we could get something done. For the first time in my life we had a Republican President with a solid majority in Congress. Bush had the thinnest of margins which disappeared when Jeffords changed parties. The wall will be built on the southern border and the illegal immigration mess solved. And no, I do not expect any mass deportations. I believe most of those here illegally will be in some fashion allowed to become legal, they just will not be allowed to become citizens or vote without going home and returning legally.
    The disaster that is Obamacare will be repealed and replace by a system that gives far more choice and opportunity to people. I am hoping that the bureaucratic nightmare that is the Federal Government and which is such a burden on the people, will be cut back and focused more on actually helping them. For example, perhaps finally we can get a law passed to force the EPA to consider the impact of their regulations on people and not just animals, and the tens of thousands of people in central California thrown out of work to protect a few fish can go back to work.
    Worry
    Finally, I began to worry. And my cause for concern was twofold. First, while hardly a fan of Trump, one area I did agree with him on is that the ruling elites play by a different set of rules. They are very powerful and will not like that Trump is threatening the status quo. Thus, I worry about how they will seek to protect themselves and keep their power. Note that this is not a Republican vs Democrat issue, but an insider vs outsider. There are plenty of Republicans on the inside. And given the narrow margin in the Senate, I can easily see them blocking many of the needed reforms with a filibuster. Since Reid broke the filibuster, this should not be a problem, but it could provide a fig leaf for Republicans in the elite to block needed reforms.
    Second, as the election fades into the background we will return our focus to the problems we face and they are both many and serious, both Domestic and Foreign. Many are well advanced and may already be too far gone. For example, it may already be too late to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, and I have little doubt that if they get one they will live up to their promise to use it. In short, the world Trump will inherit is a mess and likely to get worse before it gets better.
    Domestically the situation is not much better. For decades, the county has been masking decline with financial games, and even that has not been working very well. The Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing has taken us into uncharted waters, and our debt is at record levels and climbing. As Hebert Stein once pointed out, that which cannot go on forever won’t. It is not a matter of if, but when the house of cards that is the US economy will come crashing down.
    I am not fatalistic about this. Countries have been in worst situations. Britain at the beginning of the 19th century had a much higher debt in proportion to the current US debt. They got out of that hole by the strong growth that came for the industrial revolution. But it was not without pain. We too can get out of our current messes, but it will not be easy and it will not be without pain.
    So I guess I end on hope, but it is a cautious hope.
     
     
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2411′]  

Energion Direct
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.