It has been a weird week. Our brother-in-law Rick passed away and I can't describe the cloud I've been in this week. "Easily irritable" is the best description. But everything's great because I know my bro-in-law is in eternal life with the Lord. (We talked about this at COF last Thursday.) Rick is well versed in scripture and well read in Christian circles and such, and I look to him often as my spiritual big brother more than a brother in law. I watch and learn from him, his wife, Lisa, and their children about how to handle the various times and battles in life. Together we are in God's army, and Rick is like my superior officer, not because he is a better person or anything like that..., He sincerely loves God, and was just called to another position in the cavalry. Still..., I will miss him.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Watch For The Signs
Thursday evening was "Signs and Mimes" night at COF. Kathy Madsen and a few friends come and teach us how to use sign language to sing songs. It is a pretty cool thing to watch 325 people sign a song together. You almost don't even need the music to feel and hear the praise that is going on around you. It is a shame the world doesn't look at the signs around to see where we are in history. Matthew 24:7 says, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places." All of this will happen not to far from when Jesus returns.
Instead we are fascinated with a Mayan prophecy that states that 2012 will be the end of the earth. We also look to Nostradamus to find out what has and will happen. The folks that believe in these type of predictors seem to forget that the Mayan culture died out and hasn't returned. In addition, Nostradamus has a small handful of predictions that might have come true, but he has many more wrong predictions than right.
The Bible on the other hand, has never been proven wrong, and His people have returned to Jerusalem after 2000 years. There have been scoffers, but the Bible actually says that there will be. It also says that "Nation will rise against nation..." The actual word used when this was written meant, "culture against culture." Just looking at the United States in the last 50-plus years I would say that we are fulfilling that prophecy as I write this. If I'm not mistaken there have been and are continuing famines, and earthqakes have increased in the last hundred years more than global warming ever has increased. Yet does the weather channel talk about this? No, in discussing the recent tragedy in Haiti no one mentions this. The one Christian who took the news headlines and could have presented the true word of God instead spread the false version; the one most everyone hears when they think of today's Christian, judgemental. He forgot that God judges, not us, that is not our job. So he could not really know why Haiti is dealing with this horrific earthquake. God's ways are not our ways and whether or not we understand, or like it, it doesn't matter, He's God. When Christians remember that, and shut their pie-holes at the right time, we are doing what a follower of Jesus would.
Our job is to love each other, friend and foe alike. That is the sign of a true follower of Christ. So when you see someone helping another in Christ's name, or trying their best to listen, and not speak or judge, know that that is a sign of somone who loves God and is called to His purpose. Those signs are never wrong, and they truly give God's love to all who see, and experience them. That is a pretty cool thing.
Instead we are fascinated with a Mayan prophecy that states that 2012 will be the end of the earth. We also look to Nostradamus to find out what has and will happen. The folks that believe in these type of predictors seem to forget that the Mayan culture died out and hasn't returned. In addition, Nostradamus has a small handful of predictions that might have come true, but he has many more wrong predictions than right.
The Bible on the other hand, has never been proven wrong, and His people have returned to Jerusalem after 2000 years. There have been scoffers, but the Bible actually says that there will be. It also says that "Nation will rise against nation..." The actual word used when this was written meant, "culture against culture." Just looking at the United States in the last 50-plus years I would say that we are fulfilling that prophecy as I write this. If I'm not mistaken there have been and are continuing famines, and earthqakes have increased in the last hundred years more than global warming ever has increased. Yet does the weather channel talk about this? No, in discussing the recent tragedy in Haiti no one mentions this. The one Christian who took the news headlines and could have presented the true word of God instead spread the false version; the one most everyone hears when they think of today's Christian, judgemental. He forgot that God judges, not us, that is not our job. So he could not really know why Haiti is dealing with this horrific earthquake. God's ways are not our ways and whether or not we understand, or like it, it doesn't matter, He's God. When Christians remember that, and shut their pie-holes at the right time, we are doing what a follower of Jesus would.
Our job is to love each other, friend and foe alike. That is the sign of a true follower of Christ. So when you see someone helping another in Christ's name, or trying their best to listen, and not speak or judge, know that that is a sign of somone who loves God and is called to His purpose. Those signs are never wrong, and they truly give God's love to all who see, and experience them. That is a pretty cool thing.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
As long as I'm part of it.
It has been good to take a break from COF. Everyone needs a little time away. (Jesus took 40 days - we only took a few weeks.) We came back and played "Win a Buck" On Thursday! Great game! Probably the most exciting game at COF. The devotions the past two times we've met were all about how to become a child of God's family by saying the S.T.P. prayer. Great stuff! Probably the most exciting topic for anyone to present as a devotion.
Everyone wants to play "Win a Buck." Everyone wants to go to heaven when they leave earth, Christian or not. (Crazy people want anything else.) We all just want to be part of a chance to win something of value and to be part of the family (or group) that spends eternity in the most wonderful kingdom. To some it doesn't matter what the prize or what they'll do in heaven...they just want to be part of it. That happened this past Thursday night.
We were playing "Win a Buck" and the first five contestants were called to come down. Josh, Matthew, Kelly, Brooke, and someone else who wasn't there, no biggie, we called another. Each person answers three questions about the Bible and if they do...they win a buck, hence the name. (I know, cheap rip-off.) Either-which-way, the folks get rowdy on "Win a Buck" (WAB) night! Everybody wants to be part of it. Dollar General must have some great buys after the holidays.
Our first contestant came over and as soon as we welcomed him to the game I knew it would be a whiz-bang night of WAB! I asked him how he was doing and He answered in a language that no one understood. It wasn't that he was non-verbal, it was just that he didn't speak in a comprehensible dialect of any known language. Without wanting to take our introduction down an uncomfortable road I went on. "O.K.," I said, "Let's get to the first question." The music kicked in and I read, "Who told Mary that she was going to have a baby?" I then gave the answer choices, "Joseph, or the Angel." Our excited contestant yelled into the microphone, "Aglicobachitrimill!" My trusted counterpart Jeff was going to ask him to repeat his answer as Jeff didn't quite make it out when I yelled, "Jeff, it sounded like he said 'Angel,' that's correct!" Before I could say, "Let's go to question number two," our contestant raised his hands in victory and leaped back over to his chair and sat down satisfied for having played in the coveted game of "Win a Buck!" The place erupted!
Jeff and I were stunned. We have been helping with COF for nine to ten years and every now and then something really precious happens. (It actually happens pretty regularly, like weekly.) But this summed up everything Circle Of Friends is about: wanted to have something with value, and have it eternally with our friends in the presence of God. The joy our first contestant displayed is the joy spoke of all throughout the bible. It is the joy we have when we truly realize the verse from 1 John 5:13, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."
Knowing you have eternal life is a lot like answering only one "Win a Buck" question. You have a victory as long as you're part of it. Are you victorious? You can be with a simple prayer - S.T.P.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
