I want it now!

Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.


Bible Verse of the Day: Matthew 7:13-14 " Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."


To simply say we live in a culture that lives for instant gratification would be a huge understatement. You deserve it and  if it makes you feel good , then go for it is the mantra of the day. Of course, there is never any mention of the consequences or of the destruction that can follow when we make short sighted decisions to gratify our sinful desires without considering the long term implications.


Lust, anger and greed are the primary drivers of our sinful impulses that need to be satiated and they are very strong  influencers indeed. We see a beautiful woman walking down the street and we want to have her for our own. The great King David can certainly relate to that as he fell hook, line and sinker for his friend Uriah's wife Bathsheba while seeing her bath on the roof one day. Even though God had blessed David mightily, he still felt lacking on the inside, to the point where his lustful temptations prompted him to indulge his sexual desires without even stopping to consider the consequences, which as it turns out were quite severe. His impetuous decision would lead to a deeper trail of sins, including lying, deception and even murder of his friend Uriah in order to have the desires of his flesh fulfilled. One of the greatest consequences was the devastation he caused to his own family through his sinful behavior, which led to the death of the child he had conceived with Bathsheba. God cannot sit idly by while we bath in our sin and iniquity. He cannot be mocked, for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. David was deeply repentant when the prophet Nathan revealed the depths of his sins against God to him and it caused him great physical, spiritual and emotional trauma. David had realized a great truth: that for every action there is a reaction and his sin had led directly to his suffering and angst which plagued him for quite a long time.


David fell into the same lustful trap that plagues us all still today, a short term gratification that leads to long term consequences and great suffering. We are all vulnerable to the same fleshly forces that swept David away and caused him to lose sight of the "narrow" road in favor of the easy or pleasurable road. The evil one knows the strength of our fleshly desires as described in Galatians 5 as a battle that is always raging against our spiritual being to do the right thing and to follow God's directions. Sometimes we give into our fleshly temptations and we lose the battle, and the consequences leave us dazed. Unless we have repentant heart's like David, and turn to God alone for our forgiveness, we will continue to bring about great suffering into our lives as a result of our need to have it now.


Our society has bought into the temptation to take the easy road, rather than to persevere down the narrow road that is referred to in todays bible verse. It is the fear based tenant that advertisers use to pray on consumers, that the media uses to destroy lives with the message of do whatever you feel like, when you feel like it and to hell with the consequences. Lust is one strong example. Have sex with whomever you want, whenever you want, and don't worry about the risk of STD's or a baby conceived out of wedlock. But what about greed? We hear the messages about what money can buy you and say yes, we want it and we want it now! A $100,000 car or a $5,000,000 house we can't nearly afford, oh well, we deserve it and besides we will look really great in it and it will attract beautiful ladies to us. No mention or thought of the financial consequences that will lead us into bankruptcy. Live for the now and consequences be damned. Of course, you can but a house but not a home. Or you can buy sex, but not love. Or you can buy a title but not respect. Yet we never stop to ponder these truisms because we want to look good in the world's eyes and don't care as much of how we look in God's eyes.  John 12;43 warns us of the faultiness in thinking this way. God should come first, always!


What about anger in our lives that things aren't going the way we thought they would or the way we think we deserve? We hear the messages that someone else is to blame and someone is going to have to pay for my unhappiness. Then we think, I will use deceit or distortion to get things back in order the way they should be, and if that doesn't work I will take it out on those around me with a bitter attitude and a hateful heart. No mention or thought of some internal soul searching or prayer time alone with the Creator of the Universe to ask for His direction, guidance and wisdom.


 In a me first world, there is no time for introspection, only for consumption of pleasurable experiences. Instant Gratification rules. However, is it really any different today than it has always been? Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup in one of the most egregious acts of the bible in pointing out our weakness to fulfill short term desires at the expense of priceless, long term inheritances. Esau placed a higher value on a physical, short term satisfaction of having a bowl of soup to quench his appetite than on a life of peace and relationship with God as head of household that could have led to his eternal greatness.


This story of Esau and Jacob is just one of many in the bible that illustrates that throughout human history, we are all prone to give up greater future rewards for immediate gratifications. The adversary is well aware of this and is always tempting us to succumb to our desires of immediate gratification so he can deny us the better plan that God has in store for us. This is why it is so important to constantly be in prayer, as 1st Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing, to help us understand our weaknesses and to be prepared to ask Jesus to help us in our daily battles against our flesh. God reminds of us of this struggle and of our need for dependence upon him in order to have a chance in his fight in 1st Corinthians 10: 13 " No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."  But here is the rub: We don't want to listen to God! We don't want to pray and ask for His strength and protection. We want to do what makes us feel good now! When the consequences come, we want to try and fix it on our own, which only leads to more sin and helplessness, but we don't want to feel like we need Him to fix our mess. Oh the futility of our thinking!


In many ways, when we do finally repent and come around to prayer and to seeking God's  forgiveness, , discernment and wisdom for the messes we have created in our lives, like King David finally did, we then begin a new struggle of what and how to pray. We treat God like He is some kind of cosmic vending machine where we submit our requests into the machine and wait for his solutions to instantly pop back out. Even here, our impatience and desire for instant gratification can be astounding. CS Lewis says that someday we'll be far more grateful for our prayers that didn't get answered then for the ones that did. This is because our prayers are often misguided and lack alignment with God's eternal plan for our lives. We pray for comfort in the midst of our trials instead of character to be built up in us during them. We pray for an easy way out instead of the strength to make it through. We ask for God to quickly extricate us out of difficult circumstances instead of asking God what he wants to get out of those difficult circumstances. Sometimes though God not giving us what we think we need or want is actually Him protecting us from unintended consequences.


As Psalm 46:10 says, sometimes He just wants us to be still and acknowledge that He is God and He will be exulted on earth as He is in heaven. In this place, our best efforts are meaningless and our best recourse is total surrender. For His thoughts are so much greater than our thoughts and His ways are so much higher than our ways, Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us, that we should rather just seek him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. It is in this posture alone that real healing and learning can take place. It takes a lot of wreckage to sometimes bring us staggering to our knees. But once there, the healing salve of God's love and forgiveness can begin to change us from the inside out, and help us to make better decisions in the future. We can begin to see the error of our ways and the righteousness of His.

Know one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care

February 3, 2014

Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.

Bible Verse of the Day:John 15:5 " I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

One of the things that is universal in this world is people want to feel loved and appreciated. It takes time spent with someone to let them know that you truly care about them. It is one of those things in life that you can't fake. Caring means you must show up, no excuses. It is important for a father to show he cares by showing up for his kid's sporting events. It is important for employees to show up for work and for kids to show up for school. Showing up means that you are committed to a certain person, situation or task.

Likewise, if we want to get to know Jesus better in our lives, then we have to "show up" and spend time with him. How do we do that? We must read scripture on a daily basis; we must meditate on His word and we must spend time in prayer, inviting a dialogue of both speaking and listening. As we do this, we will begin to enjoy the fruits of our relationship with the One who gave it all for our benefit. We will be filled with His wisdom. Jesus will teach us more about who He is, so we will know more about who we are. As we continue to show up, He will teach us to act more and more like Him. So what did Jesus act like?

First and foremost, Jesus was love. He always showed people how much He cared, before He let them know how much He knew. He would always show pure love to those that the elite in society tended to look down upon and discard. Hs message was simple: All of you matter in my Kingdom! I don't discriminate against anyone. Jesus lived out that love in ways that no one could ever question His sincerity. Most importantly, the ones he chose to love on knew how much He cared. He touched Lepers, defended Adulterers, befriended Prostitutes, washed his Disciples feet, talked with Samaritans and partied with Tax Collectors.

 Jesus didn't care about His reputation, he cared about love. Loving those who society said were unlovable. He could have just told everyone about all He knew, how He was present at the beginning of time and how He holds the entire world in the palm of His hand. Or, how He was sent by the Father to redeem the world from its sin as the one and only atoning sacrifice. He did indeed give insights into His perfect wisdom, but mostly it was to confound the wise of the day. He could have spent all his time telling parables to teach the Pharisees and Sadducees just how lost they truly were. Instead, He mostly modeled how much He cared by living it out in a unmistakeably genuine love.He used a road map of love and compassion to teach his followers about what truly mattered. Jesus came to earth and showed up for us, in a real and intimate way. Is it asking too much for us to show up for Him?

Lasting Contentment

January 14, 2014

Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.

Bible Verse of the Day: Philippians 4:4 " Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice."

At the end of the day, I believe what we are all striving for is contentment. Contentment can come in many different forms but at its core it is a deep and unrelenting satisfaction with the way you are living your life. It can be shaken, but not stolen. Money cannot buy contentment.  A bigger house, a new luxury car or a trip to Paris will eventually lose its luster. I know many people who are extremely wealthy and completely devoid of any contentment. On the other hand, I know people who are poor in the eyes of the world, but who have a deep and abiding contentment. I am pretty sure Mother Teresa of Calcutta had an overflowing contentment inside of her, even though she lived her life in conditions that most of us would find appalling. She was the epitome of what the world considers poor, yet she had a richness and contentment to her that most people would pay anything to achieve. Contentment is one of those elusive traits that when people have it, you can’t miss it. When someone is content you can see it in their eyes and almost feel it in their souls. They are living above the fray and their contentment is not circumstantial in the least. You could put anything into their lives or take anything out, and they would likely be exactly the same person, allowing of course for the natural aspects of human emotions to come into consideration. In other words, greater joy and greater suffering are still a part of dealing with events that happen to us during this lifetime on earth. However, their contentment will allow them to always keep a perspective about the things that happen to them. They control their reactions to the things that happen to them, rather being held hostage or controlled by them.

Where does contentment come from? How do we get it? That is the question that most people would love to know the formula to. It seems that people that live their lives as “givers” rather than “takers” have a good start to finding real contentment. The Bible says it is better to give than to receive and I think the notion of unselfishness is a very important aspect of contentment. Certainly when we are focused on helping others who are less fortunate than ourselves, in whatever endeavor we may find ourselves engaged with, we are aligning with the power of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ himself, who said he didn’t come to be served, but rather to serve. The Apostle Paul was pretty much the poster child for contentment, able to find a lasting peace even in the midst of his often dire circumstances. In the letter he wrote to the Philippians, he mentions in chapter 4 that “I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstances.” Where did he get that deep contentment from? He goes on to say “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry. Whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” Who is the one that Paul is referring to that gives him strength? It is the Lord, Jesus Christ. Paul’s ability to stay focused on the promises of his eternal destiny, Heaven, allowed him to deal with anything that this world had to throw at him with a deep sense of contentment. Not many people have suffered as many apparent hardships as Paul did. He mentions some of them in 2^nd Corinthians 11 “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes, minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once pelted with stones, three times Shipwrecked.” The list goes on and on. Paul’s life seems like a never ending horror show that could best be named “What could possibly happen next?” Yet he was able to find a deep and unimaginable contentment.

Can we learn from Paul’s trials to help us find contentment in our own lives? I believe we most certainly can. Paul was not focused entirely on the here and now, but on the then and there called Heaven. He knew his destiny, he stayed incredibly focused on his calling and he let no one or no thing steal his inner joy. I imagine he had moments of serious depression and doubt, just like we all do. I imagine he was beyond lonely and tired in his daily struggles, just as we get. He was in physical pain and hungry often. That cannot feel good. He was in constant danger from a multitude of foes who wanted him out of the picture, which probably made it hard for him to ever rest or relax. Sometimes we are dealing with stressful things in our lives that rob us of our sleep and lead to a heavy fatigue. But here’s the thing that Paul did that is also available to all of us; He refused to focus for very long on his problems and instead focused on the solution of the salvation promised to him in Christ Jesus. When you serve a mighty God, your problems seem quite small. When you have no God, or nothing to bring lasting faith, hope and joy into your life, your problems will always be enormous and contentment will be elusive.

I am convinced that lasting happiness or contentment is impossible apart from God. When God is removed from your life, or from a society, the weightlessness and chaos that ensues is impossible for us to strive in. Look at the history of the Jewish people. When they were living faithfully to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their land and their existence flourished and prospered. When they turned away from their God, in their own pride thinking that they new a better path, the pain they endured was astronomical. If everything that happens to us in our life is leading to the same dead end, than we are to be pitied more than any creatures that have ever lived on this earth. But I don’t believe that is the case for one second. God’s word tells us that is not the case and my own experiences have reinforced to me that there is indeed a point to all of the experiences we endure on this side of eternity. That is for each of us to learn in our own unique way and on our own unique path. By focusing on the Master and the Creator of our existence, contentment is possible and here’s why: Because God is love. He loves us. We are His children. He loved us before the earth was ever formed and He will continue to love us for all of eternity. It is this simple fact that can lead us to a place of deep and abiding contentment. Bad things happen to good people in this world. I don’t fully understand why. I know that we live in a fallen, sinful world that was corrupted in the Garden of Eden. You don’t believe that, just watch the nightly news any day of the week and ask yourself after almost any story, how could a person do that to another person? I also know that God had a redemption plan that is the greatest love story of all time to save His people from the death that our sin deserved in His righteous eyes. That plan was to send His one and only Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for redemption of our sin debt, which we alone could never pay, so we could be reconciled back to Him for all of eternity. Talk about a great romance novel! The whole Bible is God’s love story for humanity playing out right before our very eyes to save us from our sinfulness and shame. Because He loved us so much that He would stop at nothing to save us and redeem us with an everlasting hope and joy, then yes, contentment is possible on this earth. You just have to know where to look. Keep looking up!