I Think We Are All Hoarders

I have to admit I have never watched, nor do I plan to watch more than 5 minutes of that show on television.  I feel sorry for the families involved and don't need to see it to know that it is a very real problem.  In fact, I really can't find any redeeming value to showing it on TV. 

Hi, my name is Dave and I am a hoarder!  Not in the way those folks on TV are depicted but I hoard my time, my thoughts, my feelings.  I don't really hoard my money, but I know a lot of people that do.  I know some that hoard relationships, opinions and even prejudices.

Why can't we all just let things go and focus on things that really matter and that will make a difference in the time we have here on earth and beyond?  What are we holding onto and why are we squeezing so tight?

Seriously do you think heaven is segregated?  Of course not, then why do we hoard our biases and personal prejudices here on earth.  The time is coming when they are going to get thrown away.  What about that money?  How many times do we have to be told we can't take it with us?  Churches, colleges, orphanages and every non-profit organization I know are struggling for funds and people are saying we can't give because of the recession, but they have been to see Mickey Mouse in that land wonderful kingdom three times this year. 

I admit it there are still a lot of things that I hoard, and a lot of them I need to get rid of.  I need to get one of those huge garbage dumpsters and park it at the front door of my heart and start loading stuff in.  My fear is that I would have to have it towed away and emptied multiple times before I really get everything cleaned out.  Luke 17:31 says, "When the Day arrives and you're out working in the yard, don't run into the house to get anything. And if you're out in the field, don't go back and get your coat. Remember what happened to Lot's wife! If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you'll lose it, but if you let that life go, you'll get life on God's terms."

I really do want to live life on God's terms and quit worrying about what the world says.  So I'm trying to decide daily what to hold onto in this world.  I hoard my time with my family.  I know I was blessed into this world with a wonderful family, with great parents, a brother and sister in law and aunts and uncles and a wonderful heritage. I married so far over my head with a godly wife who amazes me daily with her knowledge of God's word.  I loved her parents so much and miss our trips to Tennessee.  God blessed me with beautiful daughter that will always be daddy's little girl.  She is incredibly witty and just as beautiful on the inside as the outside. God gave me a son whom I dearly love.  The last five years have been a struggle, but I have learned so much about grace and forgiveness, and I understand Luke 15:20 on a completely new level.  I am so proud of where he is now but know that the battle is still on.  I get to be a "Poppy" to two beautiful granddaughters who may have been unexpected, but are dearly loved.  So as I start throwing things away, these are the things I will be hoarding as long as God gives me breath and allows us all to live.

The rest of the stuff ... you can have it ... well except for ... just kidding take it all

Different Doesn't Have to Be Weird

Don't be conformed to the ways of this world. - Romans 12:2   Don't be just like everyone else in the world.  Be different from the rest, walk to the beat of a different drummer, go to the deep end when everyone else wants to stay in the shallow end with their spiritual floaties on.  Over and over again Paul pushed people to spiritual transformation, but that real trsnformation didn't happen by just doing the same old thing in the safe places of our life.  It is a challenge to go deeper, to get out of your comfort zone, it's a call to be different.

But being different doesn't mean being weird.  Christians need to be different than world, but still be able to relate to the world.  In the world, just not of this world.  In a effort to show their commitment to Christ, I see far too many people being weirdly different from the world.  So much so that they aren't drawing people to Christ, but repelling them.  I will never be able to give up the thought of Ghandi saying after his time in America, that he would have no doubt been drawn to Christinaity if it weren't for Christians.

Spiritual transformation happens when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our life with no pride for who we are and nothing but respect for who Jesus is.  It is the process of sanctification that allows us to continually become more and more like Christ.  Jesus was so different from the world, but in a way that drew people toward Him.  The only ones that left were the Pharisees who felt threatened and some disciples in John 6 who thought that the teaching was too hard.  Everyone else was drawn to Him.

Why in the world would a man light a candle and then hide it under a basket?   What are you doing with your candle?  Different doesn't have to weird, just the result of a changed life. How has God been changing you one choice at a time? 

Pleasing God

This Sunday I will sharing the fourth sermon in our "How Should We Live" series from 1 Thessalonians.  This week's theme is "Live to Please God".  We sing a song that says, "For the praises of man I will never ever stand."  In theory we know that we live to praise God with our life, but something interesting occured to me as I reread this passage in 1 Thessalonians again and again.  How we treat our fellow man affects how pleased God is with our lives.  This is especially true when that fellow man is a fellow follower of Christ.  Sometimes Christians say the meanest things and it usually happens when they don't get their way.  It is so easy to criticize the other person for not doing something that you yourself should be doing as well and not even realize it.

Somebody ought to clean up that mess in the lobby of the church!  Somebody ought to start a ministry for single moms!  Somebody ought to go and visit the senior citizens in our church!  I sure wish I could meet "somebody".  Are they a real person?  Did their mother really name them "somebody"?  If so they sure are going to be busy all of their life, because there sure is a whole lot of stuff for "somebody" to do.

In verse 9 of this chapter Paul talks about "brotherly love".  He uses the word "phileo".  In its original use outside of the New Testament it meant the mutual love that children of the same father had for each other.  Maybe they didn't always agree but they were family and because of that they always had "bortherly love" for each other.  In the New Testament it became the term used for the love between fellow believers in Christ.  I wonder if "somebody" is receiving "phileo" from those who so easily use his name in a negative way.

The realilty is everytime we use the word "somebody" we have a face in mind.  At home we want "somebody" to clean up this room, at work we want "somebody" to finish this project, at church we want "somebody" to care start a new ministry or care for the hurting.   I would love to suggest that, you go ahead and get that picture of "somebody" find a really nice frame for it and have it around the house so that you will always know who that "somebody" is.  But if you really want to please God with your lives, right before you hang that picture on the wall ... you replace it with a mirror.

Life Change Doesn't Happen Over Night

When I was in graduate school I was an assistant basketball coach at the college I had attended.  We were on our way home one night after an out of state game as we crossed the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina we found ourselves snow bound at the top of a mountain in over a foot of snow.  It was bizarre because there was no snow at the bottom.  We found a small roadside motel that looked like a place where they make movies with guys named "Bates" in it, but they had enough rooms for us and so we checked in.  There wasn't a restraunt, so we emptied all of money into the vending machines had a short snow ball fight and went to bed.  The next morning when we woke up and looked out the back window it was amazing to see the valley right behind the motel that we hadn't even known was there the night before covered in nearly two feet of perfectly, unblemished snow.  It was magnificent!  I still remember how can anything as bad as an unexpected snow storm that leaves you stranded create anything so beautiful.  What an incredible difference a night made!  It wasn't long before the plows came over the mountain and we were able to return to campus, but I still remember the difference in the feeling of going to sleep not knowing how long we would be stranded, versus waking up to the absolute beauty of the morning.

Wouldn't it be wondeful if life change in critical areas of our life happened overnight.  How many nights have you gone to bed, just praying that things would be different in the morning?  Would you be ready for everything to be o.k. in the morning or would you be as shocked as I was at the beauty that lay just behind that old hotel.  In Psalm 90 the writer asks God for a break.  He wants him to take away the pain and have compassion.  Have you ever cried, "enough Lord?" 

Psalm 90¹³ Relent, LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. ¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. ¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble." 

The Psalmist asked more good days that would match bad years.  Bad stuff is going to happen.  There are going to be unexpected storms that interupt our plans for life.  God loves us in the midst of the storm.  Sometimes when you look just behind your unfortunate circumstances, he'll reveal a beautiful painting.  Sometimes it will happen so fast that you can't believe that it is real, even though you have been praying for that very thing for years.  Life change seldom happens over night, but joy does come on that morning of change!  I know it does because as a parent I am living in the joy of this moment in time!

Joy - Really?

James 1  ² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Joy really?  When we face trials?  O.K. so it is probably not the joy that is seen in balloons and streamers.  We all face trials, but nothing like what I watched this week as I witnessed the persecution recorded on the Voice of the Martyrs website http://www.persecution.com/ . 

I just truly think that all Christians need to take some time to watch some of the videos there and find out specifically how to pray for people who are truly struggling. 

I still have caught myself complaining at times, but when I do I am reminding myself of those that are being persecuted on levels that I haven't ever experienced and that allows me to be a  little more joyful, knowing that things could be much worse.

Why Would They Follow?

I just reread the account from Mark's gospel of Jesus calling Levi (Matthew) to be a disciple?  Why would Matthew or Peter, Andrew, James or John, or any of the other seven guys just drop everything to follow Jesus?  At the time he called them He was just starting his public ministry.  He had done nothing that set him apart, they just followed.  Some guys left the family fishing business, nets in the boat, boats in the water and followed Jesus.  Why?  Matthew left his collection desk.  No telling how much ill gotten gain was under the table and he followed Jesus. Why?

I would love to know what it was about his character that made them want to follow.  My wife pointed out a few weeks ago how people followed his instructions at the wedding feast in Galilee.  The Bible specifically tells us it was the first miracle, so there was no evidence to them that a miracle was about to happen.  Mary's words were remarkable, "Do whatever He tells you to do!"  Why would they do that?  But they did!  BAM!  Water into wine and the ministry is on!  But why would they follow him?

Maybe the better question today is, "Why Don't We Follow?"  Two thousand years and millions of life changing miracles later, either directly from the hands of Jesus or the miracle of prayer.  We have seen Him work and we know what can happen and we still don't do what he says or follow his leading.

Oh when someone asks if we believe in Jesus the majority of people in the western hemisphere say yes.  But do we follow?  Why did those who had no clue choose to follow? 

Could it be that they were at the end of their hope rope?  They had tried everything on their own and they didn't know what else to try.  Matthew had cheated people out of so much money that his only remaining friends were fellow tax collectors.  Peter, Andrew, James and John were smelly fishermen with calloused hands and aching backs that needed some hope and relief that there was more to life than just this hard labor.  The servants at the wedding feast were probably terrified of how the master would react when the wine was gone.  When people come to the end of their hope rope they will do things that they have never done before.  They will follow anything or anyone that might offer hope. 

So how much longer can you hang on to the non-Messianic undivine hope rope you are grasping?  What is it going to take to realize that your marriage will never be all that is could be without Jesus?  That your children are never going to be truly obedient without Jesus?  That the money will not last no matter how hard you try without Jesus?  That the addiction will never be conquered without Jesus?   When you have tried it all on your own and you find your loosing your grip on that hope rope, follow Jesus!

But here is the best question, why wait that long?

I'd love to hear soem stories of why you chose to follow.  Or even why you haven't!

The Evidence of Things Unseen

Why does life have to be so hard?  Have you ever caught yourself asking that question?  Maybe I should ask how many days, hours or minutes has it been since you asked that question.  In this world of instant everything, some seem to think that there should be "instant peace" in the life of someone who claims to be a Christian, at least that is, if God, the Bible and Jesus are all really real. 

How does that balance with Jesus himself telling us in Matthew 5 to ⁴⁴  love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  Everyone has tough times, the evil and the good, the righteous and the unrighteous.  I have learned in the midst of the storm I just want to see the outcome.  How is this thing going to end?  Will I survive this turmoil in my life?  While that would most definitely be nice, it wouldn't be faith now would it.  At the moment we know it, it is fact not faith!

The writer of Hebrews in the introduction to that great Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11 wrote  ¹ Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.    You and I have to believe in some things that we cannot see.

Yesterday I heard an interview with a blind cross country runner.  Talk about faith in what we cannot see.  This coach has to be faster than the runner and able to run just barely ahead and given commands as to direction for one who literally can't see the way.  Can you even imagine running as hard as you can, even if it is not very fast by comparsion, and not being able to see what is coming, except through the eyes of someone else?  Warning you to go left or right, faaster or slower, run uphill or down, watch out for that hole in the path.

Here's the deal gang, if the Bible is true that is exactly what God promises us that the Holy Spirit will do.

Nehemiah 9

¹⁹ “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. ²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.

Isaiah 58
¹¹ The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will
strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

John 16
¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

The evidence of things unseen ... thank you God ... stregthen my FAITH!