Friday, August 30, 2019

Labor Day 2019

Monday, our nation will celebrate Labor Day, a day to honor those who worked to help build our nation. It’s a day that has been celebrated since Sept. 5, 1882, starting in New York City. Although all workers are recognized equally today, the original purpose was to honor the field workers, and mine workers, the factory seamstresses, etc.

According to the U.S. Census Board, about 13% of our nation was made up of foreign-born citizens, roughly 10 million immigrants, during the 1880’s. The National Bureau of Economic Research records that there were about 17 million laborers during the 1880’s. I found this data interesting because a large percentage of the labor done in our nation during the time of the first Labor Day holiday was done by people that weren’t even from America. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to anyone.

This is the point I hope to share here: People who weren’t natural-born citizens played a big part in shaping the New World, even though their home was someplace else. Consider how Christians are also citizens of another Kingdom, a truly New World. Philippians 3:20, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” We, too, are called to work while we wait! Paul encouraged a congregation in Corinth (and ultimately all believers), that in spite of the struggles of life, the frustrations of working with people you don’t always see eye to eye with, or the injustices we sometimes face – to stay focused! “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

He tells those in Thessalonica, “But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good.” Jesus wants us to live and work amongst His creation for the good of His kingdom. In the same way that God put Adam in charge of cultivating the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:28) by laboring in it, caring for it, nurturing it, we too are called to let our light shine (make an impact on people’s lives) so that they see God working through us.

Thankfully, God isn’t forcing us to labor in His kingdom, but rather He works along with us, helping us be the people that point to a New World. Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

Let us never rest from the labor of sharing God’s love.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Significance

Significance. It’s what ultimately drives most human beings to go farther, to reach higher, to try more. We long for significance in life. That’s another way to say we want to have a purpose and to make an impact on the world we live in.

Solomon wrote in great length of the efforts he went to in order to leave his mark on the world. He said in Ecclesiastes 2:4-5, “I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees.” His conclusion: Vanity!

But if simply “being noticed” is the end result in our search for significance, then we might find ourselves making major compromises to our standard we have.

Education opens doors of opportunities. Being educated also is a means to help communicate with others, even specializing in something that really has the power to impact others—and bring more significance to ourselves. A good education can help us work in harmony with God’s goal for mankind and our own search for significance.

The opposite can be true as well. When our “education” is more focused on things that go against our standard found in Christ, then we can find our self truly lost in the end.

Jesus had said in Matthew 16:25-26, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? ”

Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:9-10, “But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

Our education points us in the right direction and becomes the standard we live by. If we make Christ be the standard behind any kind of education we seek to gain, then we will find significance and peace.

Solomon said in Proverbs 16:3, “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.”

Jesus modeled the level of involvement and the sacrifice and the determination it took to make a significant impact on the world without losing sight of God’s high standard. Make Christ’s ways part of your ways; you might find that others can find a way because of your choices today.

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Undivided

On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln used this passage from Matthew 12:25 in his campaign speech – “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe the government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

It’s not just the government. Any organized body of like-mindedness that becomes polarized on issues to the point of division, will not stand long. As we look out over the scope of our nation from the last decade or more, it doesn’t take much to see how divided we really are.

What’s it take to bring unity? Laws? Education? Prosperity? Thankfully Jesus modeled for us what it takes to bring unity, and ultimately peace, to a group of people. However, God’s way of bringing two halves together will be rejected by the world (John 15:18-25, John 1:6-13).

David said in Psalms 86:11-12, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore.” He recognizes what it would take to keep his kingdom together, he also recognized that it would take similar steps to keep any relationship together.

Teach me. Not just classroom learning. In fact, God does more show than tell (James 2:17-18). From Abraham to Joseph, from Moses to Elijah, and obviously in Jesus – God has shown us what He wants us to do.

Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Jesus taught all of these things, which ultimately defined His Way. A path that He invited people to “follow” Him regularly on.

When Jesus is our model, we have to walk and talk the way He did in order for us to achieve the kind of unity that only God can bring (John 17). It was Jesus’ truth that would set us free (John 8:32), not our own. It was Jesus’ guidance that would lead to eternal life, not our own (John 14:6).

But David highlights an important ingredient in the “following God” that leads to unity – “unite my heart to fear Your name”. The New American Standard Bible says to “give me an undivided heart…” James says in James 1:7-8 that the man who doubts God’s ways is a "...double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Double mindedness is thinking and acting in two different ways expecting the same result (Kelley’s definition). Jesus offered the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22 the guidance that could have led him to achieve what David was praying for in Psalms 86; but he was a double-minded man. God wants our heart to want what He wants; and He wants all people to be saved because He loves them. It’s the love for our neighbor that proves to be the secret ingredient to unity – nationally, spiritually, and personally.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

The Words of God

In life, and especially in business, documentation is important. Whether it’s a written contract, receipt, instructions, etc., having things written down actually helps more than just the immediate people involved – it helps those who are interested in what’s being documented.

In the ancient Hebrew culture, nearly everything was passed down by oral traditions. But it wasn’t because God was opposed to the written word. After all, He inspired the writing of the bible we have. However, there was another reason that we could speculate on why He began His relationship with mankind (in the formal sense) in oral law.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all had a unique relationship with God, where God spoke directly to them. But it wasn’t until Moses delivered the Ten Commandments to the Israelites that we have a written law. In fact, most biblical scholars and historians agree that Moses wrote the first five books (Torah) of the Old Testament.

But rather than just a collection of official documents and receipts, God still wanted something in these opportunities to talk about God to be present. Deuteronomy 6:6-7, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

God’s plan was that we would build the relationship with other humans, sharing God’s will with each other. After all, He spent quality time walking and talking with Adam and Eve in the garden, basically sharing His heart with them.

Proverbs 10:31-32, “The mouth of the godly person gives wise advice, but the tongue that deceives will be cut off. The lips of the godly speak helpful words, but the mouth of the wicked speaks perverse words.”

Whether written or spoken, our words have the power to reveal God’s will; they have the power to build up or tear down, to encourage or discourage, to express love or hate. As followers of Christ, we have not only the privilege but the responsibility to encourage each other with God’s words – written or spoken.

In time, God began inspiring writers to write down the words of God for future generations to be encouraged. One benefit of having something written down is that you can look back on it and see that word of encouragement, instruction, even a word of rebuke.

2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”