Free Gifts

  I have had a few things in my life that I received as a result of doing something.  In other words, I earned what I was about to receive.  It may have been a paycheck or a prize.  It was just something that I got as a result of accomplishing something for someone else.  I fulfilled a goal of some sort in order to receive.  On the flip side, there have been very few things that I have received as a result of doing absolutely nothing.  Why even the list of the fictitious Santa Clause depended upon who was naughty or nice.  I recall going down to a university to apply for a scholarship.  I was to play the bassoon for them and then they would say whether I got a scholarship or not and there were only eight of them to give.  Well, I got one of them so they must have approved of what they heard.One of the most sought after things in life however, is often ignored.  It is the gift of salvation.  Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”  It is amazing to note how many of the world’s religions are based upon works of one sort or another.  It may be the number of flowers you sell or the number of prayers you pray or the number of converts you make or the number  of kind deeds that you perform.  Whatever it is, the end result is that it is a work of some sort or another.  You see, my efforts cannot add anything to what God has so adequately done in the first place.  God has supplied the perfect salvation and there is nothing that I can do to improve on what He has already done.  So, He made it a completely free gift.  Notice that it is what is said in the passage.  It is the gift of God and not of works.  Not one work can make it any better than it already is.  It is perfect in every detail.  I can’t play the bassoon or pray a number of prayers or live the good life.  It is a free gift and like all gifts, all I need to do is to receive it in the simplicity  in which it is given.  There is, however, an interesting side note which we find in the third verse in today’s passage.  We do “good works” not for our salvation, but because of our salvation, so works are there, present in every life of every believer because of what God has already done in our lives in this amazing gift of salvation.  So, praise God today for this amazing gift that you could not earn and just rejoice in it.

Good News

       I may have tried to proclaim my innocence a number of times in my life when in reality, I was guilty of the charges that had been made.  Most of my infractions were minor and did not carry a lot of punishment, but there were those things of which I was guilty as charged.  One of my worst times was in the area of disobedience and going along with the crowd thus ending up being guilty in the end.  The sad thing about some of those situations was that I knew what was being done was wrong, but it was easy to go along with the majority of the group at the time.  One such situation ended up with a poor review by my superior.  It could have been worse.  Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  What a joy it is to come to a given situation and hear the above words.  The Book of Romans can be divided up into several sections, with many different convenient outlines.  One that I have used contains all words beginning with the letter. “S.”    Salutation, Sin, Salvation, Sanctification, Service, Sovereignty and a conclusion, or as I called it, “So long.”  Romans 8:1 occurs in the “Sanctification” section.  The words seem to jump off the page as you have just come through  several chapters of how bad things look and then to hear the words, “There is therefore, now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus….”  When you get right down to thinking about it, you deserve all the punishment that God could give you but instead, you find out that there is no condemnation.  Now that is good news.  We live in a world that is scarce when it comes to good news.  There are but a few instances of good news around these days.  News programs scour the area to try to find at least one encouraging story about good news whether it be a story about a young person or a person who does something in a humanitarian effort to better things around him.  I know of many families who have refrained from watching the evening news due to the fact that it is often depressing to look at.  The first several chapters of Romans could be very depressing if it were not for the words of Romans 8:1.  “...No condemnation…”  Of course, you did notice the phrase that follows, “to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit..”  We do this by knowing what it says in the Word of God.  We do this by following the directions that have been already given to us.  While the world may be filled with depressing news, every believer can rejoice with the words of Romans 8:1.  Praise God today for His Salvation.

Comparisons

          It is true that there are many things in this life that can be compared. Other things, however, can't. We sometimes use the phrase, "It is like comparing apples to oranges." That simply means that the two items to be compared are so different that you wouldn't be able to draw any real conclusions if you did compare them. The Apostle Paul was comparing two things in the following verse. Romans 8:18 says, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." The two things being compared in this verse are the sufferings of this life and the glory that is coming later on. One of them far outweighs the other. Paul indicates that our present sufferings are really insignificant when compared to the glory that is going to come later. That may seem hard to believe for some who are really having a bad day. You may have found yourself on such a day, perhaps even today. While we are in the midst of suffering, they seem to be overpowering and squashing us down to the point that we feel as if we will never get up to get a breath. Sufferings are never pleasant. This is why this verse seems to be such a comfort. It speaks of sufferings, yes, but it contrasts them with the glory that is to follow. From all indications, the glory is going to far surpass all of our sufferings. The glory is going to be so great that your sufferings will be forgotten in an instant. We often give gifts to our family members during their birthdays. We usually give something big and then a number of very small things. We save the big gift for last, sometimes even hiding it so the person will not know it is coming. Once, however, it is received, the joy of that particular gift far outweighs the other gifts. New socks are forgotten as a new bicycle appears. In this sense, sufferings are not worthy to be counted in comparison to glory. The Book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of glory. It is a glimpse that offers us just a peak at what is to come. We can observe some of the sights and sounds of heaven. We get a quick picture of the Holy City. As we have seen all of these pictures from the future, we realize that the glory to come is going to be great. It is going to be far greater than we ever imagined. So, what does that do for us in the here and now? It says, "Hang in there. Your sufferings are nothing compared to the rewards that are coming. Be patient and endure the warfare, the pain and the suffering, the illness and the grief. Peter wrote much about this in his first epistle. In fact, you could call his epistle, "Suffering leads to Glory." Praise God today for what He has in store for you.

Getting Lost

      I am inclined to get lost easily whether it be a woods or a populated city area.  It makes little difference.  I just get turned around a couple of times and I could easily be lost. While in the Navy, we docked at a city in Southern Chile, named Punta Arenas.  It was at the foot of the Andes Mountains and when the wind starts to blow, almost everything is swept into the sea.  The captain of  our ship advised us to be close to the ship at all times and should a breeze start, make your way to the ship immediately.   Knowing my propensity for becoming turned around, I ventured off of the main dock but kept the ship in sight at all times.  I didn’t see much of Puntas Arenas that day.  God gives us some good directions in reference to knowing which way to go in life.  Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  This passage is one of those wall Plaque verses that you can purchase in many bookstores.  It is sound advice.  There are three things that need to be done in order to keep on the right path.  We are to Trust in the LORD with all of our heart.  We are to not follow our own own inclinations and we are to acknowledge the LORD in all of our ways.  Wow!  It sounds like a simple formula for never getting lost even in our spiritual lives.  Okay, just take the first one and endeavor to trust the LORD with all of our hearts.  I dare say that many of us may have failed in this one even since we got up this morning.  It is easy to say that I trust the LORD with all of my heart but then when the first problem comes, we find ourselves wondering what we shall do.  Soon, anxiety and fear creep in and we begin to devise plans to make things happen ourselves.  Thus, we find ourselves following our own path instead of the LORD’s path.  That is when our “own understanding” comes into play.  Perhaps we heard of some advice from another person or we read a “self help” book that describes how to be rich and famous.  Our own plans will get us lost in a maze for sure.  When we do follow the LORD’s direction, we find that we will arrive where God intended us to be and in complete safety.  What do we say then?  That is where we need to give God the credit and not ourselves.  It is acknowledging that God did it.  The world may not like hearing it so often when God is given credit for something publicly.  If God helped you, then tell the world that He did it and not yourself or some worldly person.  Praise God today for His working in all of our lives each and every day.

Music and the Son

 May 14, 2021

Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

   People are attracted to various genres of music.  A lot of people like country music, folk music, rap and many other kinds.  I was attracted to classical music almost from the earliest time I can recall music of any kind.  My Mother played polkas on an old pump organ but that still wasn’t the type of music that I liked.  I could also say that religious music held a special place in my heart.  I would like the works that told of the life of some prophet such as Elijah and was especially drawn to many of the works that depicted great events in the Bible.  It was easy for me to be drawn to the church with the biggest organ, the best choir and the best music.  At that time in my life, it felt “religious.”  One day, my friends who taught a few doors down from my studio, opened my door and said two verses from the Bible. I have added the following verse in this passage.  First John 5:11-13 says, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”   He quoted verses 11 and 12, shut the door, and left with no explanation as to why he did that.  Those two verses blew away all of my music, my tradition, my artwork, my stained glass windows, my robes and everything else that was “ecclesiastical” in my own little religious world.  God was knocking at my heart and prying away all of the items of the world that seemed to be religious but were just added weights.  Only one thing was important and John made it clear in these verses.  If you have the Son, you have life.  If you don’t have the Son, you don’t have life.  At that time, I didn’t have the Son.  All I had was frills and material things that looked religious, sounded religious, everyone else was doing it, sort of trappings.  I find that in this life there are many people holding onto things that appear to be religious but are not.  It is something that they have put together to make their own religion.  The only problem is that they don’t have the Son and therefore don’t have the Life for which they long.  How many people have you heard that get to the end of life after acquiring riches, fame and power and still find that their life is lacking something and that Something if the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no substitute for the Son so if you are looking for eternal life, then, look no further than the Son of God.  Music, art, tradition, robes, liturgical calendars and such will not replace the SON.  Life can only be found in Him.  I think that John the Apostle made it pretty simple in this passage and notice the following verse, “...that ye may “KNOW…”  Praise God today for sending His Son to provide salvation.

Finished

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Finishing a project has not always been one of my “forte’s” so to speak.  I could take you to a visual picture of uncompleted model airplanes, battle ships and half painted models as well as other items that were not finished, at least the way they should have been in the first place.  I dabbled in oil painting for a period in my life which produced a number of paintings, some of which were finally placed outside of a dumpster between Christiansburg, VA and Pilot, VA as we prepared to go to Spain.  A few of them survived but a close scrutiny of the pictures might reveal when I got tired of them and wished them to be finished.  When you are the artist, you get the job of determining when it is finished and when it is not done yet.  Some ideas are determined to be “half baked” which could be another example of a work that was not done to begin with, or at least the thought of doing a work.   Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”  This has long been one of my favorite passages as it shows that God is just the opposite when it comes to finishing a project.  The prime example here is we ourselves.  There are however, many other exampled in our surrounding that depict how God has completed that which He began in the first place such as the Bombardier Beetle, the iris flower, Pleiades, the arrangement of the solar system and the distance to the sun, the chemical makeup of “water, old H2O and the blood system in our own bodies.  The list is endless as we look around us and see God’s projects, all of them finished and completed even when we don't understand each and every part of them.  In the end, we can rest assured in what God has planned for us and the rest of our lives.  Oh, we don’t see all of it yet as we are on the wrong side of the tapestry.  God, however, is on the right side and knows the picture even as it unfolds before His eyes.  The pain, the grief, the joy, the surprise and many other things all make up the excitement of our lives which are still under construction.  So, what do you have to fear?  What anxieties keep you from good sleep at night?  Giving it all to the Lord as He works His miracles in our lives should be the comfort that we need.  I know, it is what I need.  God is working the work in my life and in your lives  that make us who we are and what we will become.  Praise God today for His working in your life and in all of our lives.  As my friends once said, “God is working a 7.7 billion piece puzzle every second.”

Is God Here?

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

       Some have said, “What happened?”  Others said, “Are you all right?”  I guess it was obvious that something took place that changed the course of my life over the past two months.  It all began on a Saturday afternoon with some chills, a nap and then sliding out of bed and landing on the floor.  That episode was going to repeat itself at 2:15 in the morning which would eventually result in the men in the red truck coming and taking me to the Emergency Room.  I didn’t know what was going on except that I was weak and stuck on a hospital bed in the ER for the next day and a half.  The VA was full and transferring patients to this hospital so couldn’t go over there.  One thing led to another and I learned new terms such as “sepsis.”  It meant that things were going on in my bloodstream as an infection raged through my body.  Extreme cellulitis in the left leg seemed to be the culprit and antibiotics were being injected.  I was at the mercy of another five teams of medical people from surgical, medical, vascular, infectious disease and podiatry trying to fix what was broken.

Psalm 139:13-16 says, “ For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”  God’s presence was still there even in this hospital as I spent Resurrection Day 

On a hospital bed.  I recall the day when I thought it was Easter, but I was a day early.  I asked a nurse taking blood, “Are you a Christian?”  I was surprised when she said, “NO.  I don’t know what I am.”  I kept repeating the phrase, “He is risen.”  No one was responding with “He is risen indeed.”   For a while I thought I was in a pagan world until finally one replied with a Christian response.  Finally, someone was a believer.  God was still there.  He was there long before that day and even before the Saturday of the chills.  He was there when I was formed.  God was there at my birth and God has been there in every aspect of my life.  Psalm 139 dives into the riches of life and how it is formed in the beginning stages.  When we realize that God was present even when we were conceived, it should give us a glimmer of hope in a world that is falling into oblivion.  We probably have all experienced those days in the hospital when things were crumbling around us and perhaps we have wondered if God was there with us.  We can praise God today for His presence in all of our lives even from the days of conception.