Sunday, April 30, 2006

Neighborhood Mercy

I’ve been writing this weekly column since May 17, 1998 only missing two weeks, one for a total crash of my computer and the other two years ago at the death of my mother. The local newspaper has printed it for going on five years, I send it out to over 70 email recipients across the country, including three in Africa and I have a Blog. I abstain from promoting anything or anyone except for God’s Word and the Lord, Jesus Christ. I do it because there are many who don’t think they can live a righteous life in this sinful world, but according to God’s Word that simply isn’t so. I attempt to take a little something from my life, add an antidote to lighten the mood and apply both to God’s loving mercy, found in His Word, to help explain that we can live as God would have us to live, with just a little effort on our part. I’m going to break tradition this week and write about a non-profit organization named, South Texas Resources and Assistance Center located here in Floresville. I would venture to say very few people know who or what they are. Operating on a shoestring, STRAC has become a lifeline for the poor and elderly for Wilson and surrounding counties, procuring medicines and support finding help to improve lowly lifestyles. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t feel STRAC didn’t fill the needs of a long neglected population of our community. To put it bluntly, STRAC needs financial help to continue their work. STRAC, 1006 “D” St., Floresville, 830-393-7888.
John Gipson wrote: There’s something I can do. I’m not bragging because it’s something you can do too. It’s not confined to young or old. It has nothing to do with intelligence or high attainments. It’s an “equal opportunity employer”. One doesn’t even have to be in good health. So what is it? It begins with an attitude of heart and leads to action. It’s so admired by Jesus that He pronounces a blessing on everyone who practices it. Let me give you a hint. God has done it through the ages. You can see it exemplified in Jesus, and when I do it, it returns to me. It’s unfortunate that many neglect or refuse the opportunity to do it. Perhaps the difficulty lies in the fact that it requires “getting inside” the other person. William Barclay expressed it this way: “Oh the bliss of the man who gets right inside other people, until he can see with their eyes, think with their thoughts, feel with their feelings, for he who does that will find others do the same for him, and will know that that is what God in Jesus Christ has done”. The thing I can do, and you can do, is show mercy. Jesus promised (Matthew 5:7), “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”. If it’s mercy I need, then it is mercy that I must extend. Look carefully at how Jesus acted when He was in close personal association with distressed people. Was He not always extending a helping hand? And, shouldn’t I be doing the same thing? A warning label is attached about the omission of this beautiful quality of mercy in ones life. (James 2: 13) “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgment.”
[Luke 14: 12-14] The works of many groups in this community aren’t done with the intention of great repayment. They are done in love and pity for ones neighbor. The loss of support given by STRAC to these groups, will definitely diminish the quality of good works in several communities. Your monetary gifts will help defer normal business expenses, keeping these two angels working, and glorifying God, with their mercy.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

All Clogged Up?

One of the privileges of being a homeowner is you never know when something is going to fall apart and have to be fixed. Now if you’re like me you tend to let some of those things pile up until you don’t know where to start first. I think I’m going to give birth to a new “job jar” putting in little notes to myself of all the things I need to get done around here, my wife can probably fill it in five minutes. Well, some things can’t be put off. This past week I discovered I had a clogged drain somewhere as the water was backing up into my garage. No big deal, I’ll just get my trusty drain snake out and fix this problem mucho quick. Riiight! My manually operated tool just wasn’t getting the job done. After feeding about thirty feet of the spring steel into the drain it starts to feel like you’re pushing a rope up hill. I’m too stubborn and independent to call a plumber, not to mention too cheap. And after thinking about the problem for a few hours, it turns out the clog wasn’t even where I thought it was and I needed to rent a powered “roto rooter” to break up the clog in the main line half way out to the street. What a great sound it is to hear water gurgling down the drain once again. Victory!!
Just driving by or walking past this field with two horses in it, nothing unusual will be seen, unless you stop and then you’ll notice something quit amazing. Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him. This alone is amazing. Listening, one will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source, one will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to her bridle is a small bell. It lets her blind friend know where she is so he can follow her. As one stands and watches these two friends, one sees how she is always checking on him and that he will listen for her bell, then slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she will not lead him astray.
[Galatians 6: 1-10] Like the owner of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems and challenges. He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need. That brings me to my thought. While working on that stinky ole sewer clog, I couldn’t help but think about the sins that we commit, clogging our right from wrong reasoning power, stinking up our life to a point where people don’t even want to be around us anymore. Some people get so backed-up with crud they don’t even want to be around themselves. Well, just getting to the clog and getting life to flowing again takes some help and God has seen to it that there is plenty of help for the repenting sinner. I’m reminded over and over that God’s word contains very little doctrine about the church, but is filled with conduct for life and living. It’s true, and for the person who’s blind with hopelessness, overcome by sin, God’s word and God’s people can lead them back to a life worth living. And guess what? I’ve yet to see it fail, that the person who finds love and peace in the kingdom of God, that person finds a way to help someone else unclog their life. Sometimes we’re the blind horse being guided by God and those whom He places in our lives. Other times we’re the guide horse, helping others see God. We are what we eat, we are what we think and we’ll reap what we sow. “…let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are in the household of the faith.” Go! Help unclog a stinky life.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Renewing Day By Day

My wife and I got away last weekend taking a few days off, being selfish and doing what we wanted to do. I’m told it’s a healthy thing to do and I have to admit I do feel somewhat renewed upon returning home. We went to a NASCAR race in Ft. Worth; auto racing is one of my quiet passions shared by my wife. While in the neighborhood we got a chance to have dinner one night with relatives who live close by and we also took an extra day traveling a few miles down the road to visit some friends we hadn’t seen in many years. Well, while sitting in the stands watching the race in the beautiful Texas sunshine I did exactly what I warn my children not to do, I cooked to a bright red. Oh yeh, forehead, nose and arms. I haven’t done that to myself since childhood. A week later and no one would be any the wiser what I had done to myself, because the body has that amazing ability to regenerate and renew that which has been damaged, maybe not to it’s original pristine condition, but pretty close. Take a few days. It’s good for the mind.
There is a grave marker in Bridgeport, Connecticut that reads, “AUNT FANNY- SHE HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD”. Fanny Crosby was blind from six weeks of age because of mistreatment by a man claming to be a doctor. Yet she wrote more than 9000 hymns such as: “Blessed Assurance”; “All the way My Savior Leads Me”; “I Am Thine Oh Lord”; “Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross”; “Praise Him, Praise Him”; “Rescue The Perishing”; “To God Be The Glory” and “Tell Me The Story Of Jesus” to name a few. Although blind, she was the guest of six presidents and a personal friend of Grover Cleveland. Her 9000 hymns were set to music by every popular American tunesmith of the nineteenth century and they still bless the church of Jesus Christ in our day. It has been said, “It doesn’t take much of a man to be used of God. It just takes all of him.”
[2 Corinthians 4: 13-18] (NIV) Paul and Timothy write to the church in Corinth in the first person, describing themselves in their walk of faith, encouraging the reader, then and now, to follow their example. They talk of both the physical body and the inward, spirituality of man. Even though God has designed a marvelous regenerative body for us to use, I don’t think anyone has to explain that one day the physical body is going to cease to function due to trauma or disease. Young or old we have no idea when this will occur, but as in the case of Fanny Crosby, the condition of our body makes no difference to God. Think on what the writers said: “…do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” Baptized in Christ we have received the Holy Spirit who watches over our spirit as we strive to live righteously, following the example and teachings of the Apostles of Christ. We are a sinful lot, even as baptized believers, causing damage to our spirit with doubt and selfish pride, but isn’t it great to know that through the grace of God our spirit is being renewed daily. The writers also say: “For our light (life) and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” We have the right to decide for ourselves how we will conduct our lives, but as believers of God’s word, growing in the knowledge of His will for mankind, dealing with our troubles in a godly manner will bring about eternal glory. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is not seen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” God loves you.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Collages

Can you remember when in grade school, a long time ago for some, you made a collage for an art project? The collages we made couldn’t be assembled with just a bunch of anything and everything, no we had to choose a theme and gather things that pertained to that theme. I can remember pictures of presidents, newspaper headlines, leaves from trees, canceled mail envelopes with postage stamps of all kinds on them. I think I made one with pictures of automobiles from a half dozen magazines. Well anyway, I remember it was fun doing, cutting up magazines and gluing it all together on a special thick piece of paper. Little did we know that making a collage was a fun introduction in learning to gather facts and figures and statistics which we would be doing for the rest of our life. Without this seemingly simple ability we would find it difficult to reason and make good decisions and basically function in our very complex world today. Praise God for your abilities and pray for the mentally challenged.
O,K. here’s a collage of Christian One-Liners that have been cluttering my desk for months. **Some people are kind, polite and sweet spirited, until you try to sit in their pew. **Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers. **It’s easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one. **Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous. **Don’t put a question mark where God has put a period. **Don’t wait for six strong men to take you to church. **The good Lord didn’t create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come real close. **People are funny. They want the front of the bus, the middle of the road and the back of the church. **Forbidden fruits make many jams. **God grades on the cross, not the curve. **Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on your front door every day. **Quit gripping about your church. If it were perfect, you couldn’t belong. **If your church wants a better preacher, it only needs to pray for the one it has. **God himself does not propose to judge a man until he’s dead, so why should you? **Some minds are like concrete; thoroughly mixed up and permanently set. **Peace starts with a smile. **I don’t know why people keep changing churches. What difference does it make which church you stay home from?! **Are you “Standing On The Promises” or just sitting on the premises? **We’ve been called to be witnesses; not lawyers or judges. **Be fishers of men. You catch ‘em / He’ll clean ‘em. **He who angers you, controls you. **Never give God instructions; just report for duty. **Sin will take you places you never meant to go; keep you there longer than you intended to stay and cost you more than you can afford. **The task ahead of us is never as great as the POWER behind us. **Don’t change the message; let the message change you. **If God is your co-pilot; swap seats! **You tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him. **1cross + 3 nails = 4 given.
[Psalm 37: 25] (NIV) “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” We can always depend on God, and we are also reminded by the writer, we’re not young forever. (Ecclesiastes 9: 10) The teacher, Solomon, son of David, reminds us that: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” Your collage of love will be finished, forever.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Facades Of Life

It is said, “You can’t make a silk purse from a sows ear” and the meaning behind this is, it’s impossible to make something excellent from poor material. Even though I changed my career focus several years back, I still receive free magazines and information from the auto/truck industry concerning parts sales and service. I generally glance through them to see and wonder over the new things the engineers are coming up with. I think it won’t be long before an owner/operator of a vehicle repair shop is going to have to be a college grad with an engineering degree to be successful in the trade. Well, most of these publications are geared toward the young entrepreneur about to get their feet wet in the wonderful world of owning a business. (I think everyone should own a business at least once in their life. They would certainly come away with a greater understanding for the decisions of their next employer.) Most of the articles deal with what to, and what not to do when getting started in business. The greatest aspect dealt with is appearance to the public, your potential customers. Developing the proper eye candy on the street side of your building and the atmosphere (first impression) one step inside the door is stressed over and over again. I never was too good at that. I just did good work at a fair price. But then again, my entrepreneurship only lasted 20 years.
Imagine for a moment your life is a house with four walls. The front wall is the side you show the world. It’ where you put your best foot forward, you know, the carefully crafted image we all have. One of the side walls, or the second wall of our life is the “private” side, the person that only your family, close friends and co-workers see. This side is usually a little rougher than the front, since these people know the “real” you a little better. They sometimes see you at your worst and know how bad you can really be. The third wall is worse still, a hidden side, the image of yourself that you keep in your own mind. This side is rougher yet, because it includes many hidden sins that you alone know about, the darker parts of your inner self that are carefully hidden from even those closest to you. Finally we reach the back of the house, the fourth wall. The fourth wall is the image of you that God sees. It can be the most beautiful or the most embarrassing side because there is nothing you can do to conceal a single part of it from the piercing eyes of God. Strangely, this side of you can be the worst or the best side of all.
[Galatians 3: 26-27] By a miracle of grace, the fourth wall really can become the most beautiful wall, more perfect even than the carefully groomed image of the first wall. For as a baptized believer, the blood of Jesus covers your sins like a fresh coat of gleaming white paint that will never crack, peel or fade. Christ can make the fourth wall of your life more perfect than any of the other three, simply because the first three are your creation, but the fourth is His. And in Christ when God looks at you He sees a perfection you could never attain on your own; He sees the perfect image of His own son. Guess what happens when you start to see the beauty and craftsmanship that Jesus is putting into your fourth wall; your soul; your everlasting spirit. You ask Him if there might be a way for Him to help you work on the other three walls of your house. Now this I have done, and I know my relationship with the world, family, friends, co-workers, myself and God has changed for the better. A sinner has become saved in truth and love.