My Nobel Prize

My wife thought it funny that I said Nobel Peace Prizes were available in the claw machine at the grocery store. Hey, there is nothing funny about that and it proves that the prize is more elusive than some would say. Have you ever tried to get a specific item out of one of those things?

I must confess I have never tried a claw machine. I hang my head in shame thinking that with my lack of experience I will probably never get to be the proud owner of a prize that at one time would have distinguished me from so many other common men.

And now I find that Obama will get one. All I can say is that guy has some skills and he didn’t even have to go to the grocery store. What was once prized is now becoming absurd. I guess we should have seen it coming when Al Gore scored one.

Philip

Patience

Puritan Thomas Adams offers this encouragement: "Patience to the soul is as bread to the body . . . we eat bread with all our meats, both for health and relish; bread with flesh, bread with fish, bread with broths and fruits. Such is patience to every virtue; we must hope with patience, and pray in patience, and love with patience, and whatsoever good thing we do, let it be done in patience."

Circumcision and Salvation

I was listening to Scripture this week as I drove from job to job. A section from Acts 15 stood out to me:

Some men came from Judea to Antioch and started teaching the believers, "You cannot be saved unless you are circumcised as the Law of Moses requires."

It was a question that required Paul and Barnabas to meet with the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. After much debate it was affirmed that circumcision was not necessary for salvation.

As I listened to the reading, I thought how things would be different if the answer had been different. Can you imaging the change in evangelism?  “Oh, by the way, there is one more thing I need to tell you” he said as he sharpened the razor. I guess that would have winnowed out the insincere.

Sometimes I think we want to make it too easy for people who come to Jesus. I know that salvation is by grace through faith and works don’t add a thing so I’m not advocating adding to the gospel but what about after?

I think about some people I know who started coming to a church I used to go to. They both had “interesting” backgrounds. There seemed a hesitation to encourage them to separate from those backgrounds. One worked at a head shop/tattoo parlor, the other held a lot of aberrant spiritual ideas. Over time the old ideas and ways of doing things caught up with them and caused them to stumble.

I wonder if being too soft on them lead to their downfall? Should they have been encouraged to make a separation from the old behaviors and ways of thinking?

In the Old Testament, circumcision was a sign of separation, consecration, covenant and purity. It showed they were the people of God.

What are our signs today? Sometimes we seem too eager to show that we are no different from the world except that we are “saved by grace”. Many talk the same, drink the same, smoke the same, look the same, live the same and take pride in that.

What should our signs be? What sets us apart? One thing Jesus said is that our love for one another would show we are his disciples. What else are the true signs of a follower of Jesus?

Philip

Trials of Various Kinds

The reason many of us do not ardently believe in the gospel is that we have never given it a rigorous testing, thrown our hard questions at it, faced it with our most prickly doubts.

A good friend of our family has been diagnosed with Melanoma skin cancer. It’s a mole gone bad and now life had radically changed for their family. Things will never be the same no matter what the outcome. As I think of them, my own troubles look small.

I am thankful that Mike and Caryn are people who love Jesus; this time will deepen their relationship with Him. But why can’t that come some other way? Why do we need adversity to do certain works in our hearts?

As hard as times like this are, they give us an opportunity to see how big God is. Grace will come and life will be bearable. How many times people look back and declare that the growth and experience gained were worth the effort.

But the beginning is not that way. My friends will be on my mind and I will pray for them. I will hope for them.

We are nor scavenging in the dark alleys of the world, poking in its garbage cans for a bare subsistence. We are traveling in the light, toward God who is rich in mercy and strong to save. It is Christ, not culture, that defines our lives. It is the help we experience, not the hazards we risk, that shapes our days.

God saw the mole a long time ago. He knows what will happen in the future days. I rejoice that my friends will see God’s glory in their lives as the future unfolds. I pray for peace in the journey.

Philip

The above quotes from: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.