Everyone had a good day because I was gone

"One day I was sick and everyone else had a good day because I was gone"

Those are the words a 9 year old boy said to me yesterday. My heart broke for him. I immediately thought of him as a teenager thinking the same thing. A teenager thinking everyone would be happier if I was dead. Then I got angry at the devil. I heard that seed planted in that little boys ear and thought how dare you!

So I acted, carefully. As a supply teacher in the public board I need to be very careful how things are worded. So I thought and spoke -

"You are not a bad kid but you did behave badly"

"I'm not?"

"(Child's name) you have a purpose. A reason why you were born."

"Really?" He asked looking up at me

"There is a job you need to do in your life that only you can do. You never know when or where but one day it will happen"

"I'm supposed to go to school so I can make lots if money and be rich"

"No you go to school so you can learn everything you need to know so one day you can help someone. One day someone will need your help and you need to be ready. When you act how you did today you make it so you can't do the reason why you were born and so it is harder for other people to do the reason they were born"

"Oh, ok, I'm sorry" and out he went for recess as I prayed one day when that voice whispered in his ear again that mine would be louder.

Never Meant To Be Pioneers

Mankind loves to pioneer.  We are always pursuing something, trying to get to new places, attempting to discover the next big thing. We are especially pioneers in our striving for more knowledge through such avenues as science, philosophy and astronomy. Pioneers, in a historical sense, give thought to those who were the first to explore and settle a new country or area. As our world has gotten smaller and we’ve run out of physical space to explore, pioneering has become increasingly focused on being the first to research and develop a new level of knowledge. 

Historically, when pioneering into new frontiers we found a way through that may have been no more than a narrow dirt path. We did not necessarily know where our exploring would take us. When we got to a point that we were satisfied with, we would stop and develop it.  Eventually we would go back to where we came from and make a wider path to allow for easier travel by those who followed after us. Today we have skillfully made highways and expressways that allow large amounts of traffic to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. We have become very talented at creating these paths.

Man’s pursuit for knowledge began a long time ago when, in Genesis 3:6-7, we chose the desire of gaining wisdom over the desire to be in an intimate relationship with God. When that fruit passed into the body of man it opened up our eyes to knowledge that we were never meant to concern ourselves with.  Mankind began our journey away from that place of relationship with God, both physically and spiritually. We were never meant to be pioneers.

Our path of the pursuit of knowledge has become a series of wide and well paved roads. It has become very easy to pursue information and to come to theoretical and/or practical understanding of that which we seek. The issue with these roads is that they never come to a place that we are satisfied with. We keep building and developing these roads; and yet we never actually discover where they are leading to. We have come up with theories and hypotheses and we have tested them using the "knowledge" we have gained from our other theories and hypotheses. We boast, “Look how far we have come on our own! Look how much knowledge we have attained!” Science can come up with many theories of HOW everything we see and feel and are came to be. No form of science can even attempt to answer the questions of WHY we are here.  

I’m not saying that knowledge is bad. Knowledge is part of God’s creation and it includes the knowledge of good and evil. The issue is when knowledge has been vainly pursued after rather than given and when knowledge becomes an idol that we replace God with.  God gave Solomon “wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding” in 1 Kings 4:29 and it was good and Godly knowledge.  However, Ecclesiastes 1:16-18 describes the pursuit of understanding and wisdom as chasing after the wind and full of sorrow and grief. When we pursue wisdom and knowledge but fail to pursue the Creator of wisdom and knowledge then our path is a vain and endless one that leads nowhere.

If I am to have any knowledge and understanding, I want it to be from God and not found through my own pursuit. In Colossians 2:2-3, Paul says that it is in Jesus Christ that God has hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  Those who are hunting for the treasures of knowledge and understanding anywhere else will never find what they are looking for. The roads may look nice and be easy to travel upon but they ultimately lead to darkness and despair.

Mike

Finding the Narrow Path

The sermon on the mount seems to be jumping out at me a lot in the last couple of months. I find it interesting that even though i have probably read Matthew 5-7 more times than I can remember, it is still a teaching of Jesus' that speaks to me and shows me something I didn't fully understand before.

Perhaps too often, the entirety of this large chunk of teaching by Jesus has been taken out of context or overlooked completely. When we choose to ignore it or pick and choose the parts we want out of the sermon on the mount we manage to view the "narrow gate" of Matthew 7:13,14 as the "sinner's prayer". We get this image of "just say this prayer and then no matter what happens after that you will be okay because Jesus took away all your sins and you were saved".

This is a dangerous thought that looks and sounds like this wide path:

For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. (Matthew 7:13 NIV)

Acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior through death on the cross and resurrection three days later is a good thing and it is where the Christian journey begins. However, if that is where your Christian journey ends then there is much more missing.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV)

...BUT only the one who does the will of my Father...

In Matthew 5:17-48, Jesus runs through several of the standards set out in the Ten Commandments and even tells us to take them all one step further. God's will is still that His people live a life of righteousness. Jesus didn't come to change that so we could do as we please.

In Matthew 6 and 7 Jesus touches on the manner in which we should help those in need, offer our prayers to God, and fast. He says that we should cherish heavenly treasures over earthly ones. He also talks of how much God loves us and desires to care for our needs. He tells us there is no sense in worrying because God will provide. He tells us not to judge others for their wrongs because we have issues ourselves that we should be more concerned with. He tells us to seek after God and we will not be disappointed.

After telling us the way that we should live Jesus says:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matthew 7:24 NIV)

 

He goes on to explain that rock is a strong foundation and if you build upon it then when storms come and the house is shaken it will not fall. Here it is! Jesus gave us a blueprint on how to live our lives so that they would be set upon a strong foundation!

 

Saying the sinner's prayer and stopping there is like saying "I'm going to build a house!" and then throwing one brick out onto a field, dusting off your hands and saying "There. All done!". When struggles come your way there is not enough foundation in your faith to stand upon. There is no shelter from the storm. When sickness hits, when a loved one hurts you, when your friends disappear, when there isn't enough money to pay the bills... you will fall off of that foundation and you will fall away from God.

When the sinner's prayer is the beginning of your journey and you build off of it by living a life that seeks righteousness, loves others, offers forgiveness rather than seeking revenge, recognizes and helps those in need, that prays and fasts, that values heavenly treasure over worldly treasure, and gives worry over to God and seeks Him out...that is a life set upon a rock. When the storms come you will know how to love, to forgive, to pray, to fast and to seek God. You will know where your real treasure is. You will not worry because you know your God is in control. You will have found the narrow path.

It is time for us to recognize that our faith that God is real is not enough.

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. (James 2:19 NIV)

It is time to recognize that our actions are not enough.

Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:22, 23 NIV)

It is the combination of faith and action that will result in a strong, healthy and fruitful relationship with God that will lead you to salvation. It doesn't sound easy and it isn't. It is hard work but it is definately worth it!

Guard the Night

Sometimes we grow tired. The life that we think we should have gets in our way and slows us down. Sometimes we fall "asleep at the wheel" and our life seems to go by on auto-pilot. I've often wondered when we live our life like this what God is thinking and to be honest we can't really be sure. I do know that God has often preserved the lives of those who have not yet realized His plan for their lives so that when they "wake up" He can work through them and do amazing things. In our darkest hours when we have lost all hope and sight of Him, God is still there whether we acknowledge it or not. My hope and prayer is that we "wake up" to His plan before it is too late. That is my inspiration for this:

Guard the Night

 

I see you slowing down

Your legs are getting weak

Your words have fallen quiet

Your lips no longer speak

If you cannot go on

Then stop and rest a bit

But don’t forget to wake

When the sunrise hits

 

Close your tired eyes; lay down your weary head

And I will guard the night

 

I see you’re wavering

Your heart no longer seeks

Your fire has grown cold

Your path is looking bleak

Oh, listen to my voice

I want to help you through

But if you push me out

There’s nothing I can do

 

Close your tired eyes; lay down your weary head

And I will guard the night

Here comes daybreak

Here comes sunrise

Oh, Wake my child

Rise up my Child
 

Open up your eyes; shake your groggy head

The day and hour has come

The moon has turned blood red

Time is growing short

You must keep pressing on

And I will guide with light

 

Mike

Ah ha moments

Sometimes God gives us answers when we ask. Other times there seems to be a silence while we beg for a response. My answer apparently has come 4 years after the question when I wasn't even thinking of it. When we lost 3 babies over a short 4 month span in 2007 I wondered why. In my immaturity I concluded it was because God must be giving us a child that would be born quickly. Why else would he take them from us? As the months and years passed I was confused. We could have had both a baby we lost and another child in this time. It did not make sense to me.

My conclusions on the way to trusting God with the answer were not pretty. I told myself I was an awful mom and God wouldnt give me more kids because of that. I told myself clearly I couldnt take care of another if he would give me one. I plotted ways to end my life to be with the babies we had lost, then felt terrible for considering leaving the one we still had. And eventually I told myself God had a reason and he would share it with me one day on earth or in heaven. And I still did not understand.

I understand and it is so amazingly fantastic that the happy tears cant stop flowing in the middle of the night. We each have a purpose. So simple isnt it? And we know this. Even people who do not believe in God know this. But it is so much more than we think it is. Our three little ones concieved, planned and wanted in our love had a purpose and they each lived out that purpose fully. They were not a mistake God took back. They did not lack purpose. Their purpose was to create a wonderful testimony in us that would affect the lives of many. They are affecting your life as you read this. They made way for changes in our life. Their lives were the exact length of time that God planned them to be in order to complete what he wanted for them. Their purpose lives on every time we talk about them. And if somehow I had been able to keep them longer like I would have liked to at the time they left us, then our little girl Bethany would not be able to live out her purpose.

As Bethany kicks inside me, she has a purpose too. God has a plan for her that would likely not have come to be should our other children have been born. If we had not lost those babies, Andrew would likely be our last child. Bethany would not be here. Her purpose would not have been fullfulled. God saw the whole picture. God had a wonderful plan for this little girl. He knows the people she will affect every day of her life and he has a plan for her to infulence this world in a wonderful way. It is a plan that would not have come to be if I had my way 4 years ago. He knew better than me. His big picture is so much more than my little view of how I think things should be or how I want them to be.

Our life is so much more than our simple existance too. It is all worked together in a complex web including every person and situation that occurs here. I looked at the years we tried for Evalynn and thought that the only reason was so I could help someone else through it one day. It is so much more. Evalynn's purpose could not have been lived out if she was born sooner. There is some reason why she was born when she was. Hear me loud and clear everyone who has ever tried for a long time to have children, everyone who has lost babies - your child cannot live out God's plan for it in the best possible way if it is born in your timing. He has the perfect time for that child where it will influence classmates, teachers, coworkers, neighbours. If you picked their birthdate (which trust me I know it would be yesterday!) they could not live out their purpose properly. There is this massive plan for each of our lives and we could not put it together if we tried.

The years of waiting, the lost babies that were never held, the lost ones that were. They all have a purpose. There is a reason for the pain. It is not to save us from something bad but to give us something good. All of his plans for us are good. Our losses (as insignificant as it feels in light of some other's) were part of a good plan for us. Part of a good plan for you. Part of a good plan for Bethany and everyone she will meet that could not have happened without the things we thought were bad.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Or in another version-" For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, said the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

My babies lived out their purpose fully and reached an expected end that allowed for each of their siblings to live out their purpose too. Oh surprise ah ha moments are wonderful.

Why You Need the Church Body

More and more I hear people say (and see people attempt to live out) the statement "I believe in God and I believe in Jesus but I don't feel I need to go to church". I have a hard time saying to somebody who has come to such a decision that "you need to go to church". There is so much complexity to a statement like that and it can be taken in ways it is not meant to be. Some of the arguments people use about not attending church includes:

They just want my money

I find it boring

I don't have the time

I don't believe what they believe

Someone from church did something to hurt/offend me

If any of these reasons strike at you as why you don't attend church then I can only suggest you talk to someone you view as a true follower of Jesus about it so that they can help you talk through these feelings.

I want to talk about why you SHOULD attend a church. First of all let's define what I am calling church.

I'm not talking about the building. I am talking about a group of believers in Jesus Christ that meet regularly inside that building. You may have heard the saying “standing in a church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car”. The important part is making a connection to the BODY of Christ, not being in the building once a week.

In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 Paul talks to the church using the metaphor of a body. Every person is meant to be a part of the body of Christ whether they are a hand, foot, knee, finger, ear, etc. Paul describes how every part of the body serves a purpose and each part helps to serve the body as a whole in some way.

I would like to take this metaphor one step further. The body needs parts to survive and to function properly. However, some parts can be removed without causing death to the body. If your finger is cut off you would most likely survive. People lose limbs and continue to live relatively normal lives. Perhaps the power that Jesus has given the church is severely hampered due to the fact that missing parts have caused the body to not be able to function at the best of its ability. Regardless, the body survives and pushes onward with what is available.

Here is the scary part. Yes, the body can survive without all parts intact. But what happens to the parts that become disconnected from the body? They are no longer attached the source of life! Without the body, none of these parts can survive! They may be preserved for a short period of time in which they are still able to be reattached to the body but ultimately they will die. These dead pieces of flesh are ultimately sent to be incinerated. No, I'm not saying you need to go to church or you will physically die. I am talking about a spiritual death. A disconnection from God will spiritually starve you to death.

So here is my cry. YOU need to be connected to the body! If you were at one point part of the body and have somehow been cut off or separated from it there is still time. As long as there is breath in your lungs you are a part preserved to be reattached.

If you have never been a part of the "body" you should know that the body is continually growing and reproducing. As long as there is breath in your lungs it is not too late to be reborn into the body of Christ. In John 3:3-7, Jesus talks of what it means to be "born again". It is a spiritual birth into a spiritual body.

My hope and prayer is that each and every one finds faith in Jesus Christ and connects to this body. A whole, healthy and intact body is a beautiful and powerful thing!

Time - A Measured Indefinite

My previous intention was to steal Mike's blurb he wrote and post it without him knowing. Sometimes he writes wonderful things in an attempt to organize his thoughts but doesn't feel the need to share them (despite his wife's encouragement lol). I decided though to ask him first.... this time.... watch out dear one of your songs may be next ;)



I have always found the whole topic of time mesmerizing and to be honest somewhat confusing. If you try and find a definition of time you will find many different ones and none that totally satisfy as a complete answer. As I have looked into it I have come across what I find to be some interesting points and facts. I also am drawn to one simple conclusion.

C.S. Lewis - " If you picture time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: We have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all around contains the whole line and sees it all." ( Mere Christianity)

Our "measurement" of time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia) is loosely based on the speed of the Earth's rotation and the speed of our orbit around the sun.

A "year" on Jupiter is 11.86 earth years. A "day" on Jupiter is only 9.85 earth hours. There are approximately 10500 Jupiter "days" in a Jupiter "year". If you change your location then you may change your measurement of time BUT time is still the same on Jupiter.

The first known calendar system was actually the lunar calendar which followed the cycle of the moon. Creation of a lunisolar calendar created a need to add a "leap month" every few years to keep the seasons in sync with a "year". We now mostly use an entirely solar based calendar and we have the same issue to a smaller degree today with the "leap year".

 

As usual, when I go looking for answers about something I tend to just find more questions. When that happens there is one place I can always find some comfort and conclusion. This is some of what the Bible has to say about time:

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (2 Peter 3:8 NIV)

A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:4 NIV)

 

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 KJV)

 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. (Proverbs 27:1 NIV)

 

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34 NIV)

 

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14 NIV)

 

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:1, 2 NIV)

 

We try and understand and control things that are beyond our understanding and out of our control. Time is out if our control and as much as we'd like to deny it we really do not understand it either. My simple conclusion is this: time is a gift from God! We don't have to understand it but I hope and pray that the time God has given me is something that I enjoy rather than worry about, that I don't take for granted, and that I use wisely for the purposes He intended.