Fluidly Solid

Fluidly Solid

“Therefore, my beloved brethren,…stand firm in the Lord.”  Philippians 4:1

 “Trust in Him at all times,…pour out your hearts before Him.”   Psalm 62:8

 

 

I recently returned from a trip to the beach.  It’s my favorite place to go in the summer.  I love the sand.  I love the sun.  I love the seafood.  But I love, love, love the water.  Specifically, I love the waves.  More specifically, I love the sound of the waves! From their gentle lapping to their thunderous crashing, the sound of the waves keeps me spellbound…and bound to spell out the lessons that wash ashore as I sit before them.  Make no mistake, waves have plenty to say!  Sometimes it’s in the rhythm of their movement, sometimes it’s in the color of their crest; sometimes it’s in their push, sometimes it’s in their pull. But whatever the mode, the message is there, if you listen…with your ears, with your eyes, and with your feet!

Continue reading “Fluidly Solid”

The Power of One

The Power of One

 “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,”    -Philippians 3:13

 

               A couple of weeks ago, I saw an interesting sight.  It was one of those “What was that?” images that caused me to look twice…and then to laugh once! The scene that caught my eye was a car lot with just one car…on the whole the lot.  That was it!  One car!  The sign read ‘Car Lot’, but the lot read ‘Car…One’.  I couldn’t help but laugh as I thought to myself…that must be some car!  Just imagine the owner conversing with a potential customer.  It might sound something like this:

Continue reading “The Power of One”

Because a Nation at Rest Will Stay at Rest…

Because a Nation at Rest Will Stay at Rest…

Until Christians at Rest Cease to Rest…and Act Upon It

 “Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, listen and act! My God, for Your own sake, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”  Daniel 9:19

 

Today, May 4th, is our country’s National Day of Prayer.  It is a day that has been marked to honor our nation’s Christian heritage and to call upon believers within this land to pray for America.  This day is rooted in history in that, as far back as George Washington, our leaders have recognized their dependence upon God to found, form, and fuel this country.  On this day, many will meet outside courthouses and city halls to offer up prayers for our country’s government, military, educational system, churches, and families.  Many of us will stand side by side and will pray heart to heart…but will we act one by one?  When the prayers end, will our intentions end too?  After praying on behalf of our country, will we now act on behalf of our prayers…or will a nation at rest stay at rest until Christians at rest cease to rest? Continue reading “Because a Nation at Rest Will Stay at Rest…”

Rhyme AND Reason

  As we move through the month of March, I thought it might be good to pay homage to Dr. Seuss.  After all, where would we be without Hop on Pop and Green Eggs and Ham?  A phonetically challenged society, to say the least.  So, to the one who gave us One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish…I add to that One Sin, Two Sins, Red Cross, White Robes.  Granted, it doesn’t rhyme, but it overflows with reason!  And speaking of crosses…here is a resurrected writing from two years ago.

Rhyme AND Reason

“And of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”  John 1:16

             I don’t know that I’d call myself an avid reader, but I am an all-the-time reader.  It’s not that I devour everything I read but I like to have an edible pile of books in my literary pantry at all times.  As a result, I have feasted upon quite a few books over the years and have developed a particular taste for some authors.  My all-time favorite is C.S. Lewis, but Max Lucado, Mark Batterson, and John Maxwell make my mouth water, too.  And then there is my other favorite, the one who is as essential to a literary pantry as Little Debbie Nutty Bars are to a kitchen pantry:  Dr. Seuss.  Yes, Theodore Geisel holds a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf.  What lessons there are to retrieve from such classics as The Butter Battle Book, Sneetches, Yertle the Turtle, and The Lorax!  If you don’t believe me, then we need to converse…over a glass of milk and a Nutty Bar.

While I’ve often used Dr. Seuss stories to illustrate Biblical principles, I tend to stay away from his “emergent reader” books.  While Hop on Pop is a great phonetic tool, its ability to delve into Biblical truths is, well, a Flop on Top.  But, I must say that recently God has used one of Dr. Seuss’s early readers to teach me a couple of lessons.  In the book Dr. Seuss’s ABC we find this amazing alliteration…

 “Big A, little a, what begins with a?                                                                                                       Aunt Annie’s alligator, a…a…a.”

                There are two types of truths God exhumed for me in this rhyme:  one grammatical and one Biblical.  In the grammatical sense, there is the reminder that letters come in two forms; capital and lower case.  And then there is the premise that words with the same beginning letter tend to have the same beginning sound.  Before I interject the Biblical truths, let me first walk you to the bridge that will lead us there.  Recently, I was contemplating the nature, and case size, of sin.  As I was talking to God about my sinfulness, I somewhat humorously (I thought) told God that my sin wasn’t a capital letter sin…it was more of a lower case sin, to which my mind quickly recited, ”Big A, little a, what begins with a?”.  I started to list all the sins I could think of that began with an “a”.  Then, I made up my own little jingle.

  “Big A, little a, what begins with a?                                                                                                 Anxiousness and apathy; a…a…a.                                                                                                         Big A, little a, what begins with a?                                                                                                   Avarice and arrogance; a…a…a.                                                                                                             Big A, little a, what begins with a?                                                                                                       Appetites and anarchy; a…a…a.”

 That’s when I saw the bridge of truth…and I couldn’t help but step onto it.  When thinking of sins, we tend to think of them in terms of upper case and lower case; there are the big, capital letter sins and little, lower case sins.  But God looks at them all the same; a sin is a sin.  In Romans 3:23, we are reminded that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and in Isaiah 64:6, we read that “we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is like a filthy rag.” So, which sins does God hate the most?  All of them!  He doesn’t separate them or categorize them; they all look the same.   And then I realized there was another truth; not only do all sins look alike, but they also sound alike.  In the same way that words with the same beginning letter have the same initial sound, so too do all unrighteous acts drum out the same chords of dissonance into God’s ears.

With this new reasoning from God, along with the rhymes from Dr. Seuss, I thought a little bit further, dove a little bit deeper (or maybe just wider, this pool isn’t deep enough for diving) and landed upon this thought.  If all our sins look alike and sound alike to God, then let’s demote them all to a lower case status and reserve the capital letters for the words He’s written to cover those sins; let’s give Him the upper case and the upper hand.  Once more my mind went back to this rhyming scheme and this time it chanted,

  “Big A, big A, what begins with A?                                                                                                          Affection and Adoption; A…A…A.                                                                                                              Big A, bigger A, what begins with A?                                                                                                Approval and Assurance; A…A…A.                                                                                                          Big A, biggest A, what begins with A?                                                                                              Acceptance and Admittance; A…A…A.”

And there you have it; two truths from Dr. Seuss’s ABC, made possible of course by the Creator of Rhyme and Reason.  Sins look alike and sound alike to God; they should to us as well.  If we truly owned this truth, not only would we stop trying to minimize (or maximize) our sin, but we’d also stop inadvertently minimizing God’s grace.  Just one of our sins cost Jesus His life; the gift of grace was costly.  If we try to make light of our sin, we are also making light of this gift.  Let’s enjoy the rhythm and reason of God’s grace.

 Big A, little a, what begins with a?                                                                                                            A Savior on A Cross…grace, grace, grace!

I think, perhaps, a reminder may be in order…

So, I meant to add this “memory jogger” to the top of my recent post but, in true ironic form, I forgot to remember.  There was a time, oh in the not too distant past (yet far enough back for me to have forgotten that too) when I made a public commitment to writing a book about The Law of Opposites. It was a difficult thing to say/print and, by all signs and no wonders, an even more difficult thing to systematically write.  Turns out , life gets in the way!  Who knew?  Well, at any rate…at a slow rate…at a “watch the grass grow…in winter” rate, I have just now picked up where I left off.  It’s been so long that I felt a reminder was in order, lest you wonder at the reference to ‘chapter eight’.  I know, I know…you skim read, so you didn’t even notice.  Well, I guess I shouldn’t fuss over skimmed words any more than I should cry over spilled milk…unless it’s whole milk rather than skim milk.  That, I must say, is a whole other matter!  Happy reading…or skimming!