Feb 6, 2015 | Living Well
How do you approach life? Are you strong-willed and self-directed. Then you might be a Cain. I was shocked when I was first confronted with the idea that I might be more like Cain than Abel in my worship of God.
Don’t I love Jesus? Don’t I serve in my church? Don’t I regularly attend church services? Don’t I support my church financially? My answer is yes to all of these. But, am I really more like Cain than Abel?
Genesis 4 tells us that Cain brought his offering as a duty while Abel gave his best.
In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. Genesis 4:3-4a
Cain was performing his duty. He did not follow God’s directions to offer the best he had to offer. Instead Cain gave something in the manner he wanted to give it. In other words, Cain was unwilling to worship as God commanded. Cain was self-directed and self-important while Abel humbly submitted to God’s instructions.
God used the offering incident as an opportunity to draw Cain to repentance and to warn him of the dangers of dabbling in sin.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Genesis 4:7
Cain chose to allow jealousy to rule his unrepentant heart.
As you worship God, do you offer him your best or your leftovers? What place does God hold in your life? Don’t just give a quick answer. Examine your heart and your actions.
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce. Proverbs 3:9a
Jan 23, 2015 | Living Well
“If I am doing good, why don’t I feel good? I feel empty—worthless. No one recognizes the good things I am doing.”
At some point in our Christian lives, all of us have said something like this. We feel exhausted and unappreciated. We work hard volunteering for tasks no one else wants to do. We may start enthusiastically, but when others do not follow through, the joy leaves. Their criticism stifles our spirit.
In my experience, when worthlessness sets in, it is due to one or more of the following reasons.
Lack of prayer: I thought it was a great opportunity to serve, but I did not pray about it. It is so easy to quickly say yes then realize later that this service is taking precious time and energy from other activities that are higher priorities in my Christian life. Taking time to pray gives me a clearer understanding of all that will be involved. I get some direction from God as I lay out my heart to him.- Lack of humility: I have been known to accept a job because I want others to notice my talent. Hey, I am human. I enjoy recognition as much as anyone. However, accolades are the wrong reasons. The only pure motivation for accepting a position is so God can use me to bless others. Such an attitude makes service a joy instead of a self-promotion extravaganza.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. James 3:16
May you find pure joy as you serve God for the right reason—God has given you the task.
Dec 31, 2014 | Living Well
Have you ever thought how amazing it is that we have the Bible?
I recently toured a remarkable exhibit—Passages: Treasures of the Bible. It contained ancient scrolls, fragments of the Qumran scrolls, papyrus scroll fragments, early hand-written Bibles, and early Bibles with commentaries written by 1500’s biblical scholars. Early King James Bibles and Bibles owned by Martin Luther were on display.
One of my favorite display rooms had a working replica of the Gutenberg Press. This press made it possible for the common folk to have access to Bibles in their own language. The press was not what I expected. It was a modified wine press. The gentleman with the display was actually printing pages of the Bible. After being printed, the page was hung on a rope line to dry for several hours. We moderns are used to giving the print command to a computer and watching the printer spit out several ready-to-use pages per minute.
Even though gargantuan efforts have been made to destroy the Bible, it has remained remarkably consistent in its content through many centuries and translations. What I find most astounding is that even though doubters try to discredit it, we have thousands of original documents verifying the content. Some ancient documents with only a few samples are taken as authentic by these same doubters. In addition to this profound fact of the difference in numbers of authentic original documents, how can they discount that no one was willing to die for the authenticity of the other ancient documents while the Bible has had many martyrs? Big difference.
We have an amazing heritage in our Bible.
Dec 12, 2014 | Living Well
“I sure hope Nancy doesn’t forget to bring the cookies for tonight’s rehearsal refreshments.”
Susan knew she was being hateful when she made that comment to her friends who were helping her finish the last minute adjustments to the props for the Christmas program. After all, last summer Nancy had forgotten to provide the post-game drinks for the baseball team. True. Nancy had laughed it off and bought each of the boys a drink at the concession stand. She came through, but Nancy HAD forgotten.
“Surely she will remember. Do you want me to call and remind her?”
Susan bristled a bit as she realized how mean her comment must have sounded, but she wasn’t willing to let it go.
“No. We will just let her suffer the consequences of disappointing the cast if she forgets.” Several members of the group shook their heads. In the spirit of negativism, another couple of critical comments were made about Nancy.
The committee continued their work but mostly in grumbly silence. Earlier there had been a bit of joking and laughing as they worked. Now, each was lost in negative thoughts.
The work was completed. The cookies arrived on time. Nancy wondered why everyone was so testy.
Have you ever noticed how one cynical comment about another person in your group can poison the interactions of all who heard it?
I am ashamed to say that I have been guilty of making such comments. And like the members of the committee, I have been unwilling to do the right thing—make a tactful call so the fretting can stop. How often have I failed to make the effort to turn the conversation to something uplifting and wholesome?
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. Galatians 5:15
If the shoe fits . . .
Dec 8, 2014 | Living Well
What I saw this morning when I looked in the mirror made my mind scream, “I’m not that old!.”
My wrinkles are becoming pronounced. I have dark, age spots appearing on my checks. My neck skin is hanging loosely. Nothing about my appearance reflects a gracefully aging matron, which my trickster mind rationalizes.
Maybe scheduling a session with a skin care specialist at the mall will help. But that means spending big bucks on new cosmetics, facial cream, and gentle moisturizing cleansers.
I might faithfully use such products for a week then my resolve will start to slip if I follow my normal behavior patterns.
I’ll rationalize that I’m running late this morning so I will take a few shortcuts. I intuitively know that no one will notice I am not using the concealment stick under my foundation to camouflage my age spots.
In a day or two I will wonder if the foundation is actually making my skin look youthful enough to be worth the effort to carefully apply it. Using similar logic, the rest of my skin care improvement program will be eliminated before the end of that week.
Sometimes my spiritual life is like my skin improvement program. I start with great enthusiasm, but my schedule gets tight so I shorten my prayer time. I hit the snooze alarm an extra time so I decide to read my Bible later in the day — but forget. Before long, God is only an occasional thought instead of an integral part of my life. This should not be. My relationship with him is too important to let it slip for even a few hours.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. Romans 11:33
Nov 27, 2014 | Living Well
What are you doing for Thanksgiving? This question was being asked by everyone this past week. Those who have wonderful plans exuberantly express their excitement about eating their favorite holiday foods with family or watching the big game with friends.
This year I have been struck by how many people are not looking forward to the holiday. I have become more attentive to what has not been said than to what has been said. The body language, facial expressions, sad eyes, and the words left unspoken break my heart. Some of the responses I received to my innocent questions left me wondering if I had been insensitive to ask.
- I don’t know what we will be doing. I guess we will go to a restaurant.
- I’m staying home this Thanksgiving. The rest of the family are having their children at their homes.
- My mother-in-law should get out of the hospital today. I’m not for sure what we will do for Thanksgiving.
- My husband loved to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. Now that he is gone, it is hard.
I cannot fix their hurt. But I can let these people know that I do care about them. I can call, text, or send a message to them through social media. Mostly I need to slow down and take my eyes off of self then listen, really listen, to them. Nothing says I care like expressing sincere interest in others through thoughtfully spending time with them.
How much time did you spend on food and football today? Are these things more important than the hurting people you come in contact with every day. I challenge you, and myself, to unselfishly give quality time this next week to others.
