Month: February 2020

“Dead flies putrefy the perfumers ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor; So does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor.” Ecclesiastes 10:1

Every once in while I will just throw a couple of bags of  garbage in the garage instead of the garbage can because I will be going to the dump in the next few days. That is almost always a mistake, especially in the summer. By the time I get around to taking the garbage, it invariably has gathered flies, maggots, and an atrocious odor.  Not very pleasant.  Especially when I have to lift the disgusting bag from garage to truck and from truck to the landfill.

I make a mistake by putting the garbage anywhere but where it belongs- in a garbage can. Awhile back, after a visit from the kids, I completely cleaned the garage and it looked good.  Unfortunately, I performed my “all to frequent habit” of throwing some garbage in the corner.  In a matter of a couple of days, not only did the garage look bad, it smelled bad as well. Stench tends to do that- it is more powerful than perfume.  You can’t have a bunch of garbage that reeks and spray enough perfume to cover it up. (the same principle applies to arm pits which already have reached the reeky stage!) Stink always seems stronger than sweetness.

What does all this garbage talk have to do with us? There is a true old adage that says “we may often be the only Jesus that a fallen world may ever see.”  We should keep that idea in mind as we go through our daily lives.  Some of us, as believers, are not overly concerned with our actions around others. We put our garbage out there for all to see.  We refuse to restrict our anger, our language, our habits, our worldly behavior in any way. After all, we are saved by grace, so what does it matter?  The Christians in Rome felt the same way, so Paul addressed it in his book written to them. “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?  Absolutely not!” (Romans 6:1,2) The Romans had even decided that by sinning more they were revealing God’s mercy more.  After all, He was forgiving greater sins, so He was showing greater mercy. What muddled thinking this is!

These Christians were completely forgetting that their actions are supposed to reflect the Lord Jesus Christ. We serve a risen Savior who cannot be seen visually at this moment in time. We have become conduits to show Christ to this world. God wants to encourage, comfort and save non-believers through His Son Jesus and He uses us to help accomplish these tasks.  What they see in us might be as close as they get to Jesus that day- so what are they seeing in us?   That is why it is important for us to be conscious of what we say and do. As believers we have to realize that the world is constantly watching us, studying us even, in order to see if the Jesus we preach is real, not only in His own right, but in our lives as well.

He is the perfumer of our lives. We want to be able to tell others about the sweet smell of salvation and how it overcomes the stench of the world and brings a undeniable and wonderful aroma to our lives. Our tendencies to act out of unrighteousness in our lives overcomes the sweet aroma of Christ.  When I perform the small act of putting a bag of garbage in the garage, I negate anything good about the garage. As soon as people walk in, their sight and smell is drawn to something disgusting and the pleasant neatness of the garage is lost.  Acts of unkindness, legalism, sinfulness, can all damage other’s view of God. It is a fact of nature. No matter how much we say we are believers if we carry garbage around with us, the bad smell will overcome the good smell every time. How can we influence anyone to step into salvation if it smells that bad!

Here is a test that each one of us can do.  Let us say that someone we know decides  he wants to know Christ, but was not sure how.  We should ask our selves this, “Would I be someone this person would come to.”  If we put off the sweet aroma of the gospel  we could probably expect a call.  If I am a hundred pounds overweight I don’t believe I will get too many questions about fitness, if I live a smelly life, I doubt too many people will request the cologne I wear.

There is an interesting story about a time the queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon.  One day she decides to test him. She brought artificial flowers so perfectly formed that no human eye could detect them from real flowers. She put them in a vase on Solomon’s table, in his throne room next to his flowers. As he came in, the queen of Sheba is reported to have said, “Solomon, you are the wisest man in the world. Tell me without touching these flowers, which are real and which are artificial.”

It is said that Solomon studied the flowers for a long time and spoke nothing, until finally he said, “Open the windows and let the bees come in.”

There are ways to tell the artificial from the real—let the bees come in; they will know where the real is.  If we are Jesus real it will draw people.  Even in the face of rejection by many there will be others who will be drawn to the sweet perfume of the gospel.

None of us are perfect, and we will all make mistakes until the day Christ returns. But we must be aware that our actions have consequences. We must understand that others are affected by who we are. We must realize that those who know that we know Christ will be not just judging us by our actions, but Jesus, as well. We are ambassadors of Christ whether we like it or not.  We cannot just live like we want any longer.  Whenever we join a group, we become associated with that group, whether it is a team, town, or troop. If we believe in the Word and the gospel message we belong to the group called Christians.

In the midst of our imperfection, we should always be trying to improve our character. When we do fail (which we will) and a fly does show up in our perfume, the God- inspired aroma we give off, we need to deal with it and move on. The one thing we should not do is take it lightly.  Our actions matter and we never know when our actions will help someone to meet Christ face-to-face when He returns. Let’s do everything we can to make sure that our actions convey the sweet aroma of Christ’s love.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”  Ezekiel 36:26 

The other day I was reading something online and the discussion was about Christ the Peacemaker. Well, there was a misspelling and in one part it said Christ the Pacemaker. As is my habit, I was instantly looking for my red pen to make the correction when I realized that in reality Jesus is a Pacemaker of sorts.  A pacemaker is a small electrical device that helps a heart beat as it should. It helps it maintain a rhythm that is natural and healthy.  It is used for those folks whose hearts don’t beat correctly and need a little outside help (well, actually inside, but you know what I mean).

We are told to listen to our hearts when making decisions and it has become default advice line people use all the time when they are asked for help with a problem. “Just listen to your heart” is the same advice given for decisions as diverse as buying a home or deciding whether to marry an internet acquaintance. But is this advice the wisest advice?  I would say without Christ, the Pacemaker, our hearts are pretty unreliable and really not suited to make decisions much larger than choosing a coffee at Starbucks.

We would like to think that we can think with our hearts. But our hearts make a better pumps than brains.  When we use our heart for guidance, we are really relying on the part of us that is on the search for ultimate joy at any price. Unfortunately, our heart has a true nature that is not capable of being the brains of the outfit. It it born broken and needs to be fixed before it can be anything at all reliable for decision making.

When the Bible talks about the human heart, it’s referring to the center of people’s being. It involves their emotions, reason, and will. From the very earliest times, we find that the nature of our hearts is the source of many of the world’s heartbreaks: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)

Sadly, from the beginning the result of following the heart was not comfort and guidance, but death and destruction. The myth that leads this false assumption that we can rely on the heart is that we, and of course our hearts, are basically good. If we base our thinking on this premise, we think- “since our hearts are good, they can be a guide for decisions that lead to good.”  But the Word paints a different picture, one that has been proven out through thousands of years: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10) Even Jesus tells us that sin, not goodness, originates in the heart.  “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22) Wow, and we advise people to follow it!

In Kansas City, during the great Gipsy Smith revival years ago, an old preacher came into the room where the Gipsy was sitting after the service. Thousands were being blessed and hundreds saved. The older minister placed his hands upon the evangelist’s head and felt about it. ‘I am trying to find the secret of your success,’ he said.

`Too high! Too high! My friend, you are too high,’ Gipsy said. ‘The secret of whatever success God has given me is not up there but down here,’ and he placed his hand upon his heart.

Gipsy Smith could say that because the Great Pacemaker was controlling  the beats of his heart.   Gipsy had been born in a tent,  had little schooling, and rose up through poverty.   But even the poorest man can afford the heart surgery that God offers, because it has already been paid for by the Son.  For over sixty years Gipsy preached God’s gospel to men.  As he preached, again and again the tears would course down his cheeks, and his heart stirred the hearts of thousands.

What made the difference in his life and millions of others.   It is Christ, the great Physician, who performed a miracle on the cross. Because of what He did we can become new. If Christ the Pacemaker is in our hearts then they become stronger and more reliable. They can beat the way they were meant to before the fall. Our hearts don’t have to be the out-of-control, emotion-driven part of us that beats wildly and cannot be relied on for good decisions. When Christ the Pacemaker indwells us through the Holy Spirit, we can begin to listen to our hearts more because they are controlled by God. Of course, when we disconnect our Pacemaker, let the battery go dead, or don’t maintain it like we should, we are right back to the evil heart-making decisions.

We must be careful not to direct people to listen to their hearts unless we know that they have a working Pacemaker beating in their chests. Caution: there will still be a battle between our old and new hearts. We should listen to the Holy Spirit, God’s Word, and spirit-filled Christians when making decisions. But if we are going to listen to our hearts, we better make sure our Pacemaker is kept tuned up.

“No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God.”  — Romans 3:11

Some people speak about their search for God.  They might say something like, “I’m on a spiritual journey. I am trying to find the truth. I am trying to find the light. I am trying to find God.”  Yet the Bible says that no one is really searching for God on their own.

Years ago I heard the story (that I have probably already related to you) about a little girl who was lost during a snowstorm.  The parents and neighbors desperately tried to find her, knowing if they did not, she would soon die.  Just when they thought they had exhausted every possible place, they saw a small bump in the snow next to the porch.  They pulled away the snow and saw the smiling face of their daughter who looked up at her parents and said, “I found you.”  Obviously, the finding was in the hands of the parents, not the little girl’s.

We like to think that God is distantly hidden away somewhere and through many years of tedious search, we come upon him and we have finally completed our journey.  The fact is that most of us are hiding from God.  He calls our name, He puts signs of His presence all around us, and He maps out clearly in His Word how we can be with Him.  He desires for us to come to Him, more than we desire to go to Him.  We go searching for God “in all the wrong places,” and wonder why He is not there.  If we wait upon Him with an open heart then He will come to us, for He desires that none will be lost.

If we want to know God we need to ask Him to come to us with open and willing hearts.  He has done all the groundwork for us.  Our seeking should not be some blind, dart board effort that samples every religion known to man.  Life is not Baskin-Robbins where you order the flavor you like and it’s all good.  The difference between Christianity and all the other “religions” is not like the difference between vanilla and rocky-road.  There is no “right” flavor of ice cream, but when it comes to spiritual things there is one truth.  Christianity and Islam are not two faiths on two sides of the same coin.  They are not on the same coin.

If we try the sixties approach of sampling everything out there, that does not mean we are  necessarily searching.  It can be a built in excuse for never having to accept anything.  We can’t commit if we haven’t tried everything.   God says,  “If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.” (Jeremiah 29:13).  So although all roads don’t lead to heaven, all earnest-seeking leads to Christ.

Sometimes people will say something like, “I found the Lord 10 years ago,” as though God had been lost. But God is not the one who is lost; we are. God is seeking to save us, and if we really want to know Him, then He will wipe the snow away and rescue us.  What keeps most of us from earnestly seeking God is an unwillingness to accept God’s assessment of us. We are unwilling to acknowledge our guilt.  We might glibly say we are bad, but those are just words.  We accept our “badness” as a reason to be bad.  We want believe the Christian life is  based on our goodness or badness rather than the shed blood of Christ.  If we fully accept Him and His Word, goodness and badness will not be our focus-  serving Christ and loving Him will be.

If we are “searching for Jeus” we need to look to the WORD and objectively look at what it says.  There was a commercial once that used a different approach to the product advertised.  Let me paraphrase it- “Some will tell you to get prices from many others and come here last because you will see we are the best in every way and you will use us.  I say, instead, come here first and save yourself the trip to other places.  We will let you know their prices if you want, but I can say with confidence that you will stay with us.”  I think that God’s Word says something similar.  “If you want to go around trying out other faiths, hobbies, relationships, locations searching for lasting and deep satisfaction, you can, but if you are earnest in your search you will end up here.  If you come here first, you will save yourself the other trips.”

There is no other place you can find a single inoculation for a seemingly endless number of afflictions.  Although pain may come in varieties, the cure for them all comes in one antidote…. the healing power of the cross of Christ.  He the only God who desires us to come to Him, and He will work sacrificially to that end.  So we can search if we must, but the path is laid out, and all the searching for something to make us happy does not create something that will make us happy.  He already exists and He is reaching down to us.

“Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up.  It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.  It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  1 Corinthians 13:4-7

The other morning I was thinking how easy it is to take things for granted.  I forget that God has given me such wonderful blessings such as a house, church, safety, friends, and a wonderful family.  Especially family.  If you are like me, I often forget how special that is.  There are those that have no one, but that is not my family.  We have each other to share our laughter and our burdens, and that is a wonderful thing.  The above verse from the love chapter in Corinthians explains how important it to love one another.

Someone once said we should write the good that others do on a rock and the bad they do on the sand to be washed away.  I think that good advice.  If we are not forgiving of others (and especially our family)  for their inadequacies (of which we all have many) the good they do will be overlooked (and there is much good they do)  and the negative will be accentuated (and will cloud our  feelings).  Because we expect more out of those closest to us, we are sometimes much more forgiving of non-family than family; often in the same way that we are more forgiving of non-Christians than Christians (another type of family).

The closer people are to each other, the more they can become irritating.  Porcupines find that out!  Our pokiness will be most apparent to those who get closest to us.  As you can sometimes tell, I don’t always shave and my half beard gets in the yucky pokey state. (I try to stay shaved because people keep dropping money in my coffee cup when I am in the scruffy state).  The last time I was with the grandkids I was telling Gracie good bye and my beard poked her cheek and she reacted with an “ouch.”  Not one other person that weekend was bothered by my beard (well, maybe the looks, but not the feel) because I did not get that close to anyone else.  When we get close to people like we do in a family, pokiness is the chance we take, but that is why it is doubly important to remember that  “love is patient.”

Paul tells us in Galatians 5 that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.”  Notice the key here.  Living by the Spirit.  There is nothing more frustrating than trying to do all the above things in our own strength.   The problem with us is that we so often try to do that-  We know what the Christian walk is all about and we try to walk it on our own.  As Barney Fife used to say, “Not goin’ to happen.”

We have all been in the situation where the people that we love most anger us the most.  It hurts much more later because we know that “A joyful heart makes the face cheerful, but by a painful heart the spirit is broken” (Proverbs 15:13) and we hate breaking the spirit of those close to us.  God calls us to be more Christ-like and what did Christ look like when He was sent by God?  He was everything Galatians 5 calls us to be. 

We should be patient with others because God is patient with us.  Exodus 34:6 tells us He ”isn’t easily angered.“  Instead of giving us what we deserve, He sent Christ to die for us.  He made a sacrifice; He gave his only Son on our behalf  (John 3:16).   That is the kind of love we need to strive for through the spirit; sacrificing love that puts others needs before our own.  Love that looks beyond the negative and looks at others through the eyes of God.   We need to put others before ourselves even if they’ve hurt us or angered us,.  We need to be patient with them because love is patient and we are called to patiently love.

We have so much less drama than almost any family I know, and I should be thankful (ever watch Jerry Springer, Dr. Phil, or Judge Judy? Wow!).  Members of families need to be there for each other.  Sometimes we marry into the better or worse covenant, but families have the same covenant, only they are born into it.  Thank you to my family for being so easy love (and I will try to be easier to love, but until then be patient!). Thank you, God, for giving us family.