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Articles from this month's issue of the Berean News |
Perspectiveby Larry UrbaniakIsaiah 30:18 (NIV): "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" This scripture is a comforting one, yet it also jars me a bit. I get the lovely idea of God just longing to be gracious to me. But then I am told that I will be blessed if I wait for him. I must, apparently at least sometimes, wait for his blessings and compassion. I wonder if Isaiah found it tough to wait. I know I do. I want things to get done quickly. I get impatient at the seemingly slow progress of the renovations at church. (Yet I am cognizant of how much has already been done.) I want to see quicker changes and spiritual growth in my fellow Christians. (But I am happy with the growth that has already occurred.) I desire events to produce fast positive spiritual results in my own life. I would like a quick fix to my problems - quick and painless. Unfortunately, life seldom works that way. "He who hesitates is lost." I like that saying, but then I am reminded of another: "Look before you leap." I must learn to balance the two ideas. I need to put myself in a position to hear and see God, to let his spirit nudge me before I leap. Waiting is hard for me because it is such an obvious experience of not being in control. I like to know what needs to happen and I am accustomed to do whatever I can to make it happen. But I need to be careful that I am following God and not just my own ideas. I am an efficient person and I hate wasting time. I must learn to discern the difference between wasting time and waiting. I need and want the compassion and blessing of God in my life. Yet sometimes waiting is just an excuse for idleness. We claim to be waiting for a miracle when the only miracle needed is the awakening of our own conscience. We wait for others to excite and motivate us and we become critical when they don't. Yet we aren't reading the Bible seriously, or praying regularly, or think church is boring, irrelevant, and predictable. Often we are not describing church as much as we are our own condition. We need, each of us, to take responsibility for our own spiritual condition. Bruce MacDougall said that when he took responsibility for his own spiritual wellbeing, it affected his hearing and his sight. "The preacher sounds better, the congregation looks different, and the church isn't so predictable and boring, and I am not so critical." I try to exercise regularly: back exercises, walking briskly, racquetball. Some days, though, I feel tired and think about skipping any exercise. But I know that I feel better and even more energetic when I do exercise. It's no different in my spiritual life. Regular spiritual exercise is necessary to me; being energized by God's spirit. The tough part for me is knowing that waiting is often the discipline I need to exercise. Psalm 27:14 (NIV): "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." |
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Roy's Reflections Thanksgiving All Year! "But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God." (Deut. 8:11) This rnonth, most Americans will feast on turkey and pumpkin pie, but many of them will not give a second thought to the history of Thanksgiving or what this great holiday symbolizes. In my opinion, it's a shame that Thanksgiving doesn't get the respect it deserves. Part of the problem comes from our focus on materialism. In order to sell more merchandise, some stores start displaying Christmas items as early as October. By November, Christmas decorations are up and the fight for the shopper's Christmas dollars begins in earnest. Thanksgiving becomes nothing more than an excuse to eat a big meal, watch a football game on television, and take a trip to the mall. Isn't it time we focused more attention on giving thanks and less on buying gifts and overeating? Most of us remember at least some of our school lessons about how the Pilgrims and the Indians celebrated the first Thanksgiving. But do you remember why they were celebrating? It certainly wasn't because life had been easy. The first winter the Pilgrims spent in America was devastating. By the beginning of the fall of 1621, they had lost 46 of the original 102 people who had sailed on the Mayflower. I imagine there were many families whose hearts were heavy at that first celebration as they remembered those loved ones who had perished. After the first Thanksgiving, the holiday was celebrated on a rather haphazard basis. It wasn't until a lady by the name of Sarah Hale took up the cause that Thanksgiving became an established holiday. Sarah was a magazine editor and she wrote many editorials championing her cause. Finally, after a 40 year campaign of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents, Hale's obsession became a reality when, in 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving. In 1941, Thanksgiving was finally sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. While the Thanksgiving holiday began with the Pilgrims and Indians in the 1600's, it was based on the Christian principle of giving thanks to God for the many blessings He pours out on us. All through the Bible, we can find example after example of God's people giving thanks. In the Old Testament they built altars and offered sacrifices. In the New Testament, they offered prayers. Maybe we should take a not so subtle hint from them, and give thanks on Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving why not slow down and appreciate the moment? Forget about the big sale at the mall and turn the television off for awhile. Spend some quiet time with your loved ones. Really think about what this day means to you and to those before you in history. When you pray, also remember our great nation in your prayers. Remember those who lived and died to defend our freedom, and those who are still doing so today. Thanksgiving offers a wonderful opportunity to share our hearts, our food, our time, and prayers with others. Nevertheless, it shouldn't begin or end on the fourth Thursday of November. It should continue all year long. The apostle Paul told us, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." (Phil. 4: 46) |
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Viewpoints
This and That On a strictly business level, it's all so simple. We do this and they do that, or we do that and they do this. It's a transaction that has nothing to do with love or any other emotion. Yet "God is love." Therefore, everything God does involves love and so nothing God does is on a strictly business level. This is important for us to acknowledge because in our culture we are bombarded with the philosophy, "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." On a strictly business level, that's a fine philosophy, but it's not God's philosophy. God does not scratch our back just so we'll scratch his. That's preposterous. Yet this strictly business philosophy of "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" seems to permeate human reasoning and seep into the way we think about God and eveyone else. For example: We know God is pleased with our heartfelt worship of him, but if we're not careful, cynicism can rear its ugly head and human reasoning takes over. Then, from out of a clear blue sky, we think that God is doing things for us so that we will worship him. In other words, God is scratching our back so that we'll scratch his. Again, that's preposterous! We have a Greek word for God's love: agape. It means to give freely with no thought of something in return. Agape is the word that is used when it says, "God is love." God's love for us and everyone else is agape love. Therefore our goal should be to make our love an agape love for God and everyone else. This is very hard. Human reasoning will usually look for the lowest common denominator, which transforms into, "you do this and I'll do that," or, "I'll do this and you do that." It is the way of the world. But scripture says, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." This is the way it ought to be. Thomas wanted Jesus to do "this" (show him his nail-pierced hand) before Thomas would do "that" (believe). This is the way of the world, to, "Show me the money." Well, Jesus fulfilled the demand of Thomas, but Jesus tells him, "Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed." But Thomas: "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." Jesus wanted Thomas, and us, to lift our minds beyond "this and that" to the realm of agape: the love God has. A realm where it is more blessed to give than to receive. A realm where the human reasoning of "this and that" is replaced by the doctrine of "Freely we have received, now freely give." The key word is freely: no strings attached. This is the way it ought to be. When I was a kid, I would sit on the couch watching TV. If my dad was around, often he'd come and sit next to me and freely scratch my back. I loved it, because not only did it feel good, but I knew, even then, that it was my dad's personal way of showing me love. It meant the world to me. The heavenly Father continues to freely give outpourings of His love to us in very personal ways, and we love it. May we now give as freely as we have received.
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A Daughter's Heart
Thanksgiving "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts wth praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations." Psalms 100:4, 5 Most of us associate the month of Novernber with Thanksgiving Day - a special time to spend with our families and loved ones in appreciation. This day has been set aside in commemoration of the harvest feast of the Pilgnms after their year in the New World in 1621. It wasn't until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday after the end of the civil war - a time of great national suffering. As Christians we know that every day is a day of "Thanksgiving. Each day is a time to reflect of the goodness and mercy of our great God and on the loving care we receive from Him. Sometimes we thank Him for the bounties of blessings that we have in our daily lives and sometimes it is the trials and difficulties of life that lead us to special thanks for protective care of our Heavenly Father. As Christians we joyfully echo David words in the Psalm above, for we are specially blessed in having accepted God's call to sonship through Jesus Christ. We take to heart Paul's words in Colossian 2:6, 7: "As ye have therefore received Christ lesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." We thank God not only for temporal blessings, but for our walk of faith through Christ, our sins forgiven, His loving guidance in our struggle to be and live more as he would have us, and for future hope not only for ourselves but for all of the sin sick world. I thought I'd share one of my favorite hymns, from childhood until now, that encourages us to be aware of God's goodness in our lives - and thus rejoice. It has been a blessing to me to remind me at those times I might not be feeling so thankful to count my blessings. Count Your Blessings When you look at others with their lands and gold, Are you ever burdened with a load of care? So, amid the conflict, whether great or small, Count your blessings, Name them one by one;
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