A perspective on being rich or poor …

  Since the ancient of days in most cultures, certain people have been given an elevated position and other people have been disregarded.  Generally poor people are treated poorly. They have little or no position in the culture and given little or no respect. Generally the people who possess wealth are elevated in most cultures.  Over time in some cultures, the wealthy are even given titles, positions and realms as a type of right and these titles develop into class system that can hold disdain for anyone in the classes below them.  

     Yet in reality, the value of any person cannot be measured by the material wealth of the person, nor does wealth guarantee anything except the ability to buy and accumulate while one has wealth.  Wealth can be lost in a moment through any and many varied unexpected and uncontrollable events and circumstances and through the foolishness of those that possess it.  Wealth cannot buy health or life nor can it guarantee success or respect.  Furthermore it will fade away as life fades away and is not transferable beyond life on this earth. 

     So what is to be our perspective on being rich and poor? Jesus cautions us about laying up treasures upon the earth or fixing our heart upon them (Matthew 5:19-21). He desires our hearts focus to be on things given by Him which will last into eternity.  We also know God sees the poor and He is not fooled into valuing His children by their wealth on an earth that is passing away. 

     Being rich or poor can be a temptation to either as to lose the purpose and life one is given in grace through Jesus Christ.  A poor person can become bitter, resentful and consumed with the injustice of his or her position; stealing and lying to somehow acquire more and more thinking it will bring him happiness.  A rich person can become arrogant; selfishly thinking his or her wealth can never be lost and all the things that he or she possesses will bring happiness. Rich and poor alike can lose their heart to their position in regard to wealth. Both the rich and the poor face the end of their days upon this earth and need a hope and treasure beyond this life.  The hope of all people living on the earth is found only in Jesus Christ and eternal life, He alone can give.

     If you are poor and a follower of Christ … you have riches that money cannot buy in your relationship with your Lord and Savior.  This is why there are followers of Christ who are extremely poor can be filled with great joy in their elevated position as a child of the King.  Realize your position with Christ as your Savior.

     If you have wealth … you are to be humble and generous in your wealth. Humble in knowing that you are human being just like everyone else.  Humble in knowing … all wealth can be like a vapor and it is not really nor totally yours.  It is blessing from God and you are to be generous in giving and sharing with other people and ministries so that your wealth can serve a lasting and eternal purpose.  

     The truth remains … both rich and poor, need and find their living hope in the same Savior.  Jesus is not impressed by our riches or lack of them.  He desires our hearts and lives.  Knowing the Savior and letting Him reign as Lord over our lives, should change us ... regardless of whether we are rich or poor. Our relationship with Christ is eternal and it will last for eternity unlike all the riches of the world which will surely pass away like the grass of the field.

“Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass[a] he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits” (James 1:9-11, ESV).

 Suggested Reading ... James 1:9-11

The place to go with our anxieties ...

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, 

and I will give you rest” 

(Matthew 11:28, ESV).

  It is one of the greatest common struggles known to humanity.  It is not new to this generation, as it has been an issue since ancient times.  The focus points and issues may have changed but the frailty of humanity in dealing with this struggle remains; as almost every human being deals with this chronic immobilizer and limiter of living full lives. This struggle is anxiety and it swallows up life and functioning for countless people.

     The situations, issues, focus points and causes of anxiety are varied and infinite. The ways of managing and coping with anxiety through philosophies, formulas, medications, theories and antidotes are about as countless and vast.  Friends, counselors and ministers devote many hours of genuine care and concern to those in need, who struggle with anxiety.  Sometimes the simplest approaches to this perennially annoying problem are of the greatest help such as normalization and empathic understanding and support can bring mastery over the devil of anxiety. 

     Although the formulistic, theoretical, and philosophical approaches help some people along the way; they mostly help the book sellers and purveyors of each new and improved approach to dealing with anxiety.  As anxiety raises its ugly head in the lives of people of faith, people are additionally burdened by good intentioned friends and ministers with memorizing more Scripture and finding ways of increasing their faith, as if faith alone is the answer.

     Anxiety in its mildest and simplest form is concern and in its immobilizing and uncontrolled form is over-concern to the point of disablement and dysfunction in daily living.  The sense of lack of control in anxiety adds addition weight to this already difficult problem.

     Anxiety simply is weight. It is a weight of thought, concern, focus and attention. As Christians, Jesus doesn’t speak to us of denying we are being anxious, discounting the weight of anxiety, of memorizing more verses or even increasing our faith; He speaks of coming to Him with all the weight of all we are carrying.  Anxiety is heavy and we can make it heavier by our struggle with it (Proverbs 12:25).  We can involve others in our anxiety as well as we struggle leaving strained and damaged relationships all around us in the aftermath. 

      Could the answer be as simple as coming to our Lord and Savior?  Our focus changes when we come to Him and listen to Him about the reality of anxiety.  His words about the “abandoning of the focus on the things we eat and wear and the trouble in one day as being enough for each day” are great places to start (Matthew 5:25-34).  It is also immensely important to pray in and through our anxiousness (Philippians 4:6); but are we missing something in our trying so hard to work through our anxiety. To pray, is to come into His presence but do we too easily and quickly depart from that place.

      Maybe, just maybe, it is enough to come to Him with the weight of our anxieties and stay in His presence long enough for Him to lift the concerns off our lives.  It is a sad thing to me, when we become anxious in our coming to Him.  Coming to our Lord and being still in His presence is trusting Him enough to take off the weight of our trouble in any moment as we find assurance in His presence. Jesus Christ is not a formula or even an answer but our Lord and God.  He must be allowed to be big enough as our God, to carry our every care and we must stay in His presence long enough as our Lord, for His words and His Spirit to be the truth in our trusting and living through all we face. This includes anxiety and everything else we deal with in our living from day to day.   We all have anxieties in some shape or form and as believers we all have "Someone" who can lift the weight of them off our shoulders.

Our Lord comes to us …

“And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:20, KJ21)

   How do you describe the presence of Christ to the people you encounter in your everyday life?  Is it commanding presence that dominates your every motivation and action?  Is it certain knowledge in that one is keenly aware in the actions that our Savior would want us to do in any given situation?  Is it a sense or a feeling that Jesus is with us during my hard days?  Is it a time of elation, spilling out of our hearts as we see Christ move in a given situation?  If Christ promises to abide with us through His Holy Spirit; is it a constant presence or is it a situational happening?   Is the rest He promises to the heavy laden; something that is automatic or does it come only when we seek him out? 

      People have asked me from time to time; “When do you or did you; feel the presence of Christ?”  In my answers I speak of moments filled with God’s grace as I become overwhelmed with the thought of the sacrifice of Jesus in loving me; a stumbling and failing sinner.  I have felt the presence of Christ as I have lifted a fellow believer up from the baptismal waters into the joy of Christ as they began the journey of becoming a new creation by the power of God’s workmanship.  I have felt the presence of Christ as I shared the Good News of hope with those who felt hopeless. I have felt the presence of Christ as I offered up fragile prayers that were for seemingly impossible situations where words were woefully inadequate to express my great need from my generous and gracious Heavenly Father. I have felt the presence of Christ as gratitude has swept over my emotions as my Heavenly Father has always done more than I could have imagined or thought possible as He answered those little prayers.   

      I thought of the times when His presence was so comforting as my heart was breaking and I fell into His open arms of  my Shepherd and Savior.  I have felt the presence of the all-knowing Christ as I realized I was living as a spoiled and selfish prodigal and realized I needed to find a way to come back to the Good Father who was waiting to restore me in my relationship as His child.  I have felt the presence of the Risen Christ as He walked beside me on my pathways of confusion and wondering. I have felt the presence of Christ in the gift of marriage to my blessed wife and I have felt the presence of Christ as we were given children to love and fill up our home.

     All of a sudden the list becomes incredibly long with countless events, indescribable and significant in His continuous presence as He has never left me and so wonderful in supplying His loving grace for every need over the many years of our relationship.  I thought of His power and mercy through all of these occurrences.  I am always left with deep gratitude that I cannot adequately express in the form of thoughts and words.  If I start to think of all Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior has done for me … I am reduced to repeating a simple phrase springing up and overflowing in thankfulness.  I can only say, “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.  Thank you.” 

  

     When do you or did you; feel the presence of Christ?   Start a list in your mind of the moments and occurrences when you felt Him near. Ponder His hand of mercy, grace and power in your life and try to answer the question about when was He present in your life.  I think gratitude will began to pour forth from your heart as well, as you say, “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.  Thank you.” 

Suggested Reading … John 13

Someone at the door …

  Suppose you are busy eating and someone starts knocking on your door.  It is not an excessive pounding nor is it a hard rapping but yet the knocking seems intentional, as if the guest has something to give you. You are not overly concerned with the guest at the door as you are basically comfortable with our life.  You really don’t need any intrusions from some unwanted or uninvited guest.  Your life is floating along like a branch on a lazy river. Things are not going badly in your life as you take it easy drifting through your life.  You don’t get excited about very much in your life as you are too busy with all you have. You don’t really need anything more as you really have no needs of any kind. You might momentarily dream of acquiring more, so you can do less but generally you are fine.  You do not see others but see often focus on yourself.  You look around, seeing all that money can buy and feel all of your things will go on forever.

      The knocking at the door continues and you wonder what the guest at the door could possibly have to give to such a wealthy person as yourself. You don’t need any instruction from anyone, nor do you need any rebuke as most people like you and you don’t bother anyone nor do you bother with anyone.  You are not concerned with helping others nor do you care about anyone coming to your aid.  No one commands your attention and you have no desire to waste your attention on anyone else. 

     You have a faith in yourself and that seems most adequate for your life. You could be called moral but your morals never motivate you to do anything.  You don’t help or care because you have no consuming love for anyone or anything.

     Still the knocking persists … as there is still someone at the door.  What if, all you have is of no value and what if, all you have clothed yourself is rotting away? What if the person you are is of no substance and has no significance beyond your living for yourself?  What if, the real truth is at the door and you are poor and hopeless beyond the illusions and delusions in your blindness as to who you really are? 

     When you realize your emptiness and your need and as you repent of your blindness and selfishness … you will find there is a guest at the door.  A guest who will love you and draw near to you in every way giving you bread and wine that will nourish for all time, gold that will not fade away and  holy garments that will not ever age. He will cover all your shame redeeming it and all of your life with a healing touch to your eyes that may truly see. As He comes to you and spends time with you, you will change to love as He loves and love all that He love.  All you have do is open the door to the one who is standing just outside and wants to love you forever. 

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20, ESV)

 Suggested Reading ... Christ's Words to the Church at Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22)

Of Things Older

“Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy the truth and do not sell it, also wisdom, instruction and understanding” (Proverbs 23:22-23).

  We all have our preferences. We all like different things: from food to music, from colors to clothing, from quiet to loud, from organized to spontaneous, from the latest fads to the old classics, from the sparkling new to ageless antiques, from hot coffee to icy cold lemonade, from being reflective to being inquisitive. Most of our preferences come from our unique sensory feelings and  from our very personality but there is a timeless value in things older than us.

     I have always like old things. I tend to favor things from days gone by. I like old tools and gadgets, good lyrics with quieter instrumentation in music and anything that seems like an antique in some form.  I like old clocks with their clicking little brass gears, old art full of passion and expression, old books and even old fishing tackle.  Most of all, I like older people and what they have to say.  

     I have been blessed by my genuine affection and preference for older people over my entire life. I have always liked to listen to older people from the church as they would tell of their adventures in life. I still have many colorful images and details in my mind that cannot be found in any other place except for my memories. When I drive and travel, I am always stumbling around old buildings looking for someone connected to the house or the long forgotten business. I love to sit down and ask them about their life and pry into their philosophy of living. I love their little nuances of their language patterns, watching their eyes sparkle a bit when remembering their first loves and most of all, the advice that would be distinctly theirs as to how I might live out my life with some of their insights.

     Now that I am approaching the older side of my own life, I still love listening to older people. I have many older friends and I even find the nursing home a place of life as I like going there. The endless stories, the reflections, the slowness of the pace, the humor that sneaks out and the eagerness in letting others into their world are all things I like about being around older people. It is sad to me, that our culture seems to laugh at age as if it only happens to other people and to devalue most everything but the current and the popular.  If age in the sense of passing time makes antiques more valuable; doesn't the truth carry over making older people of more value and true treasures as well. In matters of faith, there are very few older saints that don’t have a wealth of insights, reflections and guidance which would be practical, appropriate and valuable to those younger.  It is a sad and ironic fact that often times as each new generation comes along, we generally prefer our peers to those that are older and wiser. We often make many needless mistakes before we realize the wisdom and value of things older in the generation before us.

     In the appreciation of people and things that are older, we may forgo some new thinking along the way and we may miss most of the latest trends but when we buy the truth of those who have lived before me, we could gain much and avoid a few of the major mistakes that would scar our lives. The wisdom, instruction, understanding and value of people that are older does not fade away with seasons and time but shines as timeless substance and truth. Things older remain as gifts for each new generation to discover and realize. We just need to see and open the packages all around us.

                                                  Suggested Reading ... Proverbs 23

Sitting and thinking ...

“For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.  Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee” (Psalm 33:21-22, KJV).

  There are times I remain quiet in my faith as I speak only to my own mind of the steadfast love of God. I can only speak to myself because I struggle with the words expected from me to address what I cannot truly give an answer.  As a pastor, I often find myself sitting in huge soft chairs listening, waiting and reflecting at hospitals where I sit in easy comfort while all around me there is an un-ending flow of questions, tears and life threatening issues. A flow of hesitant and awkward yet moving people that go in and out of the doors of the these places with various degrees of difficulty. I often see; people with broken bones, people with broken hearts, people who cannot speak, others in recovery and those beginning their first steps back to a new normalcy as their lives have changed forever. I sometimes see those that will never walk down the street again or those that will never use their hands again. I often see families who will never be the same family they were just a few minutes, hours or days before.  I often see couples changing in roles even as they come in and out of these medical facilities.

     What is my answer to those who will never again speak or laugh like they used to or do what they have always done? It now requires monumental effort for most of them to move or talk, yet they were here to find help. For some it was brokenness from birth, for others it was a brokenness from a dreadful accident, for others the difficulty comes from a stroke and for still others their brokenness came from an unfair invasion of a debilitating disease. Where was God during the moments when these packages of brokenness in arrived in their lives for these persons of various ages? Where was God when new parents saw their young child with legs that were twisted and the joints rigid when they knew straight limbs and flexible joints are required for movement from place to place? Where was God when the force of a vehicle 30 times a person’s weight crushed their normal abilities for movement and speech and left them to start over with teetering toddler-like capacities? Where was the God of compassion when an awful disease entered uninvited in a person’s life, changing the present and future with a single blow through an unwanted and unimagined spoken diagnosis of disease was given to them?

       It is difficult in these moments to find the path of faith in the providence of a loving God as we stagger through a wooded forest of unfairness, pain and difficulties. Most theological precepts of faith break down during these unintended life journeys into unknown futures of continuing pain and suffering.  If any of the hundreds of people who have passed by me over the years were to ask me a question like this, “Why did God let had this thing happen to me,” I would be awkwardly silent. I don’t know the answer and I cannot begin to speak to their pain. I might even be silent in such moments, even as I would try to stay present with them to listen and gently offer my empathy and concern. 

      Still, I know that our loving Savior, who is the Great Shepherd does not abandon any of His children, especially those who cry out to Him. I know Christ is present even if we don't sense Him. His love remains even in the silence, even in my silence. I know He is present and His love is sufficient for all these unknowns even if I hear no audible words. I know because He promises to always be with us and to someday bring us to a place where there are no tears and the bodies will be new without pain and suffering. In times of pain and suffering, we at times only have the truth in the realization that we are loved by our Heavenly Father. We have only living hope He gives us which lives in the promises He has given us.  Sometimes the situation remains but knowing God is with us makes all the difference in the world.

“Love us, God, with all you’ve got – that’s what we are depending on” (Psalm 33:21-22, The Message).

Suggested Reading … Psalm 33