daily java

Daily Java:

The one thing I ask of the Lord—
      the thing I seek most—
   is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
      delighting in the Lord’s perfections
      and meditating in his Temple.
    For he will conceal me there when troubles come;
      he will hide me in his sanctuary.
      He will place me out of reach on a high rock.
    Then I will hold my head high
      above my enemies who surround me.
   At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,
      singing and praising the Lord with music. (Psalm 27:4-6)

There are things that look so appealing to me. One is the idea of being a monk, spending my time in a quiet atmosphere, writing, reading, maybe even a vow of silence, of poverty.

Of course, I would like to stay married. I do not want to give  up my wife. For one thing, I love her and like being with her.

But even so, I have considered the idea of some kind of vacation like this. If I could find the right setting where I could do it for a week.

There would be no internet service, no phone service. A typewriter would do, or a small computer hooked up with nothing but a word processing program. No Free Cell, no Solitaire, no games of any kind. No TV or movies. No books of any kind except for my Bible. No distractions.

Just me and God, living in an attitude of meditation.

In fact, I have told Ella that if she died, I may become a monk of sorts. I would get rid of everything else and maybe just wear a robe. I would have to have good sandals as my feet are bad, but still, just nothing but me and God.

Life would look for me and not find me. It would be good.

I even set up a schedule for a week long time of fasting, prayer and writing, with periods of exercise.

6AM           Wake
6:15-7:00    Morning prayer and meditation
7-8              Exercise and walking
8-9              Reading
9-12            Writing
12-1            Prayer and meditation
1-2              Exercise and walking
2-3              Reading
3-5              Writing
5-6              Exercise and walking with meditation
7- 8             Prayer and meditation
8-9              Final writing
9PM            Bed

Whether it would work or not, I do not know. It just sounds idyllic. I would probably be bored after a couple of days.

But the idea of not worrying about anything, to just stand and let my mind go in directions I want it to without distractions.

Could I do it? Maybe not. But maybe so. I would like to try.

daily java

Daily Java:

The next day Paul went with us to meet with James, and all the elders of the Jerusalem church were present. After greeting them, Paul gave a detailed account of the things God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his ministry. After hearing this, they praised God. And then they said, “You know, dear brother, how many thousands of Jews have also believed, and they all follow the law of Moses very seriously. But the Jewish believers here in Jerusalem have been told that you are teaching all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn their backs on the laws of Moses. They’ve heard that you teach them not to circumcise their children or follow other Jewish customs. What should we do? They will certainly hear that you have come. (Acts 21:18-22)

There is always someone who is willing and ready to minimize what you have done.

There had been a massive paradigm shift in the kingdom of God. No longer was one group of people important and the others second class. Now all were equal in Christ Jesus. No longer would the Jews be the sole people of God. He had turned from them. In fact, he hadn’t even spoken to them for over 400 years.

Now, in order to be his people, they had to come to him and accept his grace on an equal footing with the Gentiles.

They could not stand this. Of course, you can understand why. The entire Old Testament revelation was either given to them or given to others with them in a primary position. They had been big.

When Paul came up and told them what good was being done, they agreed. Yeah, yeah, that’s great. But, you know, there are lots of Jews being converted and one thing is for sure. They do not want to change. They will accept Jesus, but they do not want to change their lifestyles.

What is more, they are afraid Paul was teaching other Jews that they didn’t have to keep the law of Moses, something they loved and felt was their right and due.

And he was. His message was that the old order was gone. There was now a new order: a law of love and grace, not of laws and commandments.

By the end of this chapter, they were trying to beat him to death and he had to be carried by a bunch of soldiers on their shoulders to keep him from being killed.

In their defense, the church in Jerusalem was treading a fine line. The Jews were as rabid about keeping their laws and customs as the Muslims are today. The only real difference between the two was that they did not insist on converting the rest of the world at the point of a sword.

They would, however, kill you if you told them that their way of doing things was not valid anymore. And the church was both afraid for their own survival in a hostile situation and themselves basically unwilling to change their lifestyles. They had always been Jews and could not imagine worshiping God any other way.

So they reminded Paul of the letter they had sent with him telling everybody what they had to do. Paul, of course, had disregarded this letter as another attempt of the old guard to force their wishes on the new guard. The things it contained, They should abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality (Acts 21:25), were for the most part true.

Their real problem was that God had shown Peter a vision saying what he had created not to consider unclean. In other words, eat everything and shut up about it. So everything in the letter except for immorality was not valid any longer, and Jesus had already talked about immorality anyway. There was no reason for an official letter.

When it came down to it, no one in the church has the right to tell anybody else what they can or cannot do. Our relationship in this new order is based on our relationship with God, not with somebody “in authority.”

The customs you follow in life do not matter. What matters is when you begin to mandate them. Then they become wrong.

And there are those who will not care what good you are doing. They will only care about how you can make them feel better.

That is a shame, but it is true.

But we continue anyway. And may God be praised and we be placed in second place.

daily java

Daily Java:

Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. (Matthew 24:35)

We look for permanence in the midst of a disposable society.

It is amazing how many things we throw away. You don’t see shoe repairs anymore, even though shoes are pretty expensive. We throw them away when they wear. Clothing tears and it is in the trash. Our electronics are incapable of being repaired so if something happens, out in the trash. It is even easier to get divorced than to work on our marriage relationship.

But in the midst of all this temporariness, we are looking for permanence. We are looking for something that lasts, something that has some substance.

God is a permanent God. He is not a fad. He will always be with us and his words will always be able to guide us. The old Indian saying that the only thing that lasts is the earth and the sky is not true. One day they will be gone. The only thing of any real permanence, any real substance is God and his words.

When you follow God, you get that in your life which will not change, which will not die. It will not change according to fashion or fad, it will not become less when people don’t like it. It will stay forever.

Even in death it stays. When his friend Lazarus had died, Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, hinted to Jesus that if he had wanted, he could have stopped it. Jesus’ reply: I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha? Is this permanence in your life, Martha?

No one is disposable in God’s sight. He may not use you as an example of his power as he did Lazarus, raising you from the dead. But his love and his power is permanent in your life.

He will always be there, even if  you cannot necessarily feel him. Everything else will go, but what he said is permanent.

acts 1 – it all has to start somewhere

Acts 1 – It All has To Start Somewhere

The old saying is that the longest journey begins with a single footstep. Everything has to start somewhere. Some of the greatest and largest and most successful companies in the world started with one man or one woman having a good idea. From there it grew into something great.

The church was the same way. It began with death and then life. It began with failure which turned into success. It began with sadness which became joy. It began with one man and ended up being the largest faith in the world.

The church started one day with a couple of hundred people standing around trying to figure out what was going to happen. They were in the temple like they had been for the ten days since Jesus went back to heaven in their sight. They were praying, talking, discussing, teaching, arguing, expostulating – all the things they knew how to do.

They just couldn’t do the most important thing: figure out just exactly what it was they were supposed to do.

Jesus had left them with a single idea: just wait in Jerusalem, for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about (Acts 1:4). He said they would be baptized again, but this time, it was going to be different. This time, he said, in 1:5,  you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So they waited. They had nothing, after all. They had given it all up when they began to follow Jesus. So it wasn’t as if they had lost a lot in waiting. But wait they did.

And they waited. And they waited. When will it begin? They even asked him, in 1:6, before he left, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Tell us when it will start. Give us some clue.

Jesus’ reply: it will start when the Father decides it will start. You just wait until then.

So they waited.

They even did a little busywork and appointed another apostle to replace Judas Iscariot, who had killed himself after betraying Jesus. Of course, that wasn’t necessary. God had his own plans for the apostolate. You never hear from Matthias again.

And they waited. And prayed. A lot of prayer was prayed, along with all of the disciples, and Jesus’ mother, Mary. Even she didn’t know yet what to do.

Something was going to happen, and when it did, it was going to start something big. They knew that. They just didn’t know what yet.

So they waited. And prayed. And watched. And taught and discussed and talked and argued.

Come, Lord Jesus. It all has to start somewhere. Let it start with us.

daily java

Daily Java:

How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
      Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
   Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
      Don’t let them control me.
   Then I will be free of guilt
      and innocent of great sin. (Psalm 19:12-13)

It is amazing what we are capable of, things we end up doing that we never dreamed we would.

I read an article a few years ago by a young man who had participated in a gang rape in a bar. He said he was repulsed by the whole idea, yet the mob mentality was so strong that he found himself engaged in the very act that appalled him. He said it was as if he had no will of his own and was deeply ashamed.

A friend of mine was a policeman in Houston involved in undercover narcotics work. There was rumors of a riot planned in one part of Houston and the police sent in my friend along with several other undercover policemen to see if they could diffuse the riot from inside before it got going.

He told me that the mob moved and began to chant and throw rocks through business windows. He threw a rock and thought, Wait. I am the police. Again, it was as if he had no volition of his own. He became part of the mob without wanting to.

You find some money and keep it, even though you have an idea of where it came from. You say something to hurt someone and wonder afterwards why you would ever do that. You engage in an affair with a woman, even though you love your wife and you cannot figure out how it was you even got started.

You do stuff that is stupid and you think, Wait. I am a child of God! Why am I doing this?

Sin lurks in our hearts. That sounds melodramatic, but it is absolutely true. It is just sitting there waiting for the opportunity to jump out. It is no wonder that the Bible speaks of the devil as a prowling and roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour.

Romans 3:23 says: All sin and fall short of the glory of God. That is for the world, for non-Christians and everybody for that matter. Everybody sins and messes up. It is the way we are made. God made us able to make choices, and the problem is, when the choice is too hard, we make the wrong one. It is human nature.

Even Christians have the problem of sin. 1 John 1:8 says: If we say we have no sin, we are lying and the truth is not in us. That is for Christians.

In other words, everybody sins. Some are saved sinners and some unsaved sinners, but we are all sinners needing the grace of God.

And the bad thing is – if the others are not bad enough – we don’t even know all we do in our hearts, all we are even capable of.

We do both deliberate and hidden stuff all day, both Christian and non-Christian. So if we all sin like this, who then can be saved?

We are not lost by the sins we commit, we are lost by the fact that we have not accepted Jesus and his grace. We are not saved by the sins we do not commit, we are saved by the grace of Jesus.

The Lamb’s Book of Life does not have the things we have done listed in it, it has our names listed. If we are his, our names are there. If not, they are not.

He knew and knows that we sin. It is our nature. But when we take him into our hearts, it changes the nature of our lives. We are no longer ruled by sin. We are ruled by him and his grace.

That doesn’t mean we do not still make mistakes. But what it does mean is that we stand before him clean and pure by his power, not ours. We are free and innocent by his strength. He makes us that way.

Praise his name!

irritated about everything

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9)

Frustration is the key word of our society. We are irritated about everything.

One of the presidential candidates mentioned that she was a Lutheran and got blasted for not liking the Pope. A pop singer sang a song in a wheelchair and got blasted by a disabilities organization. One of our former presidents said he didn’t like broccoli and got blasted by the broccoli association.

No matter where you turn, you end up “hurting somebody’s feelings.”

Of course, many times, that “hurt” is nothing more than a political ploy or a guilt trip to get you to do what that person wants. But even so, it makes for a frustrated society.

And a frustrated society is not a peaceful one. It can’t be, because the waters are always being churned up by someone with an agenda.

The Christ-follower should have no agenda other than that of Jesus. Romans 13:8 says: Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

In other words, just do what Jesus wants and the other stuff will take care of itself. Quit trying to get people to do what you want and be at peace.

Rejoice, even when things are not going well. Be gentle in this mean-spirited world. Don’t worry. After all, what can worry accomplish?

Let God know what you need and trust in him to provide it.

And then, fill your hearts and your minds with decent stuff. The more you watch garbage, the more full of garbage you will be. Do things that are helpful, think about things that are good. Read good books. Listen to good music. Talk to good people.

Follow the example of those who love you and want the best for you. Choose to be peaceful. It is a choice you can make if God is truly in your heart.

And choose not to be irritated by what people do. They don’t do what you want? Big deal. They could probably say the same about you.

Then the God of peace will be with you. God bless you.

daily java

Daily Java:

I will bless the Lord who guides me;
      even at night my heart instructs me.
I know the Lord is always with me.
     I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. (Psalm 16:7-8)

My wife and I have been married for over forty years. In that time, we have built a good relationship.

That relationship has been built on our being together. She has been beside me for all those years, supporting what I do, encouraging me, loving me, teaching me, learning from me, just being with me.

We are together much of the day, due to the nature of my work, and we are together every night. We eat together and sleep together, we play together and laugh together, we celebrate together and mourn together.

She is my companion and I love her.

But as much as I love her, I have been with the Lord longer.

I accepted Jesus as my Savior on December 13, 1959, at the age of ten. I have not always done a good job, but I have tried to serve him ever since.

He guides me and instructs me and is always with me.

There are times when Ella cannot be with me for one reason or another, but God is always there. And one day, she will die, but he will still be there.

This knowledge gives me a confidence that is not found even in my relationship with Ella. One day she will be gone, but he will never be gone.

He will always be with me.

a quality of a Christian that is evident

Psalm 15

Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
Those who refuse to gossip
or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends.
Those who despise flagrant sinners,
and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,
and keep their promises even when it hurts.
Those who lend money without charging interest,
and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.

There is a quality of a Christian that is evident. He or she is one who worships, who strives for godliness even in the midst of failure, who tries to do what is right even when it seems impossible and everyone else opposes it, who honors what is right even in a world of wrong, who stands firm.

One who stands firm is never popular. We live in a world that is constantly vacillating, constantly seeking the path of least resistance.

It is hard to do what is right in this kind of world. Yet the Christian tries, against all odds, to do what is right.

It is hard to worship the Almighty God and serve him. In the midst of a world that is corrupt, the worship of the Almighty God is never welcomed. But the Christian does even in a hostile situation.

The Christian will not speak evil of his or her neighbor, no matter the reason, even in private.

The Christian will not take up with those who compromise the Word, who compromise the worship of the Almighty God. It doesn’t matter what others think, the Christian will remain faithful even to the point of ostracism.

The Christian will be generous, even to the point of being taken advantage of. The bottom line is not his concern. The love of Jesus is his concern.

The Christian stands firm.

Those are the ones who worship in his sanctuary, who enter his presence in his holy hill.

They are not the ones who win the popularity contest. They are not the ones who are elected to office, who are loved and honored.

But they are the ones who are faithful to the Lord.

They are the ones who are faithful.

daily java

Daily Java:

Psalm 13

For the choir director: A psalm of David.
O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
How long will you look the other way?
How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?
Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!
Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.
But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
I will sing to the Lord
because he is good to me.

Someone once said that we get to being depressed not because bad things happen, but because good things do not. After a while, it seems there is no balance in our lives.

And you wonder why God allows this in a Christian’s life. Why is it that one who is to be seen by the world as joyous, full of the grace and Spirit of God can have his life go on and on in such a dismaying fashion.

And there is no real answer to that. Those who are hurting the child of God think they have won. He has been stopped from doing what we do not want him to do, so we win.

And in some respects they have. When we begin to feel deserted by the One we worship, they are winning.

We ask how long will you keep on allowing us to be punished? How long will you forget me? Because, after all, when the Lord pays no attention to you, it feels as if he has forgotten you.

It is easy to say, well God is still there and is still in control. It is easy to say, if you can’t see his hand, trust his heart.

And while true to a point, at the same time, these are cloying aphorisms that mean nothing except that the sayer is not very smart or very inventive.

When the sparkle is gone, you need the one who created the eyes to hear. And sometimes he doesn’t. Not only does he not hear, he sometimes will not hear for years.

I trust in the love of God and I sing to him. But I need him to hear me and see me.

God is good and I praise his name. But I need to hear him.

daily java

Daily Java:

A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!” Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered. The story of what happened spread quickly all through Ephesus, to Jews and Greeks alike. A solemn fear descended on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honored . (Acts 19:13-17)

This is a funny passage and made me laugh out loud again. Seven men who thought they were something else came up against the powers of darkness without the help of God and got their clocks cleaned.

They decided that casting out demons wasn’t as hard as all that, and since the apostles, men they probably considered their intellectual inferiors could do it, so could they.

So they tried. The evil spirit looks at them and says, whoa re you anyway? And attacks them. They were indeed fortunate to get out alive. They are standing out on the street beat to pieces and everybody is looking at them and realizing their total lack of power.

I am reminded of the story in 1 Samuel 28 when King Saul was trying desperately to get some advice. God had turned from him for his arrogance, and Samuel was dead, having not spoken to Saul for several years before he died.

Saul found a witch at the city of Endor and went to her in disguise. It was, after all, against the law to be a witch. When she did her conjurings, Samuel popped up. The minute he did, she knew she was in a real situation. And she was scared. All of her other stuff had been fake. Just like the seven men in the story in Acts 19.

In the movie, Leap of Faith, Steve Martin plays a fake evangelist who holds a revival in a small town. He claims to be able to heal and to prophesy, but it is a sham, accomplished by a good ability to guess and a radio transmitter in his ear to hear advice from his staff that they have found out. He then “miraculously” delivers this information during the course of his “ministry.”

At one point a crippled boy comes forward and is really and truly healed. The real thing in the midst of all his fakery scares the preacher so badly that he quits and runs away. The fake was normal, the real was frightening.

Occasionally we come into contact with something that is real and honest and it can scare us. Someone who is really good, or pure, or holy. We try to be these things, but when someone comes up who really is, we don’t know what to do. It can be frightening.

At one point in the gospels, Luke 5, Jesus points out a large load of fish for the apostles to catch. When they pull them in, it is one of the biggest catches they have ever seen. The apostles realize that it is because of the power of Jesus that they caught it.

Peter is overwhelmed. In front of him is real power. He was big and strong and considered himself to be good at what he was, but here was the real thing. He fell to his knees and said: Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you (Luke 5:8).

The real thing is frightening.

My wife has a look of love and trust in me that at times is almost too much to see. I am afraid I am not worthy of it. The way your children look at you when they are little. You are the most powerful being in the universe to them.

When these seven men thought they would just do some stuff and people would really appreciate them, they were wrong. The powers of the devil, without the help of God in your life, are overwhelming and there is no way you can stand up to them. You will only get hurt if you try.

People say things like “one of these days, I will get my life straightened up and I will come to church.” It will never happen. You cannot straighten up your life. Only God can. His is the real power.

He is the real thing.