The Heat is On

Just in case you ever wondered, Fresno, California is one hot casa.  Whew.  I am here for a Peacemaker conference.  I would like for our church to become a church with a culture of peace.  It is difficult to serve the lord, teach discipleship, reach people for the Lord, and at the same time continually deal with Christian people who can not or will not get along.  

I pray with Jesus, that we might be one, as he and the Father are one.  Would that be fantastic or what.

When I was in Israel, you often heard the phrase “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”  Looking into the meaning of the name, Jerusalem, it probably means “foundation of peace.”  The city called the foundation of peace is one of the most unpeaceful cities in the world.  

Having to pray for peace among Christians because we can’t get along is along the same line.  Anyway, that is why I am in Fresno.  
  

In Times Like These

New experience at our age don’t come along very often.  Yesterday we had one.  Our friends Robert and Donna Marshall invited us to a rappelling adventure.  So we went to the mountain and experienced rappelling.  I had done it once before at a men’s retreat.  That was off a tower.  This was different.  And it was Jen’s first time.  

After instructions, it is time to fly.  Those first steps over the edge of  the cliff are the adrenalin moments.  Then it is pure delight as you descend, totally in control of your speed.  See the joy on Jen’s face as she experiences the freedom of controlled falling.  

Rappelling is an experience of faith.  At first you have faith in Robert.  He knows what he is doing. Doesn’t he?  Then you have to believe the equipment will hold you up and hold you back from descending too fast.  Then you have to believe the safety person at the bottom can catch you if you make an error.  

Perhaps the strangest faith factor is trusting that the unknown person who put the anchor in the rock, who knows when, it was already there when we started, did the job right.  Everything depends on the anchor holding, and gripping the solid rock.  

Not unlike our faith in Christ.  “Be very sure, your anchor holds, and grips the solid rock.”  (From the hymn, “In Times Like These.”  

A Walk In Postmodernism's Woods

A Walk in the Woods is a book by Bill Bryson. Several years ago he decided he wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail (AT) is a hiking trail that stretches over 2100 miles from Georgia to Maine, or from Maine to Georgia depending on which way you walk. They started their hike in Georgia, and after 6 weeks on the trail they were in a Park Service Visitors center when they saw a map of the whole trail. They realized that day that they were not going to be able to ever hike the whole trail. So they gave up their goal, split up, and decided to meet in August in Maine to finish the trail.

After a few days in Maine they decided that they had hiked enough. So they quit completely. But as they talked one of them tried to convince the other that they had walked the AT. After all, they had hiked on both ends, and some places in the middle. They had suffered and worked hard, so even though technically they had not hiked the whole trail, they decided that they had.

This is just another example of our culture. Here we believe that if we feel like we hiked the trail, then we are hikers.

I wonder how that transforms into our spiritual lives. Just because we feel like we are spiritual, without practicing the spiritual disciplines we are not. And it doesn’t matter how we feel.

Paul said he goes into strict training to be spiritual.

1 Corinthians 9:25-27 (NIV)
25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

When you go into strict training, you practice spiritual disciplines. In Timothy he invites us to train to be godly.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 (NIV)
7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.
8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.


Don’t think you are a spiritual person because you want to be, or because you feel like you are. Train yourself to be Godly.

Cell Phone Mania

How fun.  A spiffy black SUV pulls over in the slow lane right in front of me, then slows down.  I pull around to pass and I realize what has happened.  The SUV driver has received a phone call on her cell and is having trouble driving and talking at the same time.  The slow lane is a good place for her.  I exit the freeway and pull up to the red light.  In a moment there she is, and now I see the real difficulty.  She is one of those who can’t speak without her hands.  So in one hand she is holding the cell phone to her ear.  With the other she is gesturing as she talks, pausing occasionally to re grab the steering wheel.  What a hoot.  I hope she arrives at her destination safely without hurting anyone else.