Tag Archives: Blessing

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Awareness, Opportunity and Blessing

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One of the principal rules of religion is, to lose no occasion of serving God. And, since he is invisible to our eyes, we are to serve him in our neighbor; which he receives as if done to himself in person, standing visibly before us. John Wesley

How blessed is he who considers the helpless; the Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.  The Lord will protect him and keep him alive, and he shall be called blessed upon the earth; and do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.  The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed; in his illness, You restore him to health.  Psalm 41:1-3

Last week I stayed at the Holiday Inn at Cleveland Clinic while I was seeing doctors and having tests done. (You can read more about that in last week’s post here.) While I have stayed in many hotels with varying levels of service, I’ve not been in one like this before and I really didn’t notice how different it was for at least a day.  As I was sitting at dinner in the café on the second evening, I noticed that the din which typically surrounds the restaurant and bar areas was missing.  In fact, it was rather quiet.  I also noticed that there were more families taking the time to thank God for their food.  It then occurred to me that the vast majority, if not all, of the patrons were either ill, caregivers or some combination of the two.  As I sat there taking this in, I further realized that the staff was different as well as they were more engaged that I’m used to.  With this realization came an awareness, an opportunity and a blessing.

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Give Thanks to the Lord!

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Farm Pic with Psalm 100:4

Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.  Psalm 105:1

As it is Thanksgiving in the United States, please join me in refection upon Psalm 136 which is a beautiful model for being truly thankful.  As this Psalm states, no matter what God is doing, His love for us is everlasting.  It starts with who God is, moves through various things that He has done and finishes with how He is ever mindful of us.

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Prelude to Thanksgiving-Blessings and Lessons

Gratitude for Everyone in our Lives

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Picture of lake in Brown County

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.  Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.  Colossians 3:12-14

 

Within the past couple of weeks there have been quite a few conversations to make plans for Thanksgiving.  While the menu hasn’t varied too much from year to year, the people with whom we share the meal have varied greatly.  Naturally, the core group has always been our immediate family. However, many years have regularly included extended family, friends and acquaintances.  As I consider those with whom I have celebrated this holiday, I am reminded that I am most thankful for the people that God has chosen to weave in and out of my life.  Their roles, the length of time in my life and the affection for them has varied greatly, but they have all had a purpose.  As the saying reminds us, some people are a blessing while others are a lesson. 

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Pride and Humility Part 2

Humility Extolled

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"Only the poor in spirit can be humble. How often the experience, growth, and progress of a Christian become such precious matters to him that he loses his lowliness." Watchman Nee

O Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.  Psalm 10:17-18

As I stated in the last post (Pride and Humility Part 1 –  Pride Renounced), we live in a culture that promotes autonomy, independence and self-assuredness.  When controlled, these characteristics are useful tools in life.  However, left unchecked, they will likely lead to pride.  Prideful arrogance impedes a relationship with God, inhibits relationships with others, multiplies guilt, brings dishonor and insures judgement.   Alternatively, humility is often despised by our culture because it appears to be the weaker trait.  However, it is desired by God because it yields rewards in both this life and the one to come.  Following are a few of the benefits.

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Cup Half Empty or Half Full?

What do you believe?

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“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.”     Psalm 23:4-5

The past couple of weeks I spent some time with my mother-in-law helping take care of some things around her home.  On the long drive there and back I listened to two sermons from Ligonier Ministries…in fact, I listened to them twice.  The second, “All Scripture is Profitable” (https://www.ligonier.org/blog/believing-god-new-teaching-series-rc-sproul-jr/) was by R. C. Sproul, Jr. which brought up the concept of whether our cup is half full or half empty.  As this is a subject close to my heart, I spent a fair amount of time on the trip considering this topic.  Like the phrase “cup half empty or half full”, the word cup in scripture has a figurative meaning that refers to one’s lot in life whether sorrowful (half empty) or joyous (half full).  Like many, if I ponder my life without God, I would have to conclude that it is half empty for I have accumulated 60 plus years of losses, trials and ordeals.  However, when I consider my life’s experiences in light of God’s involvement, I see a different outcome.  What was half empty becomes half full by God’s grace.  Let me walk through a few “for instances”.

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Problematic Assumptions

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“But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand.   When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, ‘Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.’ However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm.   But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.”  Acts 28:3-6

My wife and I were recently on vacation and decided to stop for dessert after while walking back to our hotel from a craft fair.  The dinner rush had passed, but there were still a few stragglers entering the restaurant for a meal.   After being seated, we waited an unusually long time without being acknowledged by a server…long enough that the couple in the next booth who had been seated after us had already received their drinks.  Slightly irritated at the lack of service, I suggested that if we weren’t acknowledged in the next five minutes, we should just go back to the hotel.  Our waitress finally showed up just before we were ready to leave and seemed less than enthusiastic about serving us.  However, she apologized and explained that a tourist had come out of the ladies’ room and hit our server’s nose with her elbow causing intense pain.  What we had assumed to be poor service was in actuality something entirely different.  Having heard the explanation, our demeanor quickly changed from frustration to concern.  That’s the problem with assumptions, just because we have a little information, doesn’t mean that we know the truth of the matter.

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Love and Grief

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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)

This was not the topic that I originally intended for this week’s post, but given a few divinely inspired events, my plan was changed.  As is my habit, I started the day with the “verse of the day” emails from Bible Gateway and KLove. The one from Bible Gateway was a portion of Psalm 139.  It is a favorite of mine for many reasons; one of those is that it was the last passage my parents read together on the eve of my mother’s death.  That circumstance coupled with the quote that I posted this week beckoned me to consider love and grief.

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Forty Year Stretch

Marriage, Commitment, Love and God

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“Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.  Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.  What will man do to me?’  Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”    Hebrews 13:4-7 

This past weekend Marie and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.  While I would like to say that it was an entirely blissful 40 years, that would not be a true statement for two reasons.  We are both fallible humans still in the process of sanctification and there have been trials that have tested our faith in each other and our God.  However, what I am able to declare as true is that those 40 years have been blessed and I would, therefore, like to share a bit of our walk with you.

If you read from the beginning of Hebrews 13, you will see that Paul is asserting a list of essential behaviors for the body of Christ; they are in essence keys to living well.  Honoring marriage is just one of them.  However, if you look beyond the issues themselves, you see a few common denominators that allow for success in these areas. 

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Clarity

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I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.  Ephesians 1:18-19

As I sit down to write, I am anticipating cataract surgery for my right eye in the morning.  Lord willing, by the time this is posted I will have had successful surgery and will be healing.  I went through this process a few months ago with my left eye.  It healed well and my vision in that eye is much better.  I hope to have the same result this time.  While I look forward to the outcome, I do not look forward to the process.  As surgeries go, this isn’t too bad.  However, the annoyance of the intended injury that will need to heal, the irritation during the healing process and the restrictions to my lifestyle are slightly frustrating.  While experience is somewhat painful and tiring, the benefit of visual clarity will certainly worth the inconvenience.  As I look back over my life, I find that the same is true with my soul.

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Avoiding the Darker Side of Kindness

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“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  Colossians 3:12

Some of the definitions or synonyms of kindness are:  benevolence, humanity, generosity, charity, sympathy, compassion, and tenderness.  As indicated above, scripture calls us to be kind and engage in charitable acts.  However, there are times when our best intentions may not be charitable at all.  For example, the Sunday after I was released from my last major hospitalization, very well intentioned people, who truly cared about my well-being, greeted me with a hug…many of which were quite firm.  The problem was that I had just had a PICC line inserted and every hug involving my left arm was painful…so much so that I had to start doing body checks to protect myself.  Another example was while I was caring for my father.  In the last months of his life, visits from people became difficult for him and anything more than about five minutes would cause stress to the extent that he would beg me to send them away.  Some people graciously accepted the request, but others insisted on staying which created an awkward situation leaving me no choice but to demand that they leave.  My point is that there is a darker side to charitable acts that can, in fact, harm rather than help or encourage.  As in all things concerning godliness, we must be intentional about in our compassion to avoid having a negative impact. 

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