Month: February 2020

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10

This week begins the season of Lent, a forty day (excluding Sundays) time of repentance, fasting, reflection, and ultimate celebration. On Ash Wednesday we will begin to remember the forty days Jesus wandered in the wilderness where He fasted, was tempted, and rebuked Satan. He painted for us a beautiful masterpiece of how life can be for each one of us.

I am so in awe of those people who can take a blank canvas put it on an easel, grab some paint, look at a picture or out their window, or remember something special, and paint a beautiful picture or masterpiece. Webster gives some synonyms of a masterpiece which includes words and phrases like: a showpiece, success, a gem, jewel, treasure, and a piece of the master. I especially love the synonymous way a masterpiece is equated with a piece of the master.

We are so fortunate to have Jesus as our role model which means to me that every morning we can paint a new masterpiece of our life on our canvas. I like to see it visually, because to me it says that everyday when we get our brand new canvas upon which to paint our life, we have a choice whether it’s beautiful and light, dreary and dark, complicated and hard, or just plain and simple.

During the Ash Wednesday services years ago, Randy would have us take flash paper, write our sins on it, and at the end of the service burn them. The paper and the sins were gone in a “flash”. That’s how I like to look at our lives. Jesus forgives us just that quickly and offers us a chance to start again with a brand new canvas.

I begin to ponder a question. If we had to paint a picture to describe us and our lives, what would it look like? Would it honor Him? Would He be disappointed? Would it be a picture of service? Would it reflect His love?

Although each day contains the same twenty four hours, every day presents a unique set of circumstances. If we don’t try to force fit today into yesterday’s mold, we can be open for God to show us all he has prepared for us on this brand new day! We can paint a masterpiece.

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. Dr. Steven Gunter

I am the vine, you are the branches; if you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

We use labels all the time in our everyday lives because the labels on the outside tell us what’s on the inside. People, however, are different. We can’t always “judge a book by it’s cover” when dealing with others.

We are often quick to label people and situations in this world today. Isn’t it strange how quickly that happens and how we begin behaving according to our understanding of that label?

In the world of education and teaching, most teachers work very hard at not labeling the children who come through their classes over the years. Each child is unique, as is each person, but when children are passed from grades and teachers each year, it’s hard not to listen to the former teacher’s assessment of them. I have heard many teachers say, “Please don’t tell me any weaknesses or strengths or any labels, I want to look at the child with fresh eyes.”

Just as in classrooms, labels can limit us, so when someone tries to label us it immediately makes our world smaller. If we begin to accept that label, we find that we start to believe that’s who we are and that we’ll never amount to anything more than that. It begs the question, “Who am I?”

The question in life is not, who am I, but rather whose am I? Until we resolve the question of whose we are, we can’t really find out who we are. We can base our identity on a thousand different things, the degrees we’ve earned, the positions we’ve held, the salary we make, the friends we have, but if we base our identity on anything temporal, our identity is a house of cards.

At this point, it’s good to go to God to find out whose we are. God created us. God redeemed us. God calls us, He equips us, He empowers us, and He rewards us. No one can tell us who we are except God. So, when people try to limit us, we need to let God step in.

Where in life do we place our security, our strength, our loyalty, our hope? If it is in something other than God, that’s where the problem of who am I begins. The truth is, God loves and accepts us, and His approval of us trumps everybody else’s labels.

And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:11

Randy and I have been fortunate to travel to some pretty spectacular places, and no matter where we are, we usually try to schedule at least one guided tour.  Most of the guides are knowledgeable and usually end up educating you far better than you could ever do on your own. 

If the guide is experienced, they usually begin the tour with an introduction of themselves, a overview of the tour, and a plea to be prompt and please stay close to your guide. 

The main problem guides encounter is that tourists get caught up in what they are seeing and they wander away.  For this reason, many guides carry large sticks with different colored flags or numbers on them so tourists can find them in the crowd.  In large crowds, their constant plea is please watch for pick pockets and stay close to me.

While the guides are focused, experienced, and familiar with their surroundings, tourists are often none of these things, and when they tend to wander away from the group, the guide must bring them back. 

As Christians, it’s easy to wander away from the values we have been taught and the life we know is the right one.  It’s almost like a pickpocket comes and steals away some of our dearest values, and we don’t even realize they are gone until it’s too late.

If we don’t stay close to our guide, we can suddenly find that our faith, our love for God, and our peace is gone.  We’ve let ourselves wander away from the teachings of the Bible, our prayer life, and our inner peace.  God asks us to “return to the Shepherd and Guardian of your soul.”  (1 Peter 2:25)

In this crazy world of ours where so many things compete for our attention, we can find that, like the tourist, we look up and find that we’ve lost God in our lives.   The comforting thing is that God hasn’t gone anywhere, He’s right there, but we have to find Him again in the midst of all that’s going on around us.

When we set out on a tour, often times we don’t know as much as we’d like to, but the guide will give us knowledge as well as guidance.  Likewise, we as Christians don’t know all we should, but if we stay close to our guide, He’ll be glad to teach us.  Just like the tour guide who begs us to stay close, God tells us that He will show us the way back to Him if we will only watch and listen.  

The point is best illustrated in the verse from Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Robert Robinson: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love; Take my heart, oh take it seal it; Seal it for Thy courts above.                                                                                                                                         

Stay close to Your Guide.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26

During my growing up years, one of the most popular and fun things to do on a hot summer evening was to catch lightning bugs. We would get a Mason Jar, punch holes in the lid, and set out to see how many of the critters we could catch. They are easy to spot because they light up like a stars in a dark sky.

Lightning bugs are curious insects and are part of the beetle family. They don’t bite, don’t attack, don’t carry diseases, they aren’t poisonous, and they don’t even fly very fast. They talk to each other through their light, they don’t have a long lifespan, their eggs glow, and they live on almost every continent. If they don’t really do anything, then I wonder why God made them?

There is always a purpose for one of God’s creatures even if it is to give kids a wonder to put in a jar! I think he also uses them to illustrate the wonder of His power. In the words of one of Charles Martin’s characters, Unc, “If God can make a lightning bug’s rear end light up like a star, then almost anything is possible.” I love that explanation because it illustrates the point that nothing is impossible for and with God. Nothing is impossible within the providence of God.

When we are facing problems, situations, illness, or death, it’s comforting to know that with God at our side we never face them alone. The key here is to watch for the strength and protection He sends and provides. If we fail to receive it, it’s usually because we aren’t watching the horizon for evidence of its approach and aren’t ready to open our hearts up so it may enter. There is an old saying, “Unless you put the water jars out when it rains, you will never collect any water.” So, unless you grab a jar and head out to catch lightning bugs, you probably will never collect any.

When God shows us a new path or opens a door, we are supposed to take it or walk through it. We can’t stand around asking “why” or “should I”? Give God the gift of a willing heart and mobility, and He will always guide us to where we need to be and what is needed.

Even the doors that don’t open, the opportunity we don’t get, or the call that never came can be as much God’s leading as those that did. What God prevents is as much divine guidance as what He permits.

If we know we can’t stay where we are right now, it may very well be the starting point for God’s leading in our lives. We need to take the stirring or restlessness in our soul and just ask, “Where are you leading me, God?” Anything is possible.