He makes all things new.

Here we are, at the end of the calendar.  Not the Mayan calendar, because that supposedly ended several days ago.  The end of another year.  As I read in Genesis this morning, I read that God gave the celestial bodies for seasons, for days and for years.  As we come to the end of a year, I notice that, aside from being in the same relative position in out revolution around the sun, there is no sign in the heave telling me that the year is over.

Regardless of a sign in the heavens, my calendar tells me that tomorrow begins a new year.  It also begins a new month.  My clock tells me that I have begun a new day.  A new day brings hope and expectation of certain things depending on our schedule.  A new month tells us the days are marching on.  A new year fills us with the hope that, somehow, this year will be different than last year - better, more exciting, less exciting, more rewarding, more filled with blessing, etc.

I often tend toward being an optimist.  But not at New Year's time.  I have figured out that turning the page on the calendar does not automatically change the habits and motivations that have made a year what it was. Therefore, the change of a year does not magically change what we can expect out of the next 12 months.

But I know what can.  Do you want to change your habits this year?  Do you want 2013 to be better than 2012?  I know the answer!

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

- 2 Corinthians 5:17

Do you want better things for 2013?  One simple answer will make that happen.  Put yourself in Christ.  Whether for salvation, calling upon the Lord for forgiveness of sins, or whether for abiding, resting in Him, we can put ourselves in Christ, and watch as He makes all things new.

Wishing you all the blessings God has in store for you in 2013!

Why Does God Allow Tragedy????

I know, why do we need another blog post on it?  Well, we don't need one, but my blog is for sharing my thoughts, and no one else has done that.

There are two questions: Why did God allow this tragedy? and Why didn't God stop this from happening?  They are similar, but not exactly the same.  On top of these, as a Christian, I ask "What is God's purpose through tragedy like this?"

First off:  Why did God allow this tragedy?  The simple answer - because He is good.  Before you tune out, we need to follow this train of thought and answer a few questions.  Obviously, if we speak of God allowing it, we must be saying that God could have stopped it if he so chose.  I agree with that.  I believe God is able to do anything consistent with His character as the Bible states "For with God, nothing shall be impossible".

So we have to question: How could God have stopped it?  He could have stopped the man from acquiring a weapon, He could have made the weapon jam, could have made the ammunition useless, He could have struck the man with a bolt of lightening, He could have made the gun shoot out unicorns and rainbows!  OK, there are an infinite number of ways He could have stopped it.

Another question:  Why would He have stopped it?  Most would answer - because it was wrong.  Should God stop everything that He considers wrong from happening?  Sounds good, right?  Until He stops us from overeating by stopping us from having that dessert we really enjoy (gluttony is wrong, too), until He stops us from yelling out in anger at someone that has hurt us, until He stops us from watching that movie we like, until he stops us from dishonoring our parents?  How would you like Him to stop us from these sins?  A bolt of lightening doesn't sound so good anymore.  Maybe some would answer - because of the loss of innocent life.  Should God stop the taking of any innocent life?  How would he stop the large number of abortions in our country? in our world?  How should he stop the endless stream of murders?

The problem to all these questions is that the answer would require God to take away our choice.  What if you had no choice but to honor God?  If all your purchases had to be approved by God or you couldn't buy it?  If all your food had to pass God's standard in quality and quantity?  If all your words had to meet God's standard before they came out?  God created us with the ability to choose, and we would miss that if it were taken away.  We would scream that it is not fair!  That God wouldn't be good if He took the ability to choose away.

So what is God's purpose?  What does He seek to accomplish in this?  The same thing He always looks for: to glorify Himself.  It sounds selfish, but how does He seek to glorify Himself?  If the Bible is any indication, He seeks to glorify Himself by fixing the world, by perfecting mankind, by making all things right.  How does this make all things right?  I don't know, but I trust that He will do what He has always done.  How did He respond to tragedy in the Bible?  When Adam and Eve sinned?  When Cain killed Abel?  When mankind was so wicked that God brought a flood to wipe the earth clean?  He responded with a promise.  To Adam and Eve, the promise of a savior.  To Cain, the promise of protection, to Noah and his children, the promise of salvation - never to destroy the earth by flood again.  To yesterday's tragedy?  The same promises hold, God is still working to make this world what it ought to be.  He's not finished yet.  We're not what we should be.  But He will finish His work some day.  I look forward to that day!

The Business of the Church

This doesn't quite fit with the normal content of my blog, but since I haven't had any content in several months, and this is on my mind, it makes it on the blog.

I have usually resisted the idea of thinking of the church in any sort of business terms.  The terms of the day like "Mission statement" and "strategic thinking" always struck me as being attempts to make the church work man's way rather than God's way.  I think the fringe of the church growth movement that makes all decisions based on business models have helped reinforce my resolve to be no part of it.

A few weeks ago, we had one of our missionaries come and share with us and he got me thinking again about the use of these business terms in the church.  Is it right?  Is it wrong?  Have I been doing church 'wrong'?  I mean, what church needs a purpose statement?  We're a church?  Our purpose is to be a good church. . .

Well, today I found my thoughts wandering to the Apostle Paul and his use of analogies in his writing: the soldier, the farmer, the athlete.  If Paul wrote today, would he use the same analogies?  Would he add to them?  Now, don't get me wrong, I am not going to add to God's Word, it is already perfect.  But would Paul have used the analogy of a business man in explaining the work of the Christian, of the church?  Jesus did, when he talked of counting the cost before building a tower.  God is the author of all truth, whether in business, science, relationships, it is all his.

The problem comes if we blur the line of truth.  We must define truth appropriately.  Truth is not defined by what works.  Truth is defined by God.  Can we use truth from the business world?  Absolutely, so long as it is God's truth.

So what truth am I thinking of this morning?  The truth we find in Hebrews 12.

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us"

Why this truth?  Why business?  Because businesses constantly must look at what works and what doesn't.  What doesn't work must be let go as a weight that weighs us down.  Weights are not necessarily sin, in fact, it is listed in addition to "the sin which so easily besets us."  The hard part?  Remembering what works is according to God's definition.  From a business standpoint, sowing the gospel in the hearts of men may seem less effective at building a church than finding Christians disgruntled with their current church.  One method will appear to 'work' better.  But by what works, we have to mean what helps us to do the work that God has called us to: Making disciples to the glory of God

Well, those are my thoughts. They may not be the clearest or well laid out, but God is still working on me, and I pray God will use this to spur your thoughts toward Him as well.

In the Lord Put I My Trust

"In the Lord put I my trust . . . .", so begins the eleventh Psalm.  What problem in life is excluded from this simple reply?  What situation couldn't be improved by approaching it with this easy statement?

Yes, it is a simple reply, it is an easy statement to utter, but quite a difficult thing to put into practice.  For many of us, the claim is made, and then we run around like Chicken Little all day worried about the sky falling.  Worried about every little thing in life as if our work was the only thing holding God's work together. I like the way David makes the claim.  He makes it and then says, based on that claim, that no one could get him worked up about the circumstances.

"How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" - You can't tell me to flee, my trust in is God!

"For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart." - You want me to worry because the wicked are out to get me?  God is out to protect me!

"If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" - You want me to worry about the foundation being destroyed?  My foundation is God, good luck with that!

After dismissing all their 'Chicken Little' excuses for why he should be scared, worried, and running around like a chicken with its head cut off, he moves on to soothe their worries.

"The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven:

his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men."

- Psalm 11:4a

No matter what came David's way, this statement was still true.  God was still on his throne, God was still in charge.  No matter what comes our way this week, this statement will always be true.  Don't let circumstances get you down, get you scared, make you run for the hills.  God in in his temple, he is on his throne, he is still the judge.  And for the righteous?  Those who seek to be right with God?

"For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; 

his countenance doth behold the upright"

- Psalm 11:7

Just in case you want to check out the whole Psalm in context, here it is:

Psalm 11

In the Lord put I my trust: 

how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? 

For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, 

they make ready their arrow upon the string, 

that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. 

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? 

The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: 

his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. 

The Lord trieth the righteous: 

but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. 

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, 

fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: 

this shall be the portion of their cup. 

For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; 

his countenance doth behold the upright.

A Great Reputation!

In the book of the Psalms, there are many different works written for many different reasons.  Some of them are meditations on an aspect of God.  The first Psalm tells us the blessed man has his delight in the Law of the Lord and meditates in it.  But not only can we meditate on God's law, we can meditate on God's person. For the purpose of this blog, Psalm 8 doesn't fit my normal pattern of "Life can get you down", but rather is the ounce of prevention when it comes to life.  Meditating on God's goodness can keep our focus where it needs to be so that we can endure life's problems without letting them get us down in the first place.

O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is

thy name in all the earth!

who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Psalm 8:1

David begins with a statement.  How excellent, how great, how mighty is God's name in all the earth.  We often think of a name as a label, but David is not referring to Yahweh, Jehovah, or Elohim when he says God's name is excellent.  He is referring to God's character, his renown, his reputation.  David started by dwelling on, and expressing to God that his reputation is great in all the earth!  Certainly he could only say that because he lived in Israel, a God-fearing nation where everybody loved the Lord and followed his commands.  Whereas we live in a nation filled with corruption, moral decay and perversity on such a rampant level that we might think it a stretch to say that God's reputation is great in ALL the earth.  We can let ourselves off the hook, right?  Because of the sin of others?  No!  A thousand times No!  We may be hard-pressed to see it, but it is just as true today as when David wrote it.  And the moral decay was just as prevalent in David's day.  His fearful, arrogant brothers.  His king who tried to kill him.  His own son seeking his throne and his life.  The people of the land still in the land and serving their pagan gods.

Think about it.  About the greatness of God's reputation, his renown!  The creator.  The artistic master behind the beauty around us.  The infinite power that created all the stars of the heavens!  The designer of all the creatures we enjoy seeing, using for labor and eating!  The God of the great and the God of the infinitesimal.  Designer of galaxies and of the stuff that makes up molecules and all of matter.

And David gives more proof in his meditations:

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings 

hast thou ordained strength 

because of thine enemies, 

that thou mightest still the enemy 

and the avenger.

 Psalm 8:2

What does God use to still the enemy?  The strength he ordained out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.  Out of the weakest of the weak, God has ordained strength to still the enemy.  The Phillistines sent Goliath to battle the armies of Israel.  God defeated him with the young man David.  The faith of David came out in his words as he expressed disgust that this Phillistine was allowed to defy the armies of the living God!  Did God use a great warrior to turn back the enemy?  Did he use great strength and power of men?  No, He used a child.  David knew the truth of what he was sharing.

Another proof of the greatness of his reputation?  His goodness to man.

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? 

and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,

 and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet

Psalm 8:4-6

God has blessed man. Little, puny man.  Just a speck on the earth, less than a speck in the universe, and God takes thought of man.  Takes thought, 'visits' him, given him dominion over the works of creation.  

Man may not pay much heed to God at times.  But God has paid attention to man, and blessed him despite man ignoring God.  That is a great character.  That is a great reputation to have.  To love the unlovable.

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Psalm 8:9

Confidence in Mercy

I love taking time while reading the book of the Psalms to compare the state of mind of the psalmist at the beginning of a psalm with his state of mind at the end.  When there is a change, I like to hunt through the psalm to find what made the difference.  Because I often find myself feeling the psalmist at the beginning of a psalm - life has gotten me down, and I desire to get from there to where the psalmist got - looking to God and resting in Him.

The 6th psalm seems to turn on 2 things.  The psalm is full of the tears of David:

I am weary with my groaning; 

all the night I make my bed to swim; 

I water my couch with my tears.

Psalm 6:6

While a good cry can do wonders, David was weary with his tears.  The tears did not accomplish the change for him.  David had concerns for his enemies who were a threat to David unto death:  He told God that he needed salvation because

. . .in death there is no remembrance of thee:

in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

Psalm 6:5

David was also concerned that he had violated God's law and stood in danger of being punished for it.  He cried out to the Lord to spare him from rebuke and chastening.  He cried out that he was weak.  He cried out for mercy.

Have mercy upon me, O LORD;

Psalm 6:2a

Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: 

oh save me for thy mercies' sake.

Psalm 6:4

When David remembered God's mercy, he started to dwell on the solution, rather than the problem.  He cried out for God to save him for the sake of his mercies - and God's mercies are many toward us.  As he thought on God's mercies, his confidence in God returned.  His assurance that God would answer overwhelmed him so that he wrote:

The LORD hath heard my supplication;

the LORD will receive my prayer.

Psalm 6:9

When we want to go from overwhelmed with worry and fear to overwhelmed with assurance from God we simply have to do what David did.  We need to dwell on God's mercies.  We need to plead for God to respond in his mercy, and we have the assurance that God hears, God's mercies are new every morning, God will answer the prayers of his children.

2012 Garden Goodies!

Not much to get me down in this post.  I suppose I could complain about weeding & picking vegetables.  I could tell you how canning makes my back hurt.  But these things don't get me down.  But getting produce out of the garden is always an opportunity to look up.  We rejoice in the cheap / low cost / free food that we can harvest, and we thank the Lord for His provision to us.  Not much to this post, except that I will try to keep a running total of what we put up out of our garden, and what we put up from other sources as well for the winter.

Pickled Beets - 21 quarts (July 16)

Red Raspberries - 2 quarts
Green Beans - 100 quarts (July 19-September 15)
Carrots - 56 quarts (July 23-October 12)
Shredded Carrots (for cakes) - 8 quarts
Tomatoes (canned) - 115 quarts (August 21-October 12)
Spaghetti Sauce - 106 quarts (August 29-September 6) 
Tomato Juice - 28 quarts (September 11)
Sweet Corn - 157 quarts
Cauliflower - 22 quarts
Chopped Celery - 14 quarts
Shredded Zucchini - 5 pints

From Other Sources

Celery (From auction - $2)
Cauliflower (From auction - $28)

Zucchini (From Auction - $1)
Sweet Corn (From Auction - 6 bushel - $42)
Sweet Corn (From Auction - 10 bushel - $7)
Tomatoes (From Auction - 3 bushel - $36)
Tomatoes (From Auction - 3 bushel - $21)

Total food preserved:
629 quarts and 5 pints