When things look dark.

It has been a few weeks since a post.  That means that I've been a lazy blogger.  There has been plenty of lessons learned over the past 3-4 weeks, I just haven't sat down to put them into writing.  There have been a few discouragements, but, as always, I am amazed at the goodness of God in turning dark times into bright times.

Perhaps no where is that point made more clearly than the events that we celebrate this week.  Jesus was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death without actually being convicted.  Instead of passover being a time to celebrate God's deliverance, his disciples and followers were mourning his loss.  A three year 'ride' that they thought would propel them into leadership in Jesus' kingdom appeared to be brought to a screeching halt.  They probably felt a huge sense of loss - of Jesus, and maybe the loss of three years of their lives, their reputations, their dreams.

With God, darkness doesn't have to be the end.  Because Jesus rose from the dead, God can turn dark times in our lives into bright times as well.  It starts by turning the darkness of our sin into the brightness of Jesus' righteousness. 

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

I John 1:9

Once we've taken that step, we find that the darkest that the world has to throw at us cannot hide the light of His glory from shining through in our lives.  I could give many examples from my own life, but if you've asked for forgiveness, you have plenty of your own, and if you haven't come to Jesus for forgiveness, you probably wouldn't believe me anyway.  

I hope as we approach "Good Friday" and Resurrection Sunday, that you are able to celebrate the light that God has shone into your life.

The Things We Get Used To . . .

Have you ever thought how easy it is to get used to things in our lives.  Bad habits can stack up like firewood when we get used to things that are not beneficial.  We get used to driving, instead of walking - even get used to finding the best parking space so we don't have to walk a few extra steps.  We get used to eating for pleasure rather than for nutrition and strength.  We get used to having what we want, when we want it.  We get used to things to the point of feeling we deserve them (affordable health care, nice cars, comfortable homes, 'good' food, high-speed Internet, phone service, cell service, cable/satellite tv, etc.)

How much work does it take to get 'used to' these things?  Very little - in fact, we kind of fall into these habits.

Yet how easy is it to get used to good habits?  Growing in our walk with the Lord, reading our Bibles, prayer,  loving our neighbors, helping those in need?  Why don't we 'fall' into these habits?

The things we get used to easily shows us the things that we value in life.  When we value comfort, convenience, and pleasure it is easy to fall into bad habits.  When we value growth, godliness, and spiritual things, it will be easy to fall into good habits.

Often we may struggle to conform our actions to what we desire them to be, but if we conform our hearts to value those things that God values, we will find it easy to follow through with proper actions.  I must confess that I often fall short in this area,  but as the blog says: "Moving on up" - I hope these thoughts help you (and me) to move on up today.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.- Luke 6:45

Lessons from a loaf of bread

I love to bake!  I think I pretty much always have.  My favorite things to bake has almost always been sweets: cookies, brownies, cakes, pies - anything sweet.  In an effort towards a more healthy lifestyle, we have been doing more baking of breads and bread products (bagels, pitas, rolls, buns, you name it!)  We have been using whole grain wheat and grinding it at home for over a month now, and have enjoyed the extra flavor of good homemade bread, and the knowledge that our bread was better for us.  This past week, we saw mention of the dangers of whole wheat flour - and an investigation has followed.  Phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors are present in whole grains and many suggest soaking grains to convert the phytic acid and neutralize the enzyme inhibitors.

After looking into various facts and points of view, we have decided that phytic acid is not a dangerous substance for most diets, and enzyme inhibitors are not dangerous when fresh fruits and vegetables are part of the diet.  At this point, you're probably wondering what my point is, this blog is not usually about baking.

In our investigation, we stumbled onto sourdough bread - a fermented starter that neutralizes phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, and food spoilage bacteria.  And the bacteria that causes the rising in the bread, even though killed in the baking process, gives added flavor and nutrients to the bread.  So for the last several days, we have had sourdough starter (named 'Fred') sitting on our counter.  Fred is a hearty guy, but fred needs something on a regular basis.  Fred needs to be fed.  Fred is healthy; his bacteria fight off food spoilage, kill of non-beneficial bacteria, and cause my bread to rise properly when preparing for baking.  Fred takes carbohydrates and gives off tiny CO2 bubbles that make light and fluffy loaves.  But in order to do that, Fred needs food - good food.  So every 12 hours on the counter (2-3 days in the fridge), I need to add more flour and water to Fred to keep him growing and protected.

Fred struck me this morning as a picture of our spiritual lives.  With proper feeding and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we grow healthily to fight off the attacks of sinful influences and spoilage that comes from wrong thoughts and actions.  With proper feeding, growth is evidenced in out lives and spreads easily to infect all areas of our lives.  But without proper feeding, just like Fred, we would cease to grow, and not have the strength to fight off unwanted influences and the spoilage that comes from them.

Fred likes to be fed twice a day, when is your next feeding?

"As newborn babes, 
desire the sincere milk of the word, 

that ye may grow thereby:

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 

- I Peter 2:2-3

Sheltering

It's always interesting to hear how some people talk about 'sheltered' kids in a way that makes it clear their disgust for the parents who shelter, and sympathy for the poor children being sheltered.  I suppose, at one time or another, I have made comments about someone living a sheltered life - because they didn't know what a tuna melt was, or was unaware of some piece of pop culture that I was familiar with.  Yet, everyone could be considered sheltered in that respect.  No one knows everything or has experienced every experience.  So the question is, what things should we experience?

If experience is your god - that is, if your list of experiences and knowledge is what is important to you, then any sheltering might seem to be bad, but is it?  Would such a person want to experience exposure to a desert climate with no water, or an arctic environment without proper protection?  Even for such a person, there is a limit to what they desire to experience.  Not many people would want to experience that which would harm or destroy them.

We have always sheltered my children.  We do not allow them to play in the street, we always attach them to their car seats, we keep the poisonous chemicals out of reach, and we have trained ourselves to avoid 'bad' words in our speech (stupid, dumb, idiot - in favor of biblical words like foolish and sinful).  Recently, we have stepped up our efforts in the sheltering area.

To some, it may seem like we are already overboard.  To others, they may wonder what took so long.  At any rate, we have seen that sheltering does not just apply to our children - it applies to our lives as well.  What message does it send to tell a child that "This is a show for mommy and daddy?"  It tells them that sinful words and behaviors are OK to watch when you are more mature.  Wouldn't it be better to show my children that sinful behaviors and words are less tolerable to a spiritually mature believer?  A healthy man who eats right and exercises cannot ingest poison without consequence 'better' than an out of shape couch potato.

For the last several years, I have enjoyed NASCAR races, and even real sporting events like football from time to time.  All  the time trying to tell my children that I find it unacceptable that their jobs require them to work on Sunday.  My children would 'play' sports and talk about sports as something they could do when they grow up.  Could a football player take a stand and not play in the Superbowl because it was on Sunday?  Would coaches agree to take on a player that would only play games that didn't fall on Sunday?  The long and short (mostly long) of it is that we have disconnected the antenna from our TV.  Even our favorite viewing of PBS is training our children to be entertained.  As I look at my goals for my children, I want them to be creative, to serve others, but most importantly, to put God first in their lives.  As I look at my goals for myself as a parent, I want to be a parent that spends time with my children, and interacts with them rather than entertains them.

So, we are simplifying.  But simplifying is not simple.  As you think of us (whether you agree or not), please pray that we would be diligent in seeking the best for our family and our children.  And if you want us to pray specifically for you, leave a comment and we'll be in prayer for you.  I'm looking up because my future is bright!

"And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Revelation 21:23

Standardized Testing

Ah, the joys of homeschooling!  As headmaster of the school, I am not responsible for the day to day teaching of our students.  I am, however, responsible for filling in, printing, and filing paperwork with our local school district.  Every year, we need to submit some form of evaluation of our children's progress.  This also is my responsibility.  For the last two years, we have used the Iowa tests, given in the spring to submit tangible proof of the education of our children to the district. 

The Iowa test is a battery of tests that are 'standardized'.  This means that grades are not computed on percent of answers right, but grades are computed based on where the student's score compares to other students in their age/grade level.  A child is then labeled by 'percentile' in each area of the test.  A child may score a 98%, meaning that they scored better than 98% of children at their grade level.  Standardized tests are nice because they show how well a child is progressing compared to their peers.

But a standardized test has it's drawbacks.  A standardized test has the drawback of only being useful in comparison to another person.  This works decently for education purposes, but it fails completely when it comes to our walk with God.  A standardized test grades on 'the curve': a normalized distribution of grades under a bell shaped curve.  In a normal distribution 68% of individuals fall within 1 standard deviation of the norm.  68% of people are characterized as average.

When we carry this over to our walk with God, it is easy to think that if we are average, we must be doing OK.  This would be the case if God's standard was the 'norm' - or the average of all behavior.  But God's standard is absolute holiness.  That means that the bell curve can be thrown out, because no matter where we fall compared to others, we fall far short of God's absolute standard. 

In school, there was at times pressure from some in a class for everyone to 'throw' a test.  If it was known that a test was graded on a curve, it was believed that if everyone did horribly bad, then everyone would get a good score.  I never knew this to work perfectly, because someone always did their best.  In that case, someone who only scored a 70% could get the highest grade in the class! 

Since God's standard is different, we ought to pressure one another to do better, we ought to rejoice in the spiritual victories of others.  They don't 'throw off the curve' for the rest of us, but as we grow together, we can encourage one another to press on towards God's holy standard.

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

 - I Peter 1:15-16

Yes We Can!

Today is special election day in Massachusetts - I hear the turnout so far is incredible as many go to the polls to either keep the seat in the Democratic Party, or to try and derail the health care bill working it's way through our government.  We truly live in a blessed country where we have even some control over who gets into office.  I have heard many times, "Why can't we just put it to a referendum and let the citizens vote on health care reform?"  More than probably any other nation out there, we already have. 

Each November, our citizens are given the privilege to elect officials into office.  Whether you agree or disagree with the Electoral College system that we have for Presidents, we have much more control than anywhere else in the world over what takes place in our government.  I suppose at this point I could say that we have gotten what we deserve through our careless approach to the freedoms of choice we have in this country, but that would not do justice to the point of my blog - taking the things in this world that can get us down, and using them to look up.

With that in mind, we have no more, or less control over the affairs of our government than anywhere else in the world.  In studying Daniel chapter 2 for Sunday School this past week, we have to realize that the hearts of the Kings (Czars, Emperors, Presidents, Dictators, etc.) are in the hand of God.  He reveals what He will to who He will to accomplish His plan.  And as Scripture tells us "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD," It would be foolish for us to ask the question "How could this be God's will?"  And as we are instructed to "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's," it would be foolish to not participate in the election process that our government has to allow our voice to be heard.

"Yes We Can" may have been the rallying call during the last election cycle of our current President, but it is also a truth for those of us who live in the United States.  We can have a voice in the political process, but more importantly, if we are children of the King, we can trust Him no matter what things look like in the affairs of men.

"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision"  - Psalm 2:1-4

Discipline

I suppose that the discipline shown in my blog would make the title of this blog seem a bit out of place.  When we think of how many areas of discipline we have in our lives, it is almost overwhelming to try to get them all under control.  Trying to keep up a blog to organize thoughts and lessons learned, eating right, exercising, flossing (one of my least favorites), personal and familial devotional times, patience, love, sympathy, time schedule, work & family responsibilities - to say nothing of disciplines that other people's blogs remind me of.

So which discipline do I work on first?  Well, that is the easy question.

"For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." - I Timothy 4:8

In thinking of discipline, I have come to the conclusion that discipline breeds discipline.  Discipline in one area of our lives is bound to influence other areas of our lives as well.  But when I think about the discipline of godliness, I'm hard pressed to find an area of discipline that I should have in my life that it doesn't address.  Since there is no area of our lives that is not addressed by the truths of Scripture, there is no area of discipline that remains untouched by a commitment to godliness.  Even beyond that, a pursuit of godliness will correct any deviant disciplines in our lives.  Are we disciplined to increase our wealth?  Scripture will correct that.  Are we disciplined to watch a particular show?  Or to entertain ourselves?  Scripture will correct that. 

I'm not a fan of new year's resolutions.  Partly because they are often made with a "doubt I will do it" attitude, and partly because the "new year" is just another day.  But each day we can resolve ourselves to discipline ourselves unto godliness.  And at the end of the year?  I can guarantee that we will have progressed much better than any other resolution could take us.  The Bible's words actually guarantee that for us.

Happy New Year! :)