The Gold Medal Standard

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 9:19-27
      The Olympics.  How I love to watch the Olympics.  My husband dreads them because I will watch every event possible.  Seriously.  I think the first time I watched them was the summer they were in Los Angeles.  I remember wanting to stay up every night to see women's volleyball, swimming, and of course gymnastics.  I loved hearing the life stories of these athletes who had given up so much to train for their event, to train to represent our country, to train to win that gold medal.  I love that they stagger the Winter and Summer Olympics so that one is viewable every two years.  Now I only have to wait half as long to see an Olympics. 
     Last year, my son watched speed skating with me and we both rooted for Apollo Anton Ohno.  He decided he wanted to take up speed skating and go to the Olympics to win a gold medal.  I explained to him that it takes years of training.  You don't just show up at the Olympics and participate.  You have to become the best at your sport, which means school in a different way, not a lot of play time, hours and hours of drills and skating.  I was not trying to discourage him, but I knew he had no idea what it would take to achieve that level of competition.  After listening to the amount of dedication it would take to get to the Olympics, he decided maybe he would just watch it on TV.
     I am astounded at the discipline these athletes exercise to vie for that gold medal, once, maybe twice in their lifetimes.  It means pushing your body to unbelievable limits.  It means dying to self in many facets of life.  It means pushing through injuries and adversities.  We glorify the athlete (I think disproportionately) because we know the effort it takes to subject our bodies to those physical demands.  We know the difficulty of exercising such will power when chocolate cake is calling out to us, and think, well maybe just this once, when a trained athlete will say, not even this once.  We know when we want to skip a workout because we have had a draining week, and the competitor says, I will workout twice today.  There must be a drive in them that compels them to keep going.  And we've seen it.  Who can forget Keri Strug's memorable vault which secured a gymnastics team gold medal?  After spraining her ankle to record a lukewarm score, she vaulted into the hearts of America by braving a second attempt.  Furthermore, she sacrificed her chances at the All-Arounds with this endeavor.  She took one for the team.  Had she not pushed her ankle, giving it a chance to mend before the Individual events, she might have had opportunity to take more than one medal home.

Courtesy of--http://breadsite.org

     How much am I willing to sacrifice to give out the gospel?  Missionaries do it.  They represent us in all parts of the world, giving up the daily comforts we take for granted.  They eat foods we would not even taste, let alone eat.  They learn difficult languages that require years of study.  In some places, they travel dusty terrain to reach the outlying villages.  They encounter incurable disease, unsanitary conditions, untamed wildlife, government regime changes, inflation that alters their financial support.  These seem like big things, but they also deal with daily nuisances.  Insects, electricity blackouts, water shortages, rodents, corrupt officials, homesickness and a host of other things.  Paul gives quite a lengthy list in II Corinthians 11 about just a few of the things that had happened to him as a missionary.  He wasn't complaining, he was just explaining that the missionary life is not always easy.  He was willing to go through all that because he knew that people who die without Christ will go through a lot more. 
     Athletes punish their bodies to achieve a gold medal.  Sure, it looks great on the mantelpiece, the gold reflecting in the homefires.  Yes, it brings international fame and recognition at every breakfast table chowing down on Wheaties.  Surely, there is satisfaction knowing that those years of intense training had been rewarded.
     Missionaries leave previous (sometimes lucrative) occupations to go to an unfamiliar culture.  They raise their children far away from grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who deem them strangers when they return for furloughs.  They make difficult decisions about how those children will be schooled, abroad or at home.  They will not bring home a gold medal at the end of their tenure, but they will have something far more precious at the end of this life.
     Is it a lot to ask for me to give a little time to pray for them?  And not just a "Please bless the missionaries" but praying specifically for each family, for each field, for each need.  Is it too much to give a little of my money to support missionaries?  Maybe to even give a little more for special missionary projects?  I'll admit it.  I am embarrassed when I don't know who our missionaries are.  I may not always recognize each face, because I don't have a missionary card for each of them, but I should at least recognize each name.  Just yesterday, I was reading some of the missionary letters on the church bulletin board (something I should do far more often) and saw a name I did not recognize.  Have I prayed for that family before?  I didn't see it on our regular prayer sheet, so I'm not sure what the situation is, but now that I know it, I will do my best to pray for them regularly.
     If athletes and missionaries can discipline themselves to give their all, can't I discipline myself to give just a little?  In the Olympics, they are competing for a temporary reward, and I never see a one of them giving up even though the first three cross the finish line.  Every competitor finishes that race, even it means pushing a broken luge across by foot.  They do not want to let their country down.  They want to finish their race with pride.  Shouldn't I want to do the same for my God?  I know I will never be Olympics material, but shouldn't I be a gold medalist on God's team?  It might take a little work, and a little dedication, but a gold crown will last longer than a gold medal.

I Love to Know

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 8
     "...Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.  And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."
      I often say I am a fount of useless knowledge.  I know a little about a lot of things.  When I was younger, I may have come off as a know-it-all.  Maybe, even today, I still do.  What I have learned over the years, through God's love and help, is that knowing something doesn't mean a whole lot.  How that knowledge is applied is more important.  We call this wisdom.  But wisdom involves a whole lot of love.  Love for God, for His Word, for His direction.  How can I illustrate?
     My oldest son, who has mellowed a lot in recent years, was a handful to discipline from about 2 years to 5 years.  I was desperate for answers.  I thought I knew how to discipline.  I followed every Bible verse about sparing the rod and spoiling the child.  I couldn't understand why this boy was so incredibly stubborn.  Who would take spanking after spanking without relenting?  My husband and I were at a loss.  I grew tired of the advice to be consistent.  I was being consistent.  What was I doing wrong?  I read every Christian child rearing manual I could find, watched every DVD, listened to every audio CD on the subject, and I tried every method.  Nothing worked completely, but some things worked a little.  I wondered when the discipline would start "to take".  Then I came across some material that changed me.  What was my approach?  I was disciplining my child in knowledge, but was I disciplining him in love?  I thought I was.  I had failed to win this child's heart, and that was the key to unlocking how he behaved.  I confess, with all of his resistance, I started to become resentful of him.  I knew that was wrong, and I fought hard against it, but struggling hour after hour, where every thing was a fight, made it difficult not to feel this way.  I loved him, but I didn't like him very much, for a long time.  I started to make myself smile more, to ask him more sweetly, instead of ordering him, to keep my calm when handling the discipline.  I always started calmly, but after a half hour or so of still dealing with the same matter, I did lose my temper, on more than one occasion.  I cried myself to sleep, begging God for help when this happened. 

Courtesy of--http://breadsite.org

     As I changed my approach, I could see my son's behavior changing as well.  Now, I noticed that it bothered him more when he displeased me, something that didn't seem to make a bit of difference before.  Now, he succumbed to the correction quicker.  I am pleased to say that this approach has saved my relationship with my son.  It restored it.  I would never thought I could say that my oldest has a tender heart.  But he most definitely does.  I can't take all the credit.  God did a work in his heart and life as well when he accepted Christ.  I have no doubt that God allowed us to go through those trying times to hopefully be a help to others.  Nobody could give me the right advice, because it looked like I was doing everything right.  Nobody could see into my heart and see that I was doing it all wrong.  I was not disciplining my son from a place of love.  I was disciplining him from a place of power, authority, control.  These are not bad things by the way, but if not coupled with love,  they will get you nowhere.
     I had a lot of knowledge.  I had a lot of love.  But since I didn't apply this love to the knowledge I had, I nearly failed my son.  I'm thankful God was able to show me how to correct things, before it was too late.  I would hate to have not learned this lesson until his teenage years, and be unable to win him back.  Maybe somebody reading this has struggled the way I did.  You may know all the right things to do, but if you do not do them from a place of love, you will be unsuccessful.  I think I can safely say that carries into any part of our lives.

Bread-Making Day

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 5
     When I was a little girl, I have a clear memory of my Mom making fresh-baked bread.  I don't remember ever watching her assemble the dough, punching it and kneading it to get it bake-ready, but I remember the smell of that home-made bread.  The aroma filled the house.  I also remember having to be very careful shutting doors.  As I am not much of a baker, I don't know if that still applies today.  Anything that would send a jolt through the house, might cause the bread to fall, instead of rise.  You always want the bread to rise.  I never remember my grandmother baking bread.  Maybe that is because she lived down the road from the quarry, whose blasts we could hear nearly every day.  Baking in her house might have been highly unsuccessful.  In any case, there were occasions when Mom would pull the bread from the oven and it looked like a sinkhole had pulled the dough into itself.  When this occurred, we never celebrated.  We never cheered that the bread had deflated.  It was sad.  As the bread smell wafts through the house, you salivate and impatiently wait for the sound of the oven timer.  You have knife and plate ready to spread a pad of melting butter and crunch into the crispy crust. How disappointing when Mom would pull it from the oven and it was inedible, trying to whoa the taste buds until the next bread-making day.
     "Your glorying is not good.  Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?"  Paul is chastening the church in Corinth for allowing someone who is openly practicing his sin to remain in the church.  Allowing it signals approval.  I am not even going to attempt to get into church discipline, I will leave that to a pastor, but I think there are some obvious teachings from the Scriptures that make it very clear that some situations have no business remaining in the church.  The Scriptures are very candid about unrepentant believers being admitted fellowship in the local congregation.  We live in a world of tolerance.  But we cannot be tolerant at any price.  The price being, that if a believer participating in a particular sin, and unwilling to relinquish it remains, it may start to grow in other areas of the church.  Why?  Because if he is allowed to remain, it seems as if it is okay.  If it is okay, then it will spread.  This is what Paul fears.  He admonishes the Corinthians to put this man out, since he appears to be unrepentant. 
     I don't ever remember eating a collapsed loaf of bread.  It is yeasty, doughy and not tasty.  It completely contrasts with the loaf we were expecting to get.  We usually threw it out.  A Christian who openly practices and participates in sin, without remorse, is like the bread that has not risen.  Everyone expects something quite different than what comes out of the oven.  A person who calls himself a Christian but practices the ways of the world, delivers a wrong concept about Christianity.  Whether we like it or not, the world holds us to a higher standard.  If we live less than the expectations, it is like delivering an unrisen loaf of bread.  The world expects to see that knife-ready golden crust.  They smell the home-made bread aroma throughout the house and have a good idea what a loaf should look and taste like.  It doesn't mean they will partake, but our lives should be enticing to them.  It should be pleasant to the eyes and nose.  None of us is perfect, but even the world knows activities a Christian should not be involved.  Just as we should not be proud when the bread does not rise, neither should we be happy about a Christian who falls away and refuses to repent.  We should not encourage them by keeping them in the church, but we should not whoop and holler because he has to be thrown out.  Neither response is desirable.  Wouldn't it be better if the Christian would just admit his sin, repent and be allowed to remain in fellowship?  This is obviously the most desirable outcome.  We want every Christian to thrive.  We want every Christian to walk with the Lord, but if he refuses to see the error of his ways, we do no favors to ourselves and to our churches by keeping inedible bread.  Maybe one day, he will scrap the old dough and be allowed to rise again.  That is the sincere hope.  Bread that rises is always something to anticipate.

Measures of Mercy

Today's passage:  I Samuel 29
     When I was in college, I had to write a paper on self-esteem for one of my education classes.  I wasn't trying to put it off, but as the deadline crept closer, I hadn't even read the book on which we were to base the paper.  Fortunately, I am a quick reader, and the book was not a snoozer.  I read it in a few hours, pulled an overnighter and skipped my first few classes to complete the paper, but was still not finished in time to deliver it to my professor.  I turned it in the next day, ready to be marked down heavily for its delay.  I lived at home, not on campus, so my mother was not too pleased with my procrastination on the project.  I was unbelievably surprised when my graded essay was returned to me with an A+ at the top of the page, and this remark, "The effort you put forth in writing a truly effective paper far outweighs it being late for one day."  I remember my mother seeing that comment and saying, "You didn't deserve that grade."  She was right.  I didn't.  My professor had not seen that I had only worked on it for one night.  She wasn't to know that I hadn't been writing it for days.  Mercy was extended to me.  The situation was of my own making, but I received grace.  There were other classes that I suffered the consequences, but for some reason, on that day, I was spared them.
     David put himself in this situation, servant to the king of Philistia, prepared to go to battle with his countrymen, because of the lies he had told.  He had been dishonest with Achish, king of Gath.  He pretended his loyalty was with them, which put him in some tough circumstances.  Achish now expected David to prove himself.  He expected David to fight with them, against his brothers, against his true king, against his best friend, Jonathan.  David and his men follow the Philistines to the battlefield, but many of the Philistine princes question this decision.  They ask Achish why David should be allowed to fight.  They do not trust him.  They do not want to be in the midst of battle with David and his men betraying them, fighting for Israel.  Achish defends David, assuring them he has been a loyal subject for this couple of years, but relents when the princes stubbornly refuse to allow him to fight.  David must have been relieved.  I imagine he had probably asked God before marching out to the battlefield to somehow deliver him from this situation.  God does.  David does not deserve it.  He created these circumstances for himself and for his men.  He didn't deserve mercy, but God extended it anyway.  I know he had no desire to fight his Israeli comrades, some of which he had probably fought side by side against the Philistines.  He would have either turned traitor on Achish in the midst of the battle (just as the Philistine princes feared) or commit an act against his nation which would cause him to shudder.  God spared him of all this.
     If God were to judge me for every sin I committed, I would be dead.  If He were to give me the full punishment (besides not giving me hell, thank you Lord, for so great a salvation) for every thought in my head, every word I uttered, every deed I performed I would never have made it out of my teen years.  I would never have made it to my teen years.  God is merciful to me every day, even when I find myself in a situation of my own making.  Still, He is gracious to me.  That doesn't mean I have never suffered the consequences, but I sure am thankful every time He spares me when I don't deserve it.  And guess what?  I never deserve it.  Not one single time.  If God ever allows me to suffer consequences for something I really did not do, that only makes up for the hundreds of times He has been merciful to me for the many times I didn't deserve it.  So the next time I complain about receiving the penalty for something I am not at fault for, I should remember all the times I deserved the F.  I need to keep in mind that God has spared me numerous times.  When God tests me with something that I shouldn't be punished for, I need to take it.  Maybe I didn't deserve it in that situation, but remember the time I did?  Does that mean God has a balancing act going on, weighing the times He has been merciful with the times He hasn't?  When is there a time He hasn't been merciful?  He is merciful every single day. Trust me, if He were putting things on a scale, the times I didn't deserve mercy would put a whole through the floor.  And no, God does not have a ledger that shows how he spared me the consequences over there, and not over here.  Every time I am put in a situation that I don't think I deserve to be in, I need to remember that the God of mercy put me there.  And what will my response be?  It's not fair?  Is it fair that He has given me mercy in other situations where I most definitely should have suffered the punishment?  David was grateful.  There will be other times in his future, where it doesn't seem he should suffer the punishment he receives, but if he is truly honest, there are plenty of times he was spared the punishment he deserved.
     I didn't get an A+ on every late paper I turned in.  Truth be told, I didn't get an A+ on some papers I worked very hard on, that I turned in punctually, that I researched extensively.  Sometimes I didn't get the grade I deserved on those.  But I would never complain about that, because God and I know when I didn't make the grade in other ways.

Smooth Stones

Today's passage:  Isaiah 57
      Israel had reached a particularly low point.  She barely recognized the God who had made her a nation.  If anyone still worshipped Jehovah God, he was ridiculed.  If a righteous person died, she was not noticed. Israel was now no different from the surrounding nations because of her idolatry.  She went to great effort to worship these idols too.  God says in verse 6:  "Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot:  even to them hast thou poured a drink-offering, thou hast offered a meat-offering, Should I receive comfort in these?"  Stream stones become smooth after they have been there a while.  A rock might start out ragged and dirty but after time at the bottom of a body of water, it will emerge without edges and clean.  God was telling Israel, they were in for a long haul of judgement because of their sin.  They would be spending a lot of time at the bottom of the stream.
     Smooth stones are great skipping rocks, but after they have finished skipping, they sink again to the bottom. Most people will not wade through the water to retrieve them. A smooth stone makes a great paperweight.  It can be painted with messages or vivid colors, but then its job is to sit around.  Sometimes they look pretty in the garden.  But they dull in comparison to the flowers blooming around them.  It seems that there is no use for a smooth stone.  It has no impact.  Israel had no impact on the nations around her.  She had not been that light.  So it seems that her punishment at the bottom of the stream would render her useless in the future.  Was that God's plan?  To toss her into the stream never to be heard from again?  No.  God had made a promise to Israel. At this point the Messiah had not come to earth yet, so this cannot be the end.

As Abram Journeyed He Built Altars to God--Taken from Standard Bible Story Readers, Book Four
By Lillie A. Faris, Illustrated by O.A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland
Standard Publishing Company, 1927

     Smooth stones can be useful.  Several times in the Old Testament, stone altars were built for the Lord.  I'm only guessing now, but wouldn't smooth stones make for better building?  David collected five smooth stones and used one to topple Goliath.  The stone that kept Jesus in the tomb must have been smooth for it had been rolled away.  Jagged stones do not roll very easily.  Smooth stones can serve a very great purpose if God is using them.  God wanted to put Israel in a place where she could be used.  He was not done with her yet.  He still had a great purpose for her.  He needed to smooth away the edges and wash away the grit.  I don't want to allow myself to ever get as far gone as Israel.  She had to go very far from God to have this judgement pronounced on her.  I don't know how much time she had to spend in the bottom of the stream to become useful for God again.  Smooth stones have their purpose, but I'd just as soon stay out of the water.

Bruised

Today's passage:  Isaiah 53
     I don't enjoy correcting my children.  It is probably the least favorite thing I like to do in life.  If I had my way, my children would never fight, they would always respond with the right attitude, they would always obey immediately.  That is not usually what happens, without a little persuasion.
     Speaking of Christ's suffering, verse 10 says, "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him..."  It pleased God that His Son was suffering?  That seems contrary to God's nature.  Why would He be pleased with the torment of His Child?  Perhaps, when the bruising brings about a result.  When I have disciplined my children, I find no pleasure in it, but when their fighting has ceased, when their attitude has sweetened, when they do what they are told, I am pleased.  Unfortunately, sometimes it takes unpleasantness to accomplish the goal.  When Jesus Christ's body was badly beaten, when it was nailed to the cross, when it had no life left in it, it accomplished it's purpose.  It redeemed me.  The result of the bruising was pleasing to the Lord.  In verse 11 it says, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied..."  God knew what the end result would be, and that was to purchase the salvation of all the people He loved.

The Suffering Savior--Taken from The Bible in Pictures:The New Bible Symbols
By M. Bihn and J. Bealings
The John A. Hertel Company, 1922

     It doesn't please God to bruise me.  Sometimes it is necessary to achieve what is necessary in my life.  He doesn't enjoy the process, but He likes the product He gets. If I try to live a life where I don't fight, I keep the right attitude, I obey God immediately, He will have fewer reasons to give me bruises.  If He can get the result without the persuasion, wouldn't that makes things pleasant for both of us?  For Christ, there was no choice but to offer His body.  There was no other way.  He satisfied and pleased the Lord with His sacrifice.  He took my lumps so that I can live without bruises.