The Vindicated Prodical

The story of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15 is one of the most popular Bible stories out there and we would probably lose count on how many times it has been preached from different perspectives. To sum up the story, the younger of the two sons gets sick of living at home, so he demands his inheritance and leaves the family. After a time of living it up and reckless abandonment, he is out of money in a far far away place. To he decided to get a job feeding pigs (which for a good Jewish person, that is blasphemy) and after awhile of feeding and eating what the pigs ate, he game to his senses. He would go home and be one of his fathers hired hands, because they had it better than he did. When he almost got home, his father came out runningnot only greeted him, but had a long embrace. The son was restored to full sonship and he was a part of the family. The older brother had a tantrum because the dysfunctional brother not only came home, but was restored member of the family and there was a party.

I just wonder how many of us carry the attitude of the older son. It is the attitude of making sure everyone stays happy and we do not do anything wrong and we stay on the straight and narrow. The problem with the older brother, like a lot of us is that we are not children but slaves. Being a slave has several destructive tendencies that will keep us a slave if we do not over come them. The first one and I think the most important one to over come is vindication. A person who has a slave mentality is that they always have to be proven right and are always justifying what they do. This attitude is that there is always an explanation for what they did or didn't do, or place the blame on someone else. They are willing to do or say anything or nothing as long as they can justify it and it helps them sleep at night. Whether its justifying crappy eating habits because they claim that they don't have time or the money to eat healthy. This type of justification is based on our own standards or our interpretations of certain standards. Other people can do what they want, just as long as people fit things into your standards and justifications.

When we start using our own justifications to live life, we are going down a winding path that often leads to no good. When our own standards and heart are corrupt, it is really hard to come up with healthy ways of living when its coming from a broken person. It is like trying to turn out an award winning apple pie with rotten apples, it just doesn't happen.

Another problem with having the slave mentality is the concept of trying to play catch up or hooking yourself to the latest whim or bright idea. I am not saying that all the latest fades or whims are bad, but trying to play catch up can be exhausting. If and when the idea fails, we often sit in shambles because we don't know how we got there. One of the problems with this mentality, is that we are prone to not having a backbone. Going from whim to whim often shows a lack of planing and a lack of integrity/backbone because we either don't plan things out, or we are to stubborn to change our ways .

One of the biggest areas that I see where a person with a slave mentality comes from is seeking people's approval and wondering if they are making a difference. This often comes from two different sources. The first one is that we are to blind to see the big picture and we have tunnel vision. We just see what is in front of us. The second issue is that we are not willing to grow up and deal with our own issues. We either minimize our problems and say that they are not that bad and that everyone has problems. At least with me, I do enough reflection, but putting into practice to make those changes is hard. A slave does not want to admit that there is a problem or the severity of the problem. Therefore the problem doesn't change, because one does not want to put in the hard work to make it change. We are comfortable in our own little bubble and in all honesty, we enjoy sitting and our own crap where we don't want to change. With this mentality, we often wonder if we are ever making an impact and doing any good and I am comming to realize that the impact one is making is not as big as it could be if at all.

Or its not my problem its everyone else. The blame game often goes back to self justification and it is a terrible circle to get on and one that is very hard to get out of. Hopefully in the near future I can write about what it means to be a child

The Spirit of Adoption

The last two weeks in sports there have been some events that made me want to bang my head against the wall. The first was when the Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen made the horrific comments that he actually admired the dictator Fidel Castro. He later apologized and tried to explain himself. Secondly, if you go and have a motorcycle accident, make sure you tell your boss who was involved, especially if it was a female subordinate who just happened to be your mistress. Don't let him find out when the police report becomes public, and it makes you look like a liar and having something to hide. So now Bobby Pitreno is looking for a new job while trying to mend his broken family and the University of Arkansas is looking for a new head football coach

Bubba Watson happens to be the coolest person in sports right now (his name might have something to do with it :)). Not only has he won one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the world (The Masters) without having a golf coach or never taking a golf lesson, he owns the original General Lee. For those of you who watched 1980's tv, The General Lee was the car used on the TV show The Dukes of Hazard. He happens to owns the original car that has the doors welded shut. I was a fan of the show and if it were on today I would still watch it. But the coolest thing about Bubba Watson is that not only he is a Christian, but him and his wife just adopted an infant boy. I heard an interview with him this week and he basically said that winning the Masters was cool and a great accomplishment, but there is more to life than winning a golf tournament. He got home late after winning the Masters and yet he was up two hours later to change a diaper. He has shared a little bit of the struggles that him and his wife went through in adopting and it didn't sound fun.

For those of you who know my family story, my sister and her husband adopted two children, and they are the greatest in the world. It is so fun watching them grow up in pictures and learning new things and doing some of the weirdest and most bizarre things. but they sure do make me smile. Here is an older picture of them When become apart of God's family we become adopted. I am reminded of the old Gospel song that this world is not our home and we are just passin through. When we are adopted into Gods family, this world is not our final destination. We have something better waiting for us and we are apart of something bigger than just ourselves or even our families, but it is global.

Throughout the New Testament, especially in the book of Romans and John's Epistles there is language that states that if we have accepted Christ as our Savior and turn from our ways, God gives us His Spirit and we are called sons (and daughters) of God and co-heirs with Christ. What this means, is that we belong to the Creator of the Universe. Romans 8 gives us several helpful and hopeful meanings to what it means to be adopted.

The first one is the greatest one of all. Since we have God's Spirit, our bodies may die, yet we live. Essentially the grave and separation from God for all eternity is no longer something we have to worry about. Through God's Spirit, we can put to death all of our destructive and bad habits and replace them with Godly ones. It is God's Spirit doing the work in us so that we no longer have to struggle with our earthly nature, but become a child of God and do things that are of God and move away from things that are not of God.

The second one and I think the coolest one is the idea that we no longer have to be slaves again to fear and timidity, but we can call God Daddy. Having a slave mentality often means a person is on the outside looking in and often live in fear. A slave often works to please God and so that He doesn't come down in anger on them. The more the slave can do right and the less they can do wrong, that means the master will like them more and the slave will be in better favor. Adoption moves that slave barrier, and it is not so much what we do, but who we are. (what we do is important, but it flows out of who we are and what we do does not necessarily define us)

Adoption means intimacy with God and that there are no barriers. This means that we know God and God knows us. We do not have to go to God out of shame or hanging our heads, but we not only run to Him with open arms, but we often sit on His lap. When one is adopted and their is that intimacy, their is no weird awkwardness. If you have ever been in same room or in a conversation with someone, and something is not right, or there are unresolved issues that need to be taken care of and they haven't been, that is awkward and I know it makes me cringe inside. Being adopted means that we can go to God with open harms and we also go to God when we have done something wrong and we take care of it and make it right. Being adopted means we get a new lease on life and that we can be called children of the most High God and we can lay claim and participate in the promises that He has given us

head slaps and spiritual milk

Growing up on the farm we had a ritual every fall and it usually happened around Labor Day Weekend. It was usually time to separate the cows from the calves and to lock the steers up to get them ready for butchering. The reason we separated the cows and calves is so the calves would be weaned off of the cows and they wouldn’t be dependant on their moms for milk and nourishment. They often complained for the first few days, but after the realization they were eating better, it usually stopped. Being weaned off of milk also has spiritual terms also.

There are several places in the New Testament where the writers explain that we need to move from spiritual milk to spiritual meat. It is our way of not only growing up, but also maturing in the faith. We can not stay an immature Christian forever. In 1 Corinthians 3 the Apostle Paul is exhorting the church for not growing up. They have gotten the Jesus loves them idea, but growing up just wasn’t happening. They were claiming to be Christians, but were still doing worldly things such as gossip, jealousy, and petty fighting. What Paul was saying to the church at Corinth and can still be said for us today is, its time to knock off the petty stuff and grow up. There has to be a point in our lives that we go from knowing that Jesus loves us no matter what, to putting earthly things away and living a transformed life. Living this transformed life does mean we can put the old or bad things away and then live a holy life by ourselves. If that was the case, Christ death and resurrection would be pointless and His grace would be cheap. The only way I know how not to cheapen God's grace, is by participating in Christ death, so not only that we can be raised up with Him and to be transformed in His image and live in that image of being a child of God

Now we are all at different points in our spiritual maturity and our age does not matter or even how long we have been in the church. Being in the church and growing in maturity are two different things. We can spend all of our time in church and be immature, but if we don't go to church, there is no chance of maturing. We can walk into a auto mechanic shop and spend a lot of time there, learning how to be a mechanic, but that doesn't make us a mechanic. Not until we spend time learning and putting into practice what a mechanic does, this is when we become a mechanic. This is true with our Christian life, we can go to church and learn about God, but until we put into practice and grow, are we really growing in Christ. Our goal is to grow in God’s grace and to have Him change us. We are to reflect God’s character and not anybody else, because God is the author and the perfector of our faith. We all have areas where God is challenging us to grow up. There are times where God challenges us gently, but then there are times where He comes and does the Gibbs head slap. (on the tv show NCIS, one of the character; Gibbs, often gives his subordinates a slap to the back of the head when its time to knock it off and to grow up). It is not easy nor is it even fun at times to grow up, this means that we need to put away old habits and ways of life, but the results of this will be very beneficial. It has been said that we are either growing up and maturing or sliding and becoming immature in our Christian faith. There is no standing still, so with this challenge, I challenge all of us that it is time to grow up.

Spring time resurrection

Spring time is in the air and to be honest with you all, its not my favorite time of the year. Up north spring means plenty of brown, mud and impassible roads at times. Not to mention the work that has been put off because of the winter weather, or the cleanup that comes because of the winter weather, but I digress. It has gotten me thinking about several things though in relation to spring. When most people think of spring, they think of new life, warmer weather and a reason to wear the shorts and shirts. This idea of new life comes in many forms. Whether it is the baby animals being born, the leaves on trees, or even a moment of personal growth/self improvement can and is often started in spring. Spring gives hope, because there is something better to come,. whether it is warmer weather and longer days, or the chance at new life and new relationships. With the chance of longer days and new life, it has gotten me thinking, about two things that are kind of related......maybe and those are resurrection and discipline.
Resurrection means in my book not only something being brought to life, but not having to die again. Essentially, death has been conqured and we do not or will not have to die again. As a Christian, we do have that hope of final resurrection and hope that we will be in heaven when we die or when Christ returns. But there might be another form of resurrection that we can have here on earth. How many of us struggle with things here on earth. Whether it is food, what we watch, how we spend our money, we all struggle with something. That is why most of us make New Years Resolutions, so we can maybe conquer those things and so we can over come those things and be better people. I really think that we want to be resurrected from those things that hinder us is so that we do not have to deal with them again and we be raised up and have new life.
Here is the scary thing about this sort of thing, in order to obtain new life, something has to die. If it doesn't die, we are just making behavior modifications. These modifications may last for awhile, but eventually, they will come back to bite us in the backside. It may not be today, tomorrow or five years from now, but it will come back and bite us. If we are the sole provider of the death and resurrection, were in trouble because we are a pretty messed up people. Trying to get someone who is broken to fix themselves is like asking mud to turn itself into gold. It just doesn't or wont happen. We need someone or something to come and not only fix us, but provide that resurrection. Jesus death and resurrection provides that way for us. Jesus death provided the ultimate sacrifice for us and was more than sufficiant sacrifice for our sin and His resurrection provided victory over death. If we call ourselves Christians, Christ followers or any other name for Christians, we need to participate in Christ death also. Even though Christ sacrifice was and is sufficient, being a Christian means we put on the character of Christ. We are still created in God's image, but are scared with sin and its tendencies. So to replace those tendencies and our bad character, we need to die, so that Christ may live in and through us.
This takes work, but we are not at it alone. It takes both kinds of discipline. The first kind of discipline is the fortitude and actions to go through and do something to get it done. The second kind of discipline is a matter of correction. I am like anybody else, I hate correction and discipline. I don't view it as a chance to get better, but as I have done something wrong and shame. I don't like to think that I do things wrong, and I hope to do everything right the first time, but the likelyhood of this is not that good. With God's discipline, He is looking for more than just for action or attitude change. He is not only looking for us to stop gossiping about other people, but for our character to change and not only to stop it, but not have the desire to gossip and change it when it comes our way. If it was just about action change, it not only cheapens God's grace, but it diminishes who God is. My hope is that we can embrace discipline, so that we can not cheapen God and to be made into His image.
So here is a closing illustration. In the fall, a tree loses most of its leaves quite easily. They just fall off and then they are done. There are a few leaves who hold on tight and it takes a strong wind to knock them off. Then their are the one or two leaves that hang on no matter what. The only reason they fall off is because the new leaves are coming forth. This is the way for our lives to. Some habits are easy to kick, for other habits, it takes plenty of prayer or event to go away. That third leave represents those hangups that just don't go away no matter how hard we try. Until there is new life and God's grace, it isn't going away. So in this time of spring and while we are still in the Lenten Season, lets die to ourselves and cloth ourselves in the righteousness of God and grow more dependent on Him every day

Bonanza

I was at the YMCA the other day and was getting changed so I could head off to work and the show Bonanza was on TV. This show actually aired well before my time but there are still some life long lessons. I think there are some general principals that most people look for and deal with quite often. I think this also applies to ones Christian walk and how they view God and how they relate to other people and there are four basic views The first one is the King concept. God is deffinitly King and ruler of the universe and will come back some day to rule to complete His Kingdom. This idea of kingship is that we want someone to follow and to pledge our allegience to. God is the only one who are complete allegience is worthy of. The other aspect of it is that we are going to plege our loyalty and respect to one of several tings, which include; God, other people, things, or they have a king concpet personally. Whether it is for self protection, someone that we are able to serve, to pledge ones loyalty to, or to find some sort of self worth. It comes down to one of two things; its the realization that there is someone or something greater to serve, or that they are the center of the universe and they want to exercise their dominion. The second thing that I came to the realization is that there is the Savior Concept. We want to be saved from something. It moves from pledging ones allegience to, to a realization that one needs to be saved from something and that God provides that way to be saved and to get into heaven. It is having ones sins forgiven, and accepted into God's family. God is the hero of the day, and He is elevated to where He belongs. With this concept, we are accepted into God's family, but it seems that it is just the entry level into God's family, because when God is just a Savior, we pledge our allegience to Him because He has saved us, but life change is necissary a requirement or working towards. The third concept I am wrestling with is this idea of Lordship. It is more than just having someone come in and save the day or to pledge our allegience to. It is the idea of life change. When God becomes the Lord of ones life, it is looking at our life as not our own, but Gods. We become that living sacrifice to God and He shapes us and molds us. This is one of the most difficult things to come to grasp with is because that means we have to look at and deal with our hurts, deficiencies and turn them over to God. When becoming children of God, it is allowing God to take the yuck in our lives and deal with it. We can not just sit and pray a little prayer and it is taken care of. There are times where realizing its there is a big step. But there is also taking it to the throne and asking God for help and then letting Him walk beside us to change us. Its not easy, and there are times where we need to realize that we are human and realizing what our stregnths and weaknesses is a benificial thing and being comfortable with who we are. This doesnt mean we don't give up and growing, but it is realization that this is who I and being comfortable with that The fourth one is the idea of scapegoating. I think its something that doesnt get talked alot about and its something we all do. Its always easier to blame someone else for the problems at hand, or if they hadn't done it, I wouldn't have done what I did. It is way to easy not to take all the blame or any of it at all. Blaming and scapegoating leads down a dark path of self destruction and revenge seeking. It is all about getting even, but in the end, that can never happen, because things tend to escilate to a point of bitterness and hatred. The flip side to this is the idea of the sacrifical lamb, or taking one for the team. If this one person gets fired, or is blamed for everything that has gone wrong, we can move on and be better and we can get this behind us. This idea of finding that sacrificial lamb often means a person or a group of people are seeking out someone to take the fall and to destroy them. It often makes them feel better, but in the long run, the issues that the scape goat fell for pop back up again and does damage to the people involved. The only thing that can relieve us and find us comfort and healing is this idea of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the willingness for that person or situation not to hold us captive any more and we can move on with our lives. It is moving on in God's grace vowing to restore our life and others instead of having people's lives destroyed through anger, malice and revenge. These are just some of my simple thoughts and I hope someone got something from it

Kingsman Reedemer

Wow, it has been quite some time since I have blogged (over two years ago) and I have been thinking on some things and that I have been wanting to write down and share. So here goes my attempt at putting coherant thoughts down to where others can understand and hopefully glean something from them. I was in a conversation wth a friend and she was going to be preaching one Sunday as her senior pastor was on vacation. I asked what her text was going to be and the direction of the message, and I was hopeing to gain some insight for myself. All I was remebered from that conversation was that she was preaching from Ruth and that stuck with me. As I was out splitting wood, God brought back the story of Ruth to my attention and He kept nagging me with it. So I went over to my car and grabbed my Bible and read the story of Ruth. One of the things that kept comming to me was one of the themes of Ruth which is the idea of Kingsman Reedemer. To sum up Ruth, her husband, brother in law and father in law died all with in a period of time and instead of going to her family for support, safty, and to remarry, she went with Naomi to Bethlehem, which was her homeland. Ruth risked her safty and reputation one night and laid at the end of Boaz's bed while he was sleeping. In essence, she was sayint that she was interested in him and that she wanted to be redeemed. Through this, Ruth found favor with Boaz and through time, Boaz redeemed Ruth in being her kingsman redeemer. She had someone to protect and provide her, and to provide a family and lineage. Comming into the Advent Season, I have drawn the correlation between that story and the comming of Christ. It was a reminder to me that Christ risked everyting to become fully humand and still remain fully God to come and redeem humanity. Like Ruth, we are in desprate need for redemption and for someone one or something to come and redeem us. This idea of redemption is more than just a change of destination, a change in outlook, or even doing conducting ourselves differently. It is all of these and so much more. It is a chance to know the Creator of the Universe personally and for us to enjoy Him and to worship Him in all we do. In order to do this we needed to be redeemed. We are seperated from God because of sin, and we often care more about more of what we want instead of what God wants. We also have character deformities, where left unto themselves, are qute destructives, but Jesus came to build that bridge, or to be our redeemer so that we are not left to our own destructive path. Jesus paid the price so that not only we can have a relaitonship with God, but to changed into Gods likeness. I guess, being a Kingsman Redeemer is more than just finding protection and someone to look after me, but has my best interest in mind and has paid the price so I can not only glorify God in all I do, but also be in relationship with Him. It is a realization that God's plans are better than my own self glorification and often self destructive ways

Reading between the lines

I was reading a freinds blog and I decided to see what other blogs were out there. This is not the first time I have done this, but it is interesting how many people blog. Along with this concept, there are many different cultures, languages, and people groups that are represented in these blogs. There are also many different reasons for blogs, such as to keep everyone updated on the family, support groups, fan clubs, for devotional use, and special interest. With an aray of blogs, there are going to be an aray of thoughts, feelings, and positions. Some ideas are preaching to the choir, some are worthy to be pondered thought through, and others are trash. My question is what are we reading and what are we being influenced by. In other words, are we taking everything hook, line and sinker. Or are we processing through it to find the good stuff, and disregard what is pure rubbish. I ask this question, because so much of what we read and listen to has an affect on us, and alot of the time we do not realize this affect till there has been some significant change. Now not all change is bad, but if we are not careful, we could be heading down the wrong road. The only way we can interpret correctly, is if we are reading through a Biblical world view and asking God to illuminate what is true and to show where there are things that should be challenged and disregarded.