Month: November 2013

Categories
Worship

The Hard Work of Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving Day!
The one day of the year we are supposed to be thankful.
Then we can go back to being regular ole grumps!

Actually, this isn’t the only time of the year when we are to be thankful, but the thankfulness aspect of today was originally about being thankful for a good harvest. Having a good harvest meant lots of food on the table, so I guess that is why our holiday tradition for today is eating until the point of discomfort!

So the eating isn’t hard work, though having motivation to do much else with that full belly might be. The laughing at the table with family isn’t hard work. The watching of football games with each other isn’t hard work. So what is the hard work of Thanksgiving?

I believe it is keeping a right focus in today’s American society about WHO we should be thankful to.

It will be easy today to say…” I am thankful because such-and-such happened to ME because I was able to use MY abilities to….” And in doing so, we can focus our thanks on self – on I and Me. That is the American way. To go against that grain takes effort.

The hard work is to honestly ask and answer the question – who has ultimately given us these good things to be thankful for? Who has blessed us with family, with the good things that are on our table, with the innate abilities in us to even work and provide for our families?

God.
He alone.
He is the reason you have food on the table.
He is the provider of rain.
He is the provider of life.
He is the reason you are able to take each breath.

The hard work is refocusing today on Him – the author of good gifts. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift come from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

“Will we only give God the things that cost us nothing?” King David was freely offered what he would need to make a sacrifice to God, but David replied: “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not…sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

It won’t cost us much to be a part of the celebration today, but refocusing our attention on God is hard work. Stepping up as the spiritual leader of your family and asking them to pray with you to thank God might be foreign to you and your family. It is a foreign concept for many in America today. But God desires for you to exalt His Name, and today is the perfect day to do so.

The rest of Thanksgiving won’t cost you much. “But it costs plenty to pray with others. Prayer is hard work, and it takes courage, dedication, concentration, and steadfastness.” As we pray with others, we open up our lives to them – our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs. This is hard work that God desires of us today – to open ourselves up to others in prayer as we honor Him with thankful hearts.

Don’t let the day just be about turkey and dressing, full bellies, football, hunting, or shopping. It will be easy to stop there. Go further. Do the hard work. Refocus the day on the Giver of all good things so that your family members develop a deeper Thankfulness to the One worthy of all Thanksgiving.

Categories
Christian Living

Love in the Face of Treason

Treason…
A distasteful word.
One we’d never want used about our behavior or actions.

When we think of our own lives, we think of ourselves as pretty good citizens… even patriots for our nation. But what if you have dual citizenship – what if you are not only a citizen of an earthly nation, but also of God’s Kingdom? Are you a good citizen in the eyes of the Sovereign King of that realm? How obedient are you to His commands?

We like to think that we are “pretty good” people, but the problem is disobedience to the King… which we term “sin.” And sin is a big deal. Here’s why: “Sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him is not trivial — it is treason.”

So because of our unwillingness to bring our lives under full control of the Sovereign King, we are people with treasonous actions and attitudes. Shouldn’t His amazing love for us be enough to drive out our sin? Shouldn’t His love compel us to love Him in return and keep us from being disobedient? Perhaps the problem is that we haven’t thought of our disobedience as being serious.

“We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us.”

Until we can see our disobedience to both the “Thou Shalt Not” Commands AND the “Thou Shalt” Commands as serious acts of rebellion, we will never sense the full weight of His love in the face of our treason. He tells us not to do some things, but He also tells us plenty that we must do – specifically loving our neighbors as ourselves. Our failure to share His story with them and let them know how God wants to intersect and interrupt their lives with His love… that failure is treason against the King.

And yet He loves us still.

He loves us in the face of our treason.

“Today the word sin way too often misses this aspect of God’s heart regarding the Law. When His Word says, ‘Avoid all sin,’ we miss the ‘I love you, my child’ that lies behind it.”

Let us look at ourselves through the eyes of the King and see how far we miss the mark. When we do so and then realize that He loves us in spite of our own terrible thoughts, actions, and attitudes, we will start to see how deep His love goes… and then that love will begin to drive us into deeper obedience prompted by a desire to serve the One who loves us so well.

(quotes from ‘For Your Joy’ by John Piper; and ‘Every Man’s Challenge’ by Arterburn & Stoeker)

Categories
Relationships

Reconnect Off The Grid

So…
Long time, no Brian.
Or at least no Brian devotions.
Yes, I took a month-and-a-half break from writing devotional thoughts.
Life got busy and “something had to give.” That is no different than you – you are extremely busy as well. The only question becomes, what will you give up due to your busy-ness. The thing that I gave up was my on-line activity. Not just the writing but even the checking of social media and internet. I have hardly looked at facebook, twitter, my website, or even on-line news in the last 40 days.

And strangely enough, though we find ourselves addicted to our social media and to our connectedness to all the happenings of our friends, to the news of the day, and to our entertainment personalities, what I found was that I became addicted to staying “off the grid.”

It was good. In fact, I didn’t feel disconnected from the world. Rather, I felt a bit reconnected to others that I see face-to-face each week. It made it a bit hard to step back into the online fray. Not that I don’t enjoy the writing. I do. And I appreciate so much those of you who are always so encouraging about my writings. But I also found that I enjoyed not being in the glow of the phone/tablet/laptop screen. Maybe more of us need to take a break at times and learn to reconnect with others outside of social media.

I recently read that Japan has established Internet “fasting camps” where Internet-addicted children learn to engage in real relationships. Researchers have linked too much “screen time” to obesity, sleep problems, depression, and other not-so-good stuff. Japan has come to understand that our drive for “connectedness” can lead to stress, and our stress can keep us from engaging in activities that reduce our worry and anxiety. So they are doing something about this damaging cycle. And the funny thing is… Japan ranks 4th in the world for Internet use, somewhere behind us.

I’m not telling you to stop using social media. I just encourage you to have balance. But more than that, I encourage you to be sure you are connecting to real people right in front of you each week. Go out to eat lunch with a friend, and don’t look at your phone the entire hour. Or do the same around the dinner table with your family.

And when you get together this week with your family for Thanksgiving – thank God for them and enjoy them. Don’t bury your face in your phone or tablet – enjoy the few hours you are with your loved ones. You all will have carved out several hours to come together – so use that time to reconnect to one another. There will be plenty of time to update your status after you tell them goodbye and are riding home with a full belly.