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Thursday
Point Of Exclusion
With the numerous religions in the world, how can
Christians claim exclusivity? I am often asked this
question in different settings. But I've always been
fascinated by the fact that the Christian faith is the
only one that seems to have this question posed.
The truth is that every major religion in the world
claims exclusivity, and every major religion in the
world has a point of exclusion.
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Wednesday
Monday
Well Again!!!
Naaman was general of the army under the king
of Aram. He was important to his master, who held
him in the highest esteem because it was by him that
God had given victory to Aram: a truly great man, but
afflicted with a grievous skin disease. It so happened
that Aram, on one of its raiding expeditions against
Israel, captured a young girl who became a maid to
Naaman's wife.
of Aram. He was important to his master, who held
him in the highest esteem because it was by him that
God had given victory to Aram: a truly great man, but
afflicted with a grievous skin disease. It so happened
that Aram, on one of its raiding expeditions against
Israel, captured a young girl who became a maid to
Naaman's wife.
One day she said to her mistress, "Oh, if only my master
could meet the prophet of Samaria, he would be healed of
his skin disease." Naaman went straight to his master and
reported what the girl from Israel had said. "Well then, go,"
said the king of Aram. "And I'll send a letter of introduction
to the king of Israel." So he went off, taking with him about
750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothes.
Naaman delivered the letter to the king of Israel.
The letter read, "When you get this letter, you'll
know that I've personally sent my servant Naaman
to you; heal him of his skin disease."
When the king of Israel read the letter, he was terribly
upset, ripping his robe to pieces. He said, "Am I a god
with the power to bring death or life that I get orders to
heal this man from his disease? What's going on here?
That king's trying to pick a fight, that's what!" Elisha
the man of God heard what had happened, that the king
of Israel was so distressed that he'd ripped his robe to
shreds. He sent word to the king, "Why are you so upset,
ripping your robe like this? Send him to me so he'll learn
that there's a prophet in Israel."
So Naaman with his horses and chariots arrived in style
and stopped at Elisha's door. Elisha sent out a servant to
meet him with this message: "Go to the River Jordan and
immerse yourself seven times. Your skin will be healed and
you'll be as good as new." Naaman lost his temper. He turned
on his heel saying, "I thought he'd personally come out and
meet me, call on the name of God, wave his hand over the
diseased spot, and get rid of the disease. The Damascus rivers,
Abana and Pharpar, are cleaner by far than any of the rivers
in Israel. Why not bathe in them? I'd at least get clean."
He stomped off, mad as a hornet.
But his servants caught up with him and said, "Father,
if the prophet had asked you to do something hard and
heroic, wouldn't you have done it? So why not this simple
'wash and be clean'?" So he did it. He went down and
immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, following
the orders of the Holy Man. His skin was healed; it was
like the skin of a little baby. He was as good as new.
He then went back to the Holy Man, he and his entourage,
stood before him, and said, "I now know beyond a shadow
of a doubt that there is no God anywhere on earth other
than the God of Israel. In gratitude let me give you a gift."
Hungry To Be Held
People who know me know that I'm a very focused person
when I'm working on something. Except when it comes to
the most distracting person I know - my little granddaughter.
When she was only one-plus-year old, there was just no way
to resist her when she came my way. She'd pull herself up by
my pant leg, she'd stretch her arms my direction, and then
made these cute little noises and irresistible faces - virtually
begging me to pick her up. I'm not the only one who's gotten
nothing done when she's around. No, she was that way with
other family members; reaching out to be held. And I'll tell
you this: our arms were always open.
LISTEN!!!
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Friday
Why Things Are Caving In
On the September 11th we'll never forget, she was the last person
brought out alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center.
Fleeing down the stairs from her office on the 64th floor of the north
tower, Genelle Guzman got as far as the thirteenth floor when the
building collapsed around her. Suddenly, she was in total darkness,
she was buried alive and she was unable to move much of her body.
Genelle cried out to God for help. And that help came in the person
of a rescuer breaking through the rubble and grabbing her hand.
In her darkest moments, Genelle Guzman promised her life to Jesus
Christ. Her emotional miracle was the total peace she has had every
day since then; a peace that her psychiatrist, who's worked with many
nightmare-plagued survivors, simply could not understand. In his book
"Breakthrough Prayer," Jim Cymbala quotes Genelle's bottom line on
what happened to her as she told it to her amazed psychiatrist.
She said, "The tragedy I suffered was something I needed to go through
in order to know Him."
LISTEN!!!
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Thursday
The Offensive Truth
Monday
What Kind Of Hero?
In a plot reminiscent of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of
Dorian Gray, a player's moral decisions affect the fate -
even the appearance-of the hero. They become the
kind of character their choices produce, and the world
around them is influenced accordingly. Moreover,
the simulated world is full of the sort of temptations
that lure dark sides and influence decisions. If you
could get away with stealing would you? What if the
money received from a bribe seemed more useful than
the honor gained from refusing it? If you knew every
decision would ultimately affect your character would
it make you behave respectably or would you eventually
give in?
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Thursday
I Was There
How do you know that God exists? How do you know
that God loves you? These questions, upon the hearts
of so many, have answers as real as the formative
moments in your life...
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Tuesday
To Do: Life
The art and philosophy of list-making has been on my
list of things to consider. A list-maker myself, I concur
with the philosopher who observed the human as the
list-making animal. While following steps and outlining
our to-do's may appeal to our memory, I believe there
is something also that appeals to our mind. The popularity
of books with "7 steps" or "10 ways" in their titles seems
to show our penchant for living by list.
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Monday
The Apple & The Bank Note
Is there a difference between childlikeness and childishness?
Jesus told us that unless we become like little children, we
would not enter the kingdom of heaven. Yet Paul several
times chastises different churches for being "infants" who
cannot handle solid food. In 1 Corinthians 13:11, Paul writes,
"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a
child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put
childish ways behind me."
What sort of childish ways do we need to put behind us in
order to become childlike? I believe the answer is hinted
at in a remark made by John Newton who said, "The men
of this world are children. Offer a child an apple and bank
note, he will doubtless choose the apple." One of the great
dangers of childhood is the failure to recognize one's own
best interest by choosing momentary delights over lasting
pleasure. Children want immediate gratification without
considering the future consequences.
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Friday
That I May See
C.S. Lewis once noted that if we had to choose between
reading old books and new books, it should be the old
books we choose. "Not because they are better," he
wrote, "but because they contain precisely those truths
of which our own age is neglectful." Lewis was well aware
that there were truths spoken through other worldviews
that he was blinded from simply because he existed in
his own.
Our worldview is no exception. Every thought and
experience, every book and idea that crosses our path,
has been shaped within the cauldron of postmodern
thought, a mindset often ruled by the eyes. And when
orientation to life is based on one's own perspective,
and truth discerned by personal preference, blindness
is a difficult concept to accept.
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Thursday
Assured By Faith
In a world of chaos, faith is the anchor that secures
and keeps the believer from drifting off-course.
It is the gift of God that reminds us He is living and
active. In the book of Hebrews, faith and endurance
go hand in hand, for endurance proves faith, and faith
supports endurance.
But how, exactly, does faith support endurance and
keep us on course in turbulent times?
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Tuesday
Keep To The Pattern
Before the industrial revolution, when women were responsible
for clothing themselves as well as the rest of their families,
patterns weren't so easy to come by. Many women would
take apart old dresses and use the pieces as the pattern for
a new dress.
The fit of a dress must have evolved as it got further and
further away from the pattern. One piece might have
become slightly bigger; the other may have gotten smaller
with each snip of the scissors. In the end, if you'd held the
pieces up to the original pattern, human error would have
led to a noticeable difference.
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Monday
Artful Counterculturalism
This past year a group of Christian thinkers were asked to answer the
question: How can followers of Christ be countercultural for the common
good? Their answers ranged from becoming our own fiercest critics to
experiencing life at the margins, from choosing our battles wisely to
getting more sleep. A case could be made to add many other ideas to
their thoughtful list. Its project leaders would agree; the possibilities
for counterculturalism are perhaps as numerous as the cultures and
sub-cultures of our globalized world. The idea was to get people thinking
about what it means to be countercultural in the first place, a lifestyle
Jesus heralded as the way of the pilgrim looking forward to the city of
God.
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