Theology

The Walmart Dilemma

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We have all experienced the Walmart dilemma.  You enter into the massive store full of your city’s most eclectic citizens with the intention of buying one needed item.  As the greeter wishes you a good day, you coach yourself that you don’t need anything else except that one item.  As you return to your car, you are unaware of how you just spent $50 on drive-by items.

What’s even worse is when you have bags full but have forgotten that one item for which you came.  The Walmart dilemma is that you lose focus on what you came for because you are overwhelmed with all the other items clamoring for you attention.

The psalmist is in a similar position.  Other gods are present and vying for his worship.  The world powers claim they need not to swear their allegiance to the Lord.  Circumstances are apparent that distract his focus.  So, what does the psalmist pray?  He prays for an “undivided mind” in order to fear God’s name (v.11).  He is acknowledging the presence of distractions, and he is asking for God’s help to leave the store with solely the one item.

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Does Prayer Really Work?

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My prayer life has been divided. Not so much in a division of what I pray for, but I have experienced the complete opposites of the spectrum concerning how prayer actually works. We all say that prayer is important and that prayer works, but what actually happens during prayer? Do we change God’s mind on the issue at hand? Is it just a tool that God uses to draw us to himself? Here are some of the options:

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Holding My Son Down in the Hospital

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This picture was taken a few weeks ago.  Eli was having some minor surgery, but as many of you know, surgery for a 3-year-old is never minor.  When your child is taken from you, knocked out, cut on, comes back loopy with tons of chords sticking out of him, it’s never a fun encounter.

I prize myself on being a tough father.  I’m that “it will be alright” kinda dad who can grasp that bumps and bruises are learning tools.  I was not expecting the kind of emotional turmoil that I went through that day.  I don’t know if it was the first time that my son was out of our protective care or what it was, but it was hard.  It was hard holding my son down for strangers to do things to him that hurt.

When he began to wake up, he laid on Mom a good long while and seemed content.  Later, they needed to check on him and begin to remove connected wires and such, so he was handed to Dad (thanks, a lot!).  Eli looked up at me and said, “Daddy, I want to go home.  Take me home, please.”

“I will in just a minute baby, but you have to let these people make you feel better.”

When they started to work on him and I had to hold him down, the look in his eyes was something I had never seen before.

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Trading the Ultimate for the Immediate

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At Passion 2011, Andy Stanley gave a great message concerning temptation.  One of the lines he repeated over and over is that temptation is the act of “trading the ultimate for the immediate.”

The ultimate is faithfulness to your spouse, the immediate is the temporary meeting of a desire.

The ultimate is a godly legacy engraved in your children, the immediate might be another round of golf.

The ultimate is heaven’s rewards, the immediate is the passing riches of this world.

When we encounter temptation, one verse helps me more than any other verse in the Bible:

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I Love Jesus

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The other week, I had one of those cherished moments as a father.  The pic above is a cropped pic of my son, Obadiah, in a restaurant bathroom.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he will hate me one day, I understand, but I couldn’t pass it up.

As I waited for him to complete his business, he looked up at the two rails on the wall and shocked me with what he said:

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The Rapture Did Not Take Place on May 21, 2011

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Above is a video of Harold Camping, the man behind the prophecy that the church would be raptured on May 21, 2011.

It’s now May 23rd.

While so many of made jokes concerning his prophecy, I honestly feel pity for him.

Harold_Camping

It appears in all that I have seen and read that he honestly believed it.  He also believed it the first time he made the prophecy but then figured out he had made a mathematical error in his equation.  And with numerous followers supporting and funding his cause, he is left to deal with the people on the earth he was so sure he was leaving behind.

So did you believe the hype?  Did you secretly wonder?  Did you wonder if the cicadas were more than a mere nuisance and they were actually a sign of the times?

I was asked a lot of questions over the last week, and this was my response:

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Thirsting for God

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1 As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me, “Where is your God?” 4 I remember this as I pour …

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Should Christians Rejoice That Osama Bin Laden’s Dead?

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After reading and hearing so many interesting takes on feelings concerning the death of Osama Bin Laden, I had decided to write what I believe would be a proper biblical take on the subject.  In my own hometown, people have been very supportive or very offended by our local newspaper’s headline.  Can we actually rejoice that he is dead?  Some people say as an American we can, as a Christian, we cannot.

As I started to write a post, I found a link to where John Piper wrote on the subject so wonderfully.  He is smarter and more godly than me, so I am sharing his post in lieu of mine for your reading pleasure.  This post is from his Desiring God website:

God’s emotions are complex—like yours, only a million times more. Right now, your emotions about bin Laden are not simple, i.e. not single. There are several, and they intermingle. That is a good thing. You are God-like.

In response to Osama bin Laden’s death, quite a few tweets and blogs have cited the biblical truth that “God does not delight in the death of the wicked.” That is true.

It is also true that God does delight in the death of the wicked. There are things about every death that God approves in themselves and things about every death that God disapproves in themselves.

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Parents, God is Not the On*Star Button

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It is impossible for you to try to raise your children in a godly manner.

You can’t do it, but Christ in you – the hope of glory – can (Col. 1:27). Too often, parents attempt to raise their children with godly intentions minus the godly interventions. Instead of relying on our own strengths, we need to learn to abide in Christ.

Presently, many cars come with On-Star capabilities. When in trouble, the driver can push a button, and help comes to him. Once the crisis is averted, the driver dismisses the On-Star helpers and goes about on his own for the rest of the journey.

Many parents approach life the same way. When crisis hits, they hit their knees and beg for divine intervention. Once God helps them out of the situation, they see little use for him anymore. This approach is worse than shameful, it is ignorant. If we think we can make it one step without God, we really don’t comprehend who we are dealing with here.

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Unpacking the U-Haul (The Problem with Emotional Hoarders)

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With the A&E TV show, “Hoarders,” America has become exposed to people who are unable to part with their belongings.  These hoarders hold onto absolutely everything in which they become unaware of how their stuff is suffocating their lives.  When a hoarder decides to move homes, he or she finally can comprehend how much baggage they have weighing them down.

We do the same things emotionally.  We try to move along in our lives, but we have stuff in the back of the U-Haul slowing down the process.  Just like hoarders, you have some baggage that you have collected and you have some baggage that you have received.  In order to go the next step in your life, you need to address both.

Joseph lived with all types of baggage.  As the favored son of Jacob, his prideful stories told to his brothers kept him out of favor with everyone in his family except for his father.  His brothers beat him and sold him into slavery.  While taking a stance for purity, he was wrongfully accused of rape.  After helping others out in jail, he was left and forgotten about to rot in prison.

Joseph had baggage.  Some he collected, some he received, but he had to deal with both.

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