SCREWED UP STANDARDS

Friday, October 27, 2006

Yep, we’ve got our standards all screwed up.

Tom Cruise strongly disagreed with Matt Lauer on the Today Show. He didn’t curse him, hit him or even raise his voice. He just didn’t let Matt force his opinion on him. I personally believe that Cruise was wrong in his views and that Lauer was right. But what he did was not all that bad. And yet when you hear the media talking about it you would think that he had committed the world’s worse crime and that he sinned.

Tom Cruise went on Oprah’s show and when she asked him about his girl friend, Katie Holmes he jumped up and down on the couch. Criminal? No! Sinful? No! It was just silly—very silly. But the media describes it as being very wrong and they question his sanity.

Tom Cruise shacks up with Katie Holmes. They have had a baby together. They are not married yet. The media reports these facts but makes no judgments about it at all. They think this is ok behavior but strongly disagreeing with someone and jumping on a couch is wrong, wrong, wrong.

GO FIGURE!

GOOD GIFTS

Thursday, October 26, 2006

I like what writer, Beth Moore says about God giving good gifts to us:

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:11). If we, being comparatively evil parents, have priorities concerning what we believe to be the best life has to offer for our children, would we be surprised to think that God does too? Ours is a God of priorities. Might He have an A and a B list? I wouldn’t be surprised if He has a list for each of us stretching all the way from alpha to omega. After all, “How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you” (Ps. 31:19). Scripture is replete with God’s bountiful desires for us, but He also clearly knows what He desires most to accomplish not only in each believer, but in each generation.

ONE BY ONE

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Today I am thinking of death. I am working on a funeral message for a dear friend who lived to be 95. Two days ago I received news of a long time acquaintance in California who passed away at age 48. I have death on my mind. Hebrews says, “It’s appointed unto man, once to die.” I have lived long enough to see it happen many times.

My mother and father are gone. I had four brothers and two sisters. They all have passed away. On a regular basis I receive word of a high school or college classmate who has died. Word comes on a regular basis of relatives, friends, neighbors who die. The headlines of the newspapers tell of those dieing in war. Death is real.

There are days when I feel very lonely. There are times when I struggle with the fact that some of these people are actually gone. But they are gone and they are not coming back to this life. This is tough—real tough. But if you are a Christian it will be alright. We do not live without hope. Our hope is in God. God is faithful. And in those lonely days I lean on him. I feel his presence. Our God is a God of comfort. If you don’t know him, make it a point to get acquainted—and soon. You will always be glad you did.

WANTING CHERRY—GETTING APPLE

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Today at lunch, I ordered a cherry pie at What-A-Burger. The little sticker on the outside of the container said, “Cherry” but the pie was apple. I like apple, so I ate it. However, the reason I ordered cherry in the first place is because I rarely get it. Charlotte doesn’t like cherry pie and so even though she is an excellent pie maker, she doesn’t make cherry pie. So having a chance to get one slice of cherry pie just for myself I was happy. I was happy until I opened the box and found apple.

Isn’t that the way life is? You want cherry but you get apple!

I know there is no need to sweat the small stuff. I ate the apple pie and thoroughly enjoyed it. That’s my point. You better not sweat the small stuff because it is just going to keep coming. It’s called Murphy’s Law, “If anything can go wrong, it will”

I have decided to make a game out of it. Next time I am at What-A-Burger I am going to order apple pie. Who knows, maybe I will get lucky and get cherry.

MY FRIEND GENEVIEVE

Monday, October 23, 2006

Genevieve passed away last Friday. She was 95 years old. Her last days were spent in a nursing home. I visited her there but my memories of her will not be there---but at the church she loved. Genevieve loved God, her family, the church, the Suns basketball team, her friends, Phoenix—the list goes on and on. She was loved in return.

We will gather at the church building Thursday afternoon to say “Good-bye” to a dear friend. For me, I have already said “good-bye” to Genevieve. Years ago she left Lincoln Heights Christian Church to go live in a convalescence home on the west side of town. But I retained in my mind the memory of her sitting over to the right side of the pulpit and about three or four rows back from the front.

Genevieve was my encourager and I was always pleased to look up from the pulpit and see her there. Someday I will look up and see her not at my right side but at His. What a day that will be!

GOD'S PROVIDENCE

Sunday, October 22, 2006

For the past two weeks our Sunday morning Bible class has been studying God's providence. This is an extremely difficult subject but also very interesting. I believe that God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he keeps them existing and maintianing the properties with which he created them. He cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do and directs them to fulfill his purposes.

If God controls all things, how can our actions have real meaning? Good question!

I derive a great deal of comfort from passages like Romans 8:28. I can't always explain these things but I accept them as true. I am glad to know that God is in charge.

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done..."Gen. 50:20

"For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden." Romans 9:17,18

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised." Job 1:21

WOW! All I can say is Wow! Job had just lost seven sons and three daughters and yet he could say, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised."