The True Heart of Christians

As several of you are aware, Julie and I have had a rough few months.  We have endured sicknesses, hospitalizations, death in the family, and now emergency surgery.  Clearly there has been a lot on our plates lately.  The expression, “When it rains, it pours,” has never been so true.  But despite all of the “raining” in our lives, it has been awesome to see how many “umbrellas” have appeared to help and shelter us.

Unfortunately, people can display negative characteristics.  We can be selfish, conceited, jealous, mean, ugly, hurtful, negative, sinful etc.  Some would say that this is the true heart of people, but I would argue otherwise.  Over the past several months of hardship in my family, we have been exposed to the true heart of Christian people.  It has not been selfish, ugly, or any of those qualities.  We have clearly seen that the true heart of Christian people is kind, selfless, compassionate, understanding, and above all, loving.

We have had so many visitors come to the hospital and our house that I lost count a while ago.  Last time I checked, we have more bouquets of flowers than we have vases to put them in.  We have had several yummy meals brought to us and a few more on the way.  Beyond all of this, we have had an astounding amount of phone calls, text messages, and encouragement flood our way.  Many tears have been shed on our behalf, and many hugs have been given.

Surly this is exactly the way God wants His church to function.  When people are dealing with troubling times, there is nothing more uplifting than, literally, hundreds of brothers and sisters in Christ running to help.  Despite all of the shortcomings people may have, this is what the true heart of the Christian is all about.  Christians are about loving, helping, and encouraging one another.

My wife and I honestly cannot express what a tremendous help and encouragement everyone has been.  Thank you.  Now, let’s keep up this loving attitude.  Let’s turn it towards others who are in need as well.  I can attest from my experience what a physical, emotional, and spiritual boost it is to receive such love.  Until Christ comes again, let’s continue to freely give this same love and support.

“All is Vanity!”

WRITTEN BY DENNY PETRILLO

When Solomon penned these words, he was describing a condition of life in which there was no substance or essence; nothing of lasting or redeeming value.  This is certainly a bleak view of life.  Is there nothing that we have or do that is not vain?  The point Solomon is making teaches two eternal truths:

First there is much in this world that is vain.  Our priorities can get out of kilter.  We major in minors.  We “strain the gnat and swallow the camel” (Matt. 23:24).  How hard it is for men to discover what is really important!  They have spent lifetimes building empires, amassing great fortunes, receiving the praise of men.  “Vanity!” replies Solomon.  “It is all vanity!”  But why?  Isn’t all that hard work worth something?  Isn’t the accumulated wealth a testimony to one’s greatness?  No, says the wise man.  They are merely an example of misplaced priorities.

Second, only God can define and determine what is valuable.  We have to remember that God sees the eternal.  He knows that earthly priorities can often distract us from the eternal.  He knows that wealth (Luke 12:13-21), family (Matt. 10:37) lusts and pride (1 Jn. 2:15) can keep us from salvation.  Men, therefore, are not able to distinguish between the valuable and vain without divine guidance.  So what did God declare as valuable? The ending of Ecclesiastes gives it to us: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (12:13-14).  Out of all of the works a man can do, these two, fearing God and keeping His commandments, are the pentacle of one’s existence.

No one wants to feel like a failure.  Therefore it is crucial that each one of us determine to prioritize our lives, loves and interests.  We must “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).  If we do not do this then Solomon will summarize our lives as “vanity.”  But if we put God first, He will summarize our lives with these words: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

No Time To Play

I had to fight back the tears as I thought about this powerful poem.  What a terribly sad reality this would be.  It is worth reading.  It’s called “No Time to Play” (author unknown).

My precious boy with the golden hair

Came up one day beside my chair

And fell upon his bended knee

And said, “Oh, Mommy, please play with me!”

 

I said, “Not now, go on and play;

I’ve got so much to do today.”

He smiled through tears in eyes so blue

When I said, “We’ll play when I get through.”

 

But the chores lasted all through the day

And I never did find time to play.

When supper was over and dishes done,

I was much too tired for my little son.

 

I tucked him in and kissed his cheek

And watched my angel fall asleep.

As I tossed and turned upon my bed,

Those words kept ringing in my head,

 

“Not now, son, go on and play,

I’ve got so much to do today.”

I fell asleep and in a minute’s span,

My little boy is a full-grown man.

 

No toys are there to clutter the floor;

No dirty fingerprints on the door;

No snacks to fix; no tears to dry;

The rooms just echo my lonely sigh.

 

And now I’ve got the time to play;

But my precious boy is gone away.

I awoke myself with a pitiful scream

And realized it was just a dream

 

For across the room in his little bed,

Lay my curly-haired boy, the sleepy-head.

My work will wait ‘til another day

For now I must find some time to play.

We are a very busy people.  Too busy.  Our time and attention is taken and pulled in a million different directions.  But what a sad reality it would be to wake up and realize we have not taken time for our kids.  Children grow up way too fast and unfortunately our work never ends.  In reality, most work can wait, but spending the limited time we with our children cannot.

Come home early from work.  Turn off the phones.  Put the dirty dishes on hold for an hour or two.  Set your homework aside for a bit.  Close up the report that is due this week.  Let’s not come to our senses in ten years and realize the opportunity with our children is now gone.  Moms and Dads, whatever way we decide to do it, let’s make sure we take some time and spend it with our children and family.

God’s Compass

Once there was an old sailor who always got lost at sea.  So, his friends gave him a compass and insisted that he use it.  The next time he went out in his boat he took the compass with him.  Unfortunately, he still became hopelessly lost and couldn’t find land.  After a while, his friends rescued him again.  They were upset and frustrated.  They asked him, “Why didn’t you use the compass we gave you?  It could have saved both of us a lot of trouble!”  The old sailor replied, “I couldn’t use it!  I wanted to go north, but as hard as I tried to make the needle aim in that direction, it just kept on pointing southeast.”

See, the old sailor was so certain he knew which direction was north that he tried to force his own stubborn ways on his compass.  Since he wasn’t able to do this, he tossed it aside, chalked it up as worthless, and couldn’t benefit from the guidance it offered.

Too often people view the Bible the same way.  If they can’t make the Bible say what they want it to say, they discard it.  The problem is, it doesn’t work this way.  The Bible is the ultimate compass.  It is God’s compass to heaven.  It is the only way we can know the right way to go and live.

Let’s not be stubborn and try to make the Bible say what we want it to say.  And may we never discard the Bible when it challenges what we thought was true.  Just like the old man, if we follow our own sense of morals, our own sense of direction, we are sure to get lost spiritually.  Even if we think we know the right way, let’s make SURE we know it by following God’s compass.

The Unofficial US Holiday

On Sunday, Super Bowl XLV set the record as the most watched American TV program at approximately 111 million people.  Since there are about 311 million people living in the US, this means that over a third of our country was watching the big game.  This event brought the series finale of M-A-S-H down to third place at 106 million.  What was in 2^nd place?  It was last year’s Super Bowl.  In fact, the 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th most watch programs are all Super Bowls (Huffingtonpost.com).

In many ways, the Super Bowl has become a national holiday.  People everywhere are participating in this event.  According to Hallmark Cards Inc., the Super Bowl is the number one at home party event of the year, even above New Year’s Eve.  And when it comes to food consumption, the Super Bowl is second only to Thanksgiving (USA Today).  Check these Super Bowl food consumption facts out (foodiegossip.com):

• The California Avocado Commission (CAC) projects that 13.2 million pounds or 26 million avocados will be consumed Super Bowl Sunday, mostly in the form of guacamole.
• Approximately 8 million pounds of popcorn will be consumed on Super Bowl Sunday.
• 28 million pounds of potato chips were expected to be consumed.
• During last year’s football championship game, more than 450 million wings (90 million lbs.) were consumed, according to the Washington, D.C.’s National Chicken Council.
• About 49.2 million cases of beer were consumed by Americans during last year’s Super Bowl.

Clearly the Super Bowl is one major event in this country.  I think we could even call it an unofficial US holiday.  Despite it’s popularity, there has always been a problem with the Super Bowl. It’s on Sundays, right in the middle of worship.  Sadly, many churches’ attendance numbers take a major decline when worship takes place on some sort of holiday.  The day of the Super Bowl is certainly no different.  The question is, where were we during the Super Bowl?

Jesus said in Matthew 10:37-38,  “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”  While Jesus used the example of family, His major point here is that nothing should come before God.  Not family or anything else.  So, what if we substituted the words “father and mother” for “the Super Bowl” or “Christmas” or some other holiday? Putting a holiday, the Super Bowl, or anything else before God is what Matthew 10:37-38 is trying teach us not to do.

I can’t think of the last time I missed a Super Bowl thanks to VCRs and DVRs.  I love the Super Bowl.  Participating in the Super Bowl and other holidays is not wrong.  However, putting any of these activities before God is wrong.  Why are we here on earth?  What is our purpose in this life?  Is it to celebrate holidays?  Is it to have fun and watch the Super Bowl?  We are here to fear God and keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13).  God must be number one.  The Super Bowl and other holidays are great, but may we never let them become more important than our Lord.

Hobby Evangelists: Talking About Your Likes

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY JACK WILKIE

As I was searching for music by my favorite band on iTunes a while back, I began to look at the comments by other fans. Out of all of the comments, one really stood out to me – “I try to tell someone new about this band every single day.” My first thought was “well, I’m not that zealous, but I can relate. I also try to tell people about that band any time I talk music.”

Then I thought of something else – all of these nameless people on iTunes are better evangelists for a band than most Christians are for the church. Consider all of the “evangelists” that we have around us in society: we have music evangelists (such as the guy I mentioned above), we have technological evangelists (Mac addicts come to mind), we have political evangelists, we have sports evangelists, and we have television show evangelists (proponents of the Office and Lost have been everywhere the last few years), just to name a few. Why is it that it’s so easy for people to “evangelize” about their favorite band or sports team but it’s so hard to spread the good news about God’s Word?

We are excited and enthusiastic about our favorite TV shows or sports teams, and that’s why we end up talking about them. It’s our job to be excited about our Christianity, and it’s our job to tell everyone about it. We need to be like the aforementioned music fan who makes it his goal to “convert” someone new every day. We need to be like Jeremiah in Jeremiah 20:9, where the Word was “fire in his bones” and he couldn’t help himself – he had to let it out. Finally, we need to be like the apostles in Acts 4:19-20. They were told not to speak of Christ anymore, but they said they had to speak on what they had seen and heard. We must have the same mindset of being so excited by what God has done in our lives that we have to speak about Him at all costs.

So what do we do to gain more enthusiasm for God’s Word?
1) Study it. Don’t just read it, really take time to dig into consistent study.
2) Share it. Talk about the things you learn in your studies with anyone – Christian or not.
3) Pray for God to build an excitement for His Word in our lives.

God has blessed us with so much. When we take the time to realize what He does in our lives, we can’t help but be enthusiastic about spreading His Word to those around us.

Servant at Heart

(Picture of Wayne Nelson)

I woke up this morning to discover the temperature outside was -12º F.  After getting ready and having breakfast, I went out to my car.  As one might expect on a day like this, my car battery was dead.  It’s an old battery and just could not cut it in this cold.  So, I had to default to our other car, which of course is the one sitting out in the open, in all of the cold and snow, and covered with a nice layer of ice.  Thankfully, this car was able to start up.  The ice was hard to get off of all the windows, so I decided to let the car warm up and make it easier.  After about 30 minutes, I was able to see, and the car was finally drivable.  At long last, I dragged into work, late and half frozen.

You never know what to expect on a day like this.  As I pulled in, something very interesting caught my attention.  Out in the brutal cold, bundled up from head to toe, was one of our members, Wayne Nelson, just about to finish removing all the snow from every sidewalk and area around the building.  Despite the -12º weather outside, many businesses and schools being closed today (including Bear Valley), and almost no one here at the building, Wayne was still out there serving.  This isn’t something he was paid or obligated to do in any way.  He just did it (and is always doing things like this, I might add).

That speaks volumes about this man’s character.  As Christ put it, “the greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:11).  I cannot think of a man who is more of a servant at heart than our very own Wayne Nelson.  What a great man we have among us.  If I had not pulled up when I did, it’s possible his hard work would have gone completely unnoticed though everyone would have enjoyed the benefits of his labor.  It’s easy to make excuses, especially in this cold, but nothing stopped Wayne from serving today.

The question is, what stops us from serving?  Is it the weather?  Is it our ego?  Is it that we just don’t want to?  Is it from poor use of time?  Is it something else?  As Christ stated, “…whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28).  If we want to be great in this life, then it will happen through service.  Let’s look for opportunities to serve.  We don’t have to get out in -12º weather to be a servant, but we certainly could.  There are plenty of open doors all around us and we need to take advantage of these while we can.

Wayne Nelson truly is a servant at heart.  This week, let’s also strive to be servants at heart and not let any excuse get in our way.