The Lov3 Experiment

Here are some truths about love that I have been taught since childhood.  

• A smile toward a stranger can change their day.
• The gift of time is one of the most costly and expensive gifts one person can give to another.
• Words of encouragement to a friend cost nothing but have a lifetime of dividends.
• Grace will teach, encourage, and motivate.

I rejoice when any one of the theses things happen to me and I'm even more blessed when I'm able to give some joy to another person on their journey.  Today I was blessed by one of my co-workers.  

You see I work in a contact (call) center environment for a fairly large corporation.  It was almost lunch time and a call comes through.  The person on the other end was looking for a supervisor but instead they got me.  They asked me if I would be able to assist them.  Thankfully I was able to assist them and I thought the interaction went well just as I had with all of the previous calls today.  Lunch time came and so I proceeded to go.  This afternoon is where everything changed.

My supervisor approached me with a document I needed to look over.  I looked it over and as I waited for him to leave he handed me our companies reward and encouragement certificate called a You ROCK award.  Printed on the document is the reason for the award.  The note mentioned the call from before lunch.  The very same call that if you had asked me about several hours later I would have trouble remembering because in my mind it was me doing my job.  Those words of encouragement from my co-worker, my supervisors taking time out of their day to present me the award WOW!  WOW!  WOW!  What an amazing blessing!  

What's the point?  So often I/we go about our day and the normalcy of 8 hours slips by without taking stock of all the goodness around us.  Please join with me.  Let's keep our eyes open to what God is doing and how He is moving gifts of affirmation and grace towards us and to those around us through us.

As a Christian and for my Christian brothers and sisters know this God has been intimately interested in your life since before your first birthday!

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Time Travel: What is your target? Part I

Time is something that has been on my mind a lot lately.

Recently our dog died.  My wife had surgery to repair a tendon after falling in a hole three months ago.  During both of these events the clock kept spinning.  It is funny because even as I type these words on Blogger I pause to reflect on the words I've just typed.  There isn't a pause button for me to hit so the clock continues to spin and that spinning isn't felt by you the reader unless I mention it here on the pages of my blog.  My point?  What is my point?  You must take it on faith that there is feeling in each and every word I put on this page.  Some words are more painful and difficult to type than others.  As you read this (I hope you read to the end) you will be bringing your own thoughts and experiences to this blog.  Maybe you have had similar experiences and if you have had some degree of those experiences I hope this blog gives you comfort in your time of grief and sadness.

Time.  What is it?

The first view of Time:  It is a fixed point or series of points that have been going on for centuries (some faith is involved here because no one I know or have even heard of on earth today was there when the first second, minute, or hour passed by on the clock).  The beginning and end are unclear and what you choose to do as the clock spins may or may not have any significant value for anyone other than you.

The second view of Time: It was constructed by the God of the Bible.  Realizing that maybe you haven't read the Bible or been given the Biblical view of God I will pause here and explain how God reveals himself in the Bible.  God is a Trinity.  God has three unique and separate persons in the same being.  God is Father, Son / Jesus, and Holy Spirit. God and all that he is and does will fill more space than Blogger would allow me to use and wouldn't do accurate justice to who the person of God is.  Please leave a comment if you would like to talk further about God and the personhood/personal God is.  References to God creating time are found in Genesis and the Acts of the Apostles:

• Genesis 1:5: “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
• Acts 1:7: “He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”

So with that brief description of time,  why is it important to talk or think about time, especially if your mind is made up about time?  It is that very question that drove me out of blogging stagnation and inactivity.

Everyone who reads this text has something in common.  We (me included) is destined to leave planet earth. Mom if your reading this please excuse for my bluntness but we will all die.

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 “1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;”

Okay, so I've reached common ground with the human race.  We will all die, and where I needed to or not I've included a verse from the Bible to prove that I agree with the Bible here too.

At this point I'm going to break.  This is Part I of "Time Travel: What is Your Target".

Please come back for Part II of "Time Travel: What is Your Target.  In the second part of this blog we leave our commonalities behind us and we make choices.  Choices of how we will spend our ride here on planet earth watching the clock spin.  

Theology Matters

Theology what is it?  

Dictionary.com in their Cultural Dictionary defines theology as the disciplined study of religious questions, such as the nature of God, sin, and salvation.  That is some pretty heavy stuff!  I'm guessing if you are like me you may not have given much thought to theology.  That was me until I realized while casually sitting in my Connect/Sunday School class discussing different denominations and different religions.  You see being that there are so many expressions of what people call christianity as well as other religions like Mormonism, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, etc... it has never been more important to know and understand what it is you believe.

Now you might still be dwelling on what I mentioned in the paragraph above.  Why in the world where they discussing other religions and not focusing on the religion they went to church to celebrate????  That is a great question.  We were discussing the Bible and specifically the book of Galatians chapter 5.  Galatians as a book is written to people who at one time believed in Jesus alone as their Savior.  What I mean is that the believers in Galatia proclaimed that there wasn't anything they could do to make their relationship with God (the God of the Bible) close or right. They needed a savior and the depended on Jesus' perfect life and sacrificial death on a cross as the payment needed for their offence against God.  Fast forward to when the book of Galatians reaches them and you will find that there was a group of people who were saying yes that's right you do need to believe that Jesus death and resurrection is a great start but you need something in addition to that to finish the job.  In the time the book of Galatians was written the specific issue was that of circumcision.  But fast forward 2000 years and it could be anything anyone wants to add to Jesus finished work on the cross as an add on.

Jesus plus religion isn't good news.  You may have heard the Gospel of Jesus called the Good News of Good.  The Good News is simply this.  God did what was necessary for people to be brought into a right relationship with Himself all by Himself.  There isn't anything any of us can do to add or make Jesus sacrifice better or more complete.  Face it, it doesn't matter when you began to look for God in your life, I'm willing to say that you weren't born seeking after Him.  How many of us looked to test what our mother, father, or adult figure wanted for us in our early life.  Why do you think it would be any different on a spiritual level.  If anything, it would be even harder to want and turn to God because you can't reach out and touch Him or interact with Him as you would another human.  And that's the point.  As a Christian the Good News is just that as a matter of Faith. 

As you read this I'm not sure who you are specifically or where you go to church or if you go to church.  I want to encourage you though.  Whatever you are currently doing or not doing know why you are doing it.  Don't take what I'm saying as the last word on Christianity or anyone else for that matter or if you are a Muslim, Mormon, or Jew know why you believe what you do or you may find yourself in a compromising when asked what it is you believe about Theology or how you define studying God.

Original Love

The Original Lover of You and Me!

There are many thoughts this February 14, 2014 about Valentines.  In this text you won’t learn about the history of Valentine’s Day but rather His Story as it relates to you and me.

Did you know that before you were born God’s love letter to us states that He knows how we are formed?  Psalm 103:13, 14 proclaims that God was there for us loving us as a Father and that He the Triune God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit remembers how we were made.  Why???  Because He formed us and put the Breath of Life into our mother’s womb.

At this point you might be saying “Great” He was there from the beginning but I have to tell you the last few days have been really difficult and I’m not sure that He is still with me.  Another wonderful promise from God’s love letter to us the Bible communicates what Jesus said and is still saying today: “"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  The GREAT NEWS is that God hasn’t went anywhere.  God is a GENTALMAN and He is waiting for us to ask Him into our lives so that He can give us REST for our SOULS.  Now, I do have to add a disclaimer.  Your external circumstances may remain the same.  In the same love letter God tells us that this life will not be easy and that we should expect hardship but the internal peace and joy you will experience will be limitless!

Is this the first time you are reading this truth about God and His REEDEMING LOVE for you?  Then let’s take a moment to review the essentials.  I mean let’s face it you not going to marry someone before the first date.  You’re not going to sign up for a dating service without reading all the fine print.  Well are you???  I sincerely hope that you go into each relationship with your eyes as fully open as you can.

Now before we begin it is important to know who we are meaning God, me, and you. 

First, God is fully three persons; Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  Each has their own distinct personality and attributes.  Come to think of it, God was perfectly pleased before the creation to be in the presence of Himself.  God loved us sooo much that He didn’t leave His creation namely humanity alone but rather He sent the God/Man Jesus.   The Bible in the Book of Romans chapter 5 verse fifteen explains that Jesus was fully man and that through him the grace of God is available to all men. 

Second, Jesus died a very, very cruel death.  Imagine, Jesus’ clothes stolen, he was beaten, wearing a thorn of crowns forced to carry a wooden cross up a hill where then stakes were driven into his body so that he would be able to hand from that cross where in the minds of the executioners and judges he would breath his last breath.  It is important not to overlook the point that this is God fully God and Man who chose to be on that cross so it wasn’t the nails that kept him on that cross it was his love for you and me.  No longer would people be asked to make a yearly sacrifice to God in order to remain in relationship with Him.  As Jesus said from the cross; “It is finished” and that statement can be found in the Book of John in the nineteenth chapter thirtieth verse.

Third, O how everyone was surprised the third day after Jesus death on the Cross.  The tomb where he had been laid to rest was empty!!!!  Yes, Jesus was gone.  No you might ask, isn’t this where God leaves His creation?  Absolutely not, in fact, Jesus has made breakfast for Peter and some of His other followers on the beach.  This truth is found in the Book of John in the nineteenth chapter.   Amazing, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten breakfast with a previously dead person.

Forth, Jesus did return to Heaven, but He promised the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.  It is because of the Holy Spirit lives in a person who has committed to believe and follow Jesus that we can be encouraged.  And this is really where the rubber hits the road.  You see if you believe all that we have discussed in these four points but you choose not to follow Jesus and His words as they are recorded in His Bible then you will not be counted as a person who loves him.  Think about it.  When you are single and you like someone you don’t continue to like that person on a deeper level unless you are in communication with that person.  The same is true with our relationship with God.  It only works when we are in relationship with Him.  I will say it again.  Being a Christian, follower of Jesus, means you are in relationship with Him not the aloof, see you some time relationship but the kind of relationship where He is the first person you want to speak with in the morning and the last person you want to speak with before you go to sleep.

As I wrap this post up, my hope and my prayer for all those who read it is that they will be encouraged.  Encouraged to either walk more closely with Jesus as they are reminded all that He did for them personally or that as a person who has never heard this before you are interested in praying to God asking Jesus to be the sacrifice you needed to be close to God once and for all.  Now if you have made that choice, please, please, get into contact with Jesus’ family.  What is that family, those are people just like you who have trusted in the Bible and Jesus as the only way to God.  Not adding one thing like a catalog requiring you to do countless things after trusting in Him and committing to follow Him.  So, contact me, I would love to rejoice with you on your new life and commitment, in addition to helping you find a place where you can be with other people who will celebrate and encourage you also.

Color Your World

Writing in Marker Instead of Pencil

How many people have you had contact with today?  Do you know?  More than likely if you were out of your living space you have interacted with more people than you think.  Scratch that thought, if you are on any type of social media platforms you can raise the number of people you interact with in a moment’s notice without leaving your home.  So, in your life are you writing in permanent marker or pencil?  It makes a great difference. 

“What difference does it make?” you might be asking yourself.  In my mind there are no such things as random or chance meetings.  Yes, I believe that there is a reason for each and every person in your life today.  Acknowledging them, simply glancing at them, having a conversation in an elevator with them, cutting them off in traffic, or living with them makes no difference you have left a painted their life.

In the first example you may have been crossing the street and as you are going east a person is coming toward you going west.  Did you smile, keep a straight face, give them a look of indifference?  Let’s go back to your time on the elevator today.  When you saw the door open and someone either left the elevator or joined you on the elevator.  What was your expression then?  Were your arms crossed in a sign that denotes you are deep in thought so please don’t bother me?  Or were you open glancing giving the other person a smile?  Moving in traffic, where you either cut someone off by accident or intentionally or maybe the situation is reversed you were cut off by accident or intentionally.  What was your body, facial, spoken language at that time?  And finally, maybe you live with someone who leaves for work before you do.  Likewise, they may go to school, no matter where they were going what was the interaction like?

In all of the above examples, writing in pencil means that the interaction can be as easily forgotten as it can be remembered.  Writing or better yet coloring in permanent marker gives us each the opportunity to help that person have a better day filled with grace and love or the opposite might be true.

This question resonates with me in a fantastic way as I write to you today.  Several times my life has been colored with beautiful colors.  For example, my wife and I have been engaging with a new church after having moved many miles.  The people have been great the colors so vibrant I would like to call them family instead of just people in my life.  In addition, today my wife was in the hospital today.  We were met with many different people of different professions.  From the greeters, the administrative staff, nurses, and doctors.  Again our lives were colored with very vibrant colors.  Our lives are better for having them in our lives and our experiences were much better of course as you might expect. 

In all of these interactions, I am left in awe of a God who created the Universe and who cares for you and me and puts people in our lives for a reason. 

Color in vibrant permanent marker you will find that those around you will be left with a beautiful picture and the colors will even spill on to your canvas and you will be left with a beautiful picture as well.