Children – a Blessing of Rest from God

A few weeks ago, Steve Markle – pastor of Life Community Church – presented a message where he used these two verses. He used them for different points of his message, but I found something else that I would like to share.

I have often heard messages preached about how God gives us rest – and they will use Psalm 127:2 in the message. I have also heard messages preached discussing children and how they are a blessing from the Lord – and they will use Psalm 127:3. But it wasn’t until Steve used them a few weeks ago that I came to see the connection I am going to try to bring out.

I often struggle with the whole Sabbath rest thing. Are we simply supposed to do nothing one day out of the week? Is that what it means? Does it have to be a certain day? If we are supposed to stop doing things, how far do we take it? Jesus was condemned by the Pharisees for violating the Jewish laws regarding the Sabbath. His response to them was “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:12)

I believe God’s intention is for us to have a day of rest. But the thing we have to define or understand is … what is rest? For me, rest does not mean to stop working. That may seem weird, but I don’t think that’s what it means. Here’s a sample of a normal week for me …

- Mon – Fri – Work at the Pentagon for the Air Force
- Sat – Work around the house
- Sun – Work at church setting up, running computer and tearing down

So, where do I find rest?

I think the answer is in the two verses above.

In verse 2, the Psalmist tells us that God gives rest to his loved ones. And then, he follows verse 2 with verse 3. I know that’s one of those duh things … of course verse 3 follows verse 2 … but why are we told that children are a gift from the Lord immediately after we are told that God gives rest to his loved ones.

I believe that God gives us rest through our family. If I am working at home with my children taking care of the house or other chores, I find rest. If I am just doing things with my children, I find rest. The more time I spend with my children (family) the more rest I find.

It’s a weird connection, but I see truth in it. But what about the single people or the childless people? Although children are a blessing from the Lord, I believe the concept of finding rest goes beyond just children. We find rest as we spend time with children, spouses, extended family, friends, etc. I believe we can find rest by breaking from our daily work and spending time with other people that God has placed in our lives.

This would be one of the reasons attending church once a week is so important. We can find God’s rest in church.

Hope that makes sense!

Go with God,
Donald B

Called To Spread the Word …

Hello all! It has been some time since I last blogged. However, I have something I believe needs to be written down.

A few weeks ago, we were in a small group Bible study discussing the importance of actually talking to people about Jesus. I want to stress what I am saying here. It seems many, many of us (American Christians) have fallen prey to the idea that if we invite people to church we are fulfilling the Great Commission that Jesus gave to each of us. While it is important to invite people to church … this is serving as a pathetic excuse for all of us to stay quiet when it comes to witnessing (me included). We need to open our mouths and share.

After this small group study, I was reading a book called “Encountering John” by Andreas Köstenberger. I came across a section that I want to share which will help illustrate this thought better. He writes:

Many of our Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of the world suffer persecution today. In our own country, suffering for the faith is still not so overt as to be an issue of primary concern. Still, we may sometimes wonder if the reason why Christians in the United States do not suffer more is because they do not clearly and openly identify with Christ. Evangelical Christianity has developed into an almost self-contained, self-sustaining subculture, complete with Christian bookstores, TV and radio stations, Christian celebrities, be it pastors of mega-churches or best-selling authors, and the list could go on and on. Just look at a recent issue of Christianity Today! Or look at the Shepherd’s guide, a listing of Christians in business. Many Christians live in a cocoon that enables them to go through life almost completely insulated, without ever having to deal with non-Christians. Yet as a result, we frequently fail to fulfill the function of salt and light in our culture (cf. Mt 5:13 – 16). We must remember Jesus’ warning that salt, once it has lost its saltiness, is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men (Mt 5:13).

In our highly pluralistic, postmodern culture, it will be increasingly unpopular to proclaim the biblical message that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” but Jesus (the message of Peter and John in Acts 4:12). We will be labeled as intolerant, mocked as narrow-minded religious bigots, or even suffer social or economic ostracism. Are we willing to suffer socially, economically, or otherwise for our faith? This does not mean that we must invite suffering like the church father Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who deterred his friends from rescuing him from martyrdom in order to increase his heavenly reward. But we must be faithful and courageous and have our priorities straight. As Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and Money” (Mt 6:24). Our Christian faith must be the core commitment at the center of our lives rather than an addendum. Like Abel, we must give God our very best rather than bring a token offering like Cain (Hb 11:4). If this involves a decisive break with our past, so be it. (Köstenberger, 163 – 164).

With that thought in mind, let me encourage you (and me) to get out and actually speak what we believe.

Go with God,
Donald B

Why so downcast oh my soul?

Psalm 42:5, 42:11 and 43:5 all say the same thing.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

I’ve recently be trying to impart wisdom to my teenage daughter. As most of you know, imparting wisdom is a difficult thing for most of us. However, unfortunate or not, most of us have plenty of experience to reach back to which helps us offer up the “life-type” of wisdom. In the end, I guess this type of wisdom is more real than anything else we could use.

If you’ve ever heard my college time stories, then you’ve heard all of the gory detail of how I basically just threw away a 4 Year Air Force scholarship. It was a difficult time in life of going from being a teenager with no real responsibilities to becoming the adult we all have to become whether we want to or not.

During this time, the enemy threw plenty of ideas, philosophies and “new” thoughts on religion my way in order to dissuade me from following the Truth. This came through other people sharing their philosophies with me, through the many new and different churches I tried out, and through fellow college mates. The one thing that seemed to pull me through all of this were the verses mentioned above.

There were times I could not feel God or sense God. I was not experiencing His power or presence. I felt all alone. And the temptation to follow some of the “new” thoughts or paths was there as well. It was then the Holy Spirit gave me these 3 verses. If you will notice, they all say the same thing. And God said it to me 3 times that day so I would hear what He was trying to say.

No matter what I was going through, no matter how bleak things seemed, no matter how confused I was or lost I seemed … I only had to look back on my life and remember the times where God was more real than ever … and this enabled me to remember and believe those times would once again be true in my life.

I will YET praise HIM …

Things will always get bad at times in life. Ours is to remember that God is God during the bad times just as well as the good times. Ours is to be faithful to Him no matter what.

Go with God,
Donald B

Can We Ask God Why … or maybe How?

First, there was Job. We know for certain God allowed bad stuff to happen to Job. He allowed satan to inflict sickness on Job, to kill Job’s children, and to destroy Job’s wealth – all at the same time. And in all of this, Job never sinned. And in the end, when job seemingly screamed at God for an explanation – Job still did not sin. The quickest and most succinct paraphrase would be something like “God, why did you do this to me? I have followed you completely. Why have you put me through this?”The point I want to make in this is Job questioned God’s actions, and he did not sin. However, God did not answer – to Job’s satisfaction – his question. God said, “I am God. Who are you to question me?” In this first interaction, we see Job question God without sin, and we see God not providing the answer Job wanted.

Second, there was Moses. God came to Moses in the burning bush in the dessert. Let’s look at who Moses was at this time. He was born a Hebrew slave. He grew up in the palace of the Pharaoh himself as the adopted child of Pharaoh’s daughter. At 40 years of age, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. He took action, killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. A few days later, he realized his actions were not secret. Pharaoh was going to kill him now. So, Moses fled into the desert. Here, he meets his soon-to-be wife and her family. He becomes a shepherd in the desert for the next 40 years. Moses is 80 years old at the burning bush. God says “Go free my people from Egypt.” And Moses proceeds to provide excuse after excuse after excuse about why he is unable to perform this action. He pushes it so far he actually makes God angry.

The point I want you to get from this is Moses too questioned God’s action. However, he was doing it with sin. Moses’ questioning doubted God’s power. Moses was afraid, and he was trying to get out of doing this thing. The difference between Moses and Job is God provided direct answers to all of Moses’ questions.

If we take these two stories by themselves, we see the fruitlessness of questioning God. On one hand, he will not answer us. On the other hand, he will answer us, but we will be sinning and making God angry. Who wants to be there?

But there’s another story. It’s the story of Mary. The angel comes to Mary (a teenager at the time) and says, “You will give birth to God.” (My paraphrase) Mary asks, “How can this be since I am a virgin?” Mary questioned God. Uh oh! But God gives her an answer. He explains how she will conceive. And he doesn’t get angry with her as he did with Moses. Why? I think because in the motivation behind the questioning.

Moses questioned because he had doubts. Mary questioned because she was confused. Who had ever heard of someone becoming pregnant as a virgin? A friend of mine (Tom) pointed out there is a huge difference in life-experience to be considered as well. Moses had spent 40 years growing up in the home of Pharaoh – where I am sure there wasn’t a lot of Bible classes and such. Then, he spent 40 years in the desert with Jethro (his father-in-law) and his new wife. Jethro was a God-fearing man, so, we can assume Moses received some education here. Mary, on the other hand, had barely begun to live. She was only a teenager. And she grew up in a Jewish home where she learned about God.

In the end, we see God responding 3 different ways to 3 different people:

1 – Job: Job did not sin, and he was not answered.
2 – Moses: Moses did sin, and he was answered.
3 – Mary: Mary did not sin, and she was answered.

What lesson can we learn from this? There’s probably many, but the one I want to point out is we should not be afraid to talk to God about what he is doing in our lives – good or bad. However, we should also understand that we may be shown the reason why or the how-to’s and such, but then again … we may not be shown or told anything.

In the end, it is for us to remember that God is God, and we are not! He has a plan. He controls it all. He knows why and for what purpose? Our role is simply to obey, follow his leading and get to know him more and more every day.

Go with God,
Donald B

Looking for yourself? It’s all in the focus!

We often hear of kids leaving home for college or the military … and then – totally diverging from the path their parents thought they had put them on … or the path they hoped they had put them on.

As parents, we have the daunting task of helping our children “find themselves” before they go off and try it on their own. Some of us just sort of make sure they go to church, make sure they attend Christian schools (or homeschool), make sure they are part of a church youth group and so on … and then, grab on to Proverbs 22:6 and hope everything turns out ok.

Some may disagree with me … but those things simply WILL NOT WORK … at least not by themselves.

Believe it or not … the only thing that truly works is talking to your kids.  We have to talk to them about the things which are difficult to talk about – sex, drugs and rock and roll.    Seriously though, we need to be talking to our children about everything related to being an adult.  Will we ever cover it all?  Probably not.  But it’s better to try than miss most of it.

So … back to “FINDING YOURSELF”.  How can we help our kids “find themselves”?  I believe the answer lies completely on where our focus is.   I believe this one verse says it all.

John 15:5 (NIV)
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

I’ll try to explain what I am saying here.  I grew up in a Christian home.  I grew up going to church.  I grew up with Christian friends.  I was surrounded with Christianity.  But some how … as a teenager … I never learned God is all that matters and nothing happens without him.  Seems simple doesn’t it?  Here’s a little more of my story to try and explain things.

I left for college with a 4-Year Air Force ROTC scholarship.  I had a free ride through college and a great job guaranteed afterward.  But for some reason, I was miserable.  I was so miserable, I basically quit trying.  I missed so many classes my grades were negatively effected which eventually led to me losing my scholarship.  It wasn’t until after I was married and enlisted in the Air Force I realized God had a plan for my life.  Up until that point, I had been following my other people’s plans.  We all have this idea (because of our culture) that life means … go to school, graduate, go to college, get a job.  That’s the American way!  But it’s not always God’s way.  I didn’t take the time to figure out what his way was before I jumped in to college.  I may still have ended up in college, but maybe on a different path … or maybe even on the same path.  The problem was I was doing it my way … and not God’s.

Now … what does all of this have to do with focus?  EVERYTHING!!!  It is my goal as a father to help my children understand that God’s plan for their lives is a lot more important than my plan for their life or even their own plan for their life.  If they are not making decisions with an eternal perspective, then, they are heading toward a life of misery.  Only when following God’s plan will we ever find peace, contentment and success.

You may be poor.  You may be in jail.  You may be beaten.  You may be killed.

But in the end … what matters the most is that we are doing what God has called us to do.

I hope this rambling makes sense to somebody out there.

Go with God,
Donald B

Spiritual Attack … or … Test From God

Was it a spiritual attack? Or was it a test from God?

I think we first need to define what a test from God is. I’m going to give you my explanation … and feel free to educate me theologically if you have a different understanding. It could help us all understand it better.

I have been looking for a scripture which states “God tests us” or something to that effect, but I am having difficulty finding it. If you find one, please let me know, and I’ll update this post.

What I did find are scriptures discussing how we are tempted. The classic temptation verse is just below.

James 1:13 – 15 (NIV)
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

According to this verse, we cannot be tempted by God. Temptations come from our own evil desires. These desires stem from selfishness and pride, but they come from our own sinful nature. The devil and his horde use these desires to lead us to sin against God. However, we have this promise …

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

This brings a deeper understanding of temptation; God does not tempt us, but he will NOT allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. My understanding is God allows satan and his demons to put things in front of us which play off of the evil desires living within us. We see this clearly in the life of Job. Read below.

Job 1:6 – 12 (NIV)
One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

For this reason, we definitely cannot say God does not allow satan and his demons to tempt us.  He allowed them to interfere with Job’s life.  Their purpose was to cause Job to curse God.  Job succeeded not because he was a super spiritual stud, but because God knew Job’s limits (limits he had given to Job) and did not allow satan to go beyond those limits.  Refer back to 1 Corinthians 10:13 above.

The reason behind God allowing satan to tempt us is this:

James 1:2 – 4(NIV)
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I’ve always been taught God tests us, he doesn’t tempt us.  I have always thought testing was something God did with certain acts.  And maybe he does and I’m just waiting on someone to correct me on this post.  But I am beginning to see how his testing is usually intertwined with satan’s temptings.  He allows satan’s temptings, but only what we can bear.

*****************************

Now … to the story prompting this blog.

Recently, some doctors told me I have hypothyroidism.  Plus, there is a good chance I may have gall stones.  These two things have greatly effected my morning routine (especially the exercising part).  In the last 3 weeks, I’ve put on 1.5 inches and gained 10 pounds.  Now, I have a lot of work to do to get back to the place I didn’t want to be at in the first place.  Therefore, I put a plan in motion.  Starting today, I would arise early, get to work early (avoiding traffic issues) and have a quiet time and exercise time before going in to work.  These are good things which will greatly enhance my life with God and my life here on this earth.  The bad guys know this.

Last night, Chloe was awake for most of the night with an ear ache.  Fortunately, my wonderful wife took her to the couch and tried to make her comfortable so she would sleep – which would allow me to sleep in order to be somewhat productive at work.   This was actually good.  My sleep was minimally impacted.

But the bad guys did their number on me by filling my mind with all kinds of things to think about and worry about and stuff.  And this kept me awake.  I awoke the next morning at 5 am, and was talking to myself about sleeping until 7.  I almost convinced myself, but something prodded me to keep going.  I showered, then, drove to the commuter lot.  I got on the bus and began my quiet time.  My prayer was “God, show my why I was spiritually attacked last night which almost caused me to miss out on this time.”

I arrived at work, and headed for the gym.  I planned on a two mile run and actually started the run.  As I was coming in on the final half mile, I began thinking how I should tell Kristie thank you for taking care of Chloe last night.  And then, it occurred to me (or should I say, God answered my prayer.)  The spiritual attacks from the night before all occurred in order to stop me from putting my life back where it needed to be in my time with God and in my physical conditioning.  The bad guys were trying to keep me in bed.  They almost won.  But remember 1 Corinthians 10:13 from above.  Thank you God for getting me through this morning.

Also … remember this verse …

Proverbs 6:10 – 11 (NIV)
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.

I hope in some way this can be an encouragement to you.

Go with God,
Donald B

Blogger’s Cramp …

Ever heard of writer’s cramp.  Well, I’ve got blogger’s cramp.  Except it’s a little worse.  I simply have nothing that I WANT to write about any more.  So … if you are here and you are noticing that things are a little old … now you know why.

Maybe I’ll find something to write about again some day.  But for now, I’m fine with having nothing to say.

Go with God,
Donald B

God’s perfect gift …

15 years ago on November 7th, I received from God the most perfect gift … a gift that is only surpassed by the salvation he provided me through his Son, Jesus Christ!

But let me tell you how it all began …

At the time, I was dating a very nice girl. Kristie – at the time, not my wife, but a very good friend – was living as a single mother in her parent’s home. My girlfriend and I began praying for Kristie on a regular basis. We prayed God would provide her with a good husband for herself and a good father for Emily. Eventually, I broke up with this girlfriend, but I continued to pray for Kristie. Eventually again … God began doing that quite thing he does … you know … when you are praying about something and he puts that thought in your mind that you argue with because you think you are just making it up yourself.

He was saying … I hear your prayer, and my answer is you. I would argue back that he missed the “good husband” and “good father” part if his answer was me. I continued to fight … until that one day.

That fateful one day … when I challenged God. You hear me … I challenged him. For those of you who have made it this far, I do not condone challenging God.

I prayed, “God … if you want that man to be me, I need for you to show me that things are ended with my current girlfriend, make this date I have with this other girl fall through, and let Kristie be able to go in her place.” (Did I mention that I dated a lot of girls in high school and college?)

1 – I go out to meet my current girlfriend. She is exchanging pleasantries with everyone until she gets to me. Face snarled, she states “I have to go get some things from my room” and turn and leave. And say, “That’s 1 God.”

2 – I telephone the girl I’m supposed to go out with that night. We were going to a Campus Crusade for Christ thing. She can’t go because of some reason I can’t remember. I say, “That’s 2 God.”

With palms a little sweaty … because I had made a deal with God …

3 – I telephone Kristie to see if she can go. She tells me she would love to go, but she has to get off from work first. She calls Pizza Hut (not to order pizza … this is where she worked) to see if there was someone who could work for her. She calls me back 5 minutes later, and this is – paraphrased – what I hear. “I called Pizza Hut to see if there was someone who could work for me. There are 2 people, but neither of them have a phone. However, while I was on the phone with my boss, one of them walked in asking if there was any way she could work that night. So, I’m off and I can go.”

I hung up the phone … and (unknown to Kristie) I said yes to God. Best yes of my life.

But then comes the dumb moment. All of the above happened in December of 1991. In Februarly of 1992, we got engaged (not the dumb moment). In May of 1992 – get ready for the dumb moment – I broke off the engagement. Yes … the dumb moment. It made my Momma cry. It was me saying, “Thank you, God! But no thank you! I don’t really want to be happy.”

However, I got smart again. I wrote her a letter. She saved it. The letter was a beautiful work of art. After all … she did come back to me.

We went out on a date on the date we were supposed to get married – August 8, 1992. We got engaged 2 weeks later – again. And we were married on November 7, 1992.

And I will tell you that we have had 15 WONDERFUL years of marriage – no major fights and I’ve never slept on the sofa. Yeah … I get on her nerves quite often … but we deal with that and go on!

Kristie – I love you very much! I will always love you very much! You are the perfect person for me. God definitely knew what he was doing!

Thank you for loving me and supporting me all these years!

I love you,
Donald

Venting … gossip’s brother

Matthew 18:15 – 17 (NIV)
“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”

OK … I’m going to generalize here.  So, if this angers you, I am politely asking you to get over it. 

Whenever the talk of gossip comes up, or whenever you read comic strips about gossip, it always seems to involve women.  This – by no means – mean that men are exempt from the snares of gossip.  However, this seems to be the accepted truth in what we read, see and hear in public.  It is almost as if this is a weakness that only affect women because we men are so much above that. (BALONEY!!!)

Men simply gossip in a different way than women.  It’s not gossip because it is what they DID TO US … not necessarily what they DID.  It’s called VENTING!

Have you have had anyone that just wanted to VENT to you in order to better understand what they were dealing with, or better yet, to avoid taking their anger out on someone else, or because it would do no good to go to the other person because they are an idiot.  I have been VENTED to, and I have VENTED!  Guilty!  But I know for a fact that I am not alone.

It is time we rise above.  No more venting.  That’s really all I have to say about that.  Just stop.  Read Matthew 18:15 – 17 again, meditate on it, memorize it, do whatever it takes to get that truth into your brain.  Just stop VENTING!

The weak person vents.  It is very easy to do.

The strong person goes to the brother who has offended (or seems to have offended).  It is very difficut to do.
It is a difficult life the Christian must live, but if we live it as God has instructed us to live it … it is the abundant life promised to us by Christ.

John 10:10 (NIV):
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Are you reading your Bible …

I know I struggle with being consistent when it comes to reading my Bible.  I get to feeling guilty for not reading it, then, I get it out for a while and do some good reading.  But then … I put it down again for days (and often weeks) on end.

WHY????

I put on a good Christian face most of the time.  Most of my friends would probably tell you I am a good Christian who could serve as an example from others.  As far as I’m concerned … that just makes me a pretty good actor.  I have been a Christian since I was 10, and I know how to act like a Christian.  Rather than BE the real thing, I pretend.

WHY????

I am weak and stupid.  That is why.  Weak because I cannot maintain the consistency that I would like to maintain.  Stupid because I KNOW … I REALLY KNOW … that a Christ-directed life is the best life in the world.  By not reading my Bible consistently, I might as well be hitting myself in the head with a baseball bat regularly.  It’s as if I say to myself – “reading the Bible would draw me closer to God and bring me ultimate joy … hmmm … what can I do to screw that up … don’t want any of that joy.”

What about you?  Are you reading your Bible?

I have a suggestion for you.  This is something I am going to try to do as well.  I heard it from a preacher on the radio the other day.  And no … it’s not reading the Bible all the way through in a year or anything.

I am going to read 1 John every day for 30 days.  There’s a lot to be said about repitition.  By the end of the 30 days, I ought to have a pretty good idea of what is in 1 John, and I will also probably (by the end of 30 days) realize that 30 days of reading 1 John is not enough.  That’s key.  We can read God’s Word over and over and over and there will always be more for us to learn.

I’ll close with these verses:

Psalm 119:11
I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

1 Peter 2:2 – 3
Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

Go with God,
Donald B