Because I love You...please help me do this right (Tony C)

Hope everyone had a terrific weekend filled with worship for our most worthy Father! This week, your Kingdom Bloggers are writing on stand out passage from the Book of James. Hope you find blessing in what we share.

James writes a line of scripture that yours truly takes serious and to heart.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. James 3:1 (ESV)

The KJV translates the word teachers as masters, but the original Greek word is didaskalos and is predominately used in the New Testament to refer to someone who teaches about the things of God (Blue Letter Bible).

So why would God hold teachers to a higher standard?

The answer might seem obvious to some but elude others who hold that God's mercy is equally applied to everyone. Isn't God's mercy equally applied to everyone? I would argue no based on the fact that some come to God's gift of grace after a lifetime of sin. Jesus covered that life just as He did the one who lives a life in close walk with Him. Having said that, I don't believe God loves one more than another. Let me explain...

I have three daughters. I love them equally which means I love them completely. However, my patience may be tried a lot more with one of the three over the course of their lifetime, well, their lifetime that I'm still around to see. Does that one therefore require more love from me? I would argue no. My love is still the same unconditional love (agape) for all three...even if the one feels she may have required more of my love to overcome causing more disappointments.

In the end, each of us is destined to only one of two places for eternity. We each will face our Creator in a revealing moment that will reflect how much, or little, we showed love and obedience to Him with the time we were given here on Earth. Is it possible to disappoint God? Absolutely! But, that doesn't mean that disappointment will lead to an eternity of separation from Him. If disappointment were the damning criteria, I'm afraid Heaven would be near empty of mankind.

Imagine that moment of reckoning, your moment, and you've spent efforts to teach His word in any type of false manner. Being a teacher comes with an inherent or implied notion of knowledge...a position of intellectual trust...people lean on that as truth. Leading just a single person away from the gift of salvation in those duties has an eternal consequence for that person. How crushing to realize that fact when your moment comes! God expects and deserves so much more in a teacher's efforts.

Christians are called to be the salt and the light by Jesus, and I believe part of being the salt involves preserving and protecting the Truth. Doing so is an expectation of God, especially if He has blessed you with a talent for teaching the Good News. Don't disappoint the Father. Take James 3:1 serious as you serve God teaching His word and make Him proud of your efforts for His glory.

Truth is Stranger Than Fiction by Amanda Elder Silvers

One of my lifelong goals has always been that I would one day be a published author.  It's a goal (need, desire) that burns deep inside me and gnaws away quietly at my soul.  It has since I was a child.  I've given much thought to what type of book or books I would like to put out there for the general public, but I'm fairly sure it would be a biographical account of my life.  I could do a devotional book or a fictionalized account of people I know or places I've been or dreams I've had, but the truth is my everyday life has provided me with enough material to fill a multitude of books.  I'm sure you've heard the saying, "Truth is stranger than fiction."  Well, in my case it certainly is.

In 42 years on this planet I've developed the ability to find humor in even the most horrific of situations.  I believe this little coping mechanism has helped to keep me sane for the majority of my life.  When my father died last year I was going through the most unimaginable grief with my family that any of us had ever experienced.  For most of the time we all felt as though we were having an out-of-body experience.  Your loved one dies and then you are forced to go into overdrive planning, organizing, and scheduling the funeral arrangements.  How ironic it seemed to me that during a time you are literally in zombie mode you are being required to make huge, important decisions.  I would recommend having death/burial arrangements written out well beforehand so you won't feel you are floundering quite as much as I did.  Anyway, I digress... The day after his death my mother, sister, and I go meet with the funeral director's assistant about arrangements.  This KID, and I mean KID, is doing the best he can, but we've been told we are his first family, his "test" family.  Great.  We are in the middle of overwhelming grief and we're going to get to be guinea pigs.  Fabulous.  As he explains the details of what we can expect, expenses, and the cremation process we all sit somberly with our heads down soaking it all in.  That is until I hear the oddest word I'd ever heard fall off his lips.  He is explaining to us that our father's "cremains" can be picked up at such-and-such time.  My head tilts to the right a bit as I look up, eyebrows furrowed.  "Cremains"?  Is that even a word?  I shoot a slick side glance over to my sister who meets my gaze and instantly knows what I'm thinking.  We both attempt to suppress our delight in this much needed moment of comic relief and in unison see our mother attempting to telepathically calm us down, but we know she gets it too.  I think I even quietly pulled out my phone to Google the word.  Yep.  Sure enough.  It's a real word.  After we finished with the toddler in charge of funerals and all the paperwork was signed we walked outside and my sis and I giggled.  I said, "Cremains?!  You know the first thing I thought of when I heard that word? CRAISINS!"  We all three just fell out laughing and for the rest of the week "craisins" became our private password whenever we needed to inject moments of silliness.  I even sent pics to them from my camera phone each time I'd be in the grocery store and pass a bag of Craisins.  Odd?  Yes.  Funny and necessary?  Yes.

I could go on for days with such stories.  I've previously wanted to blog the above story, but decided I needed to get enough time between the actual event and the story so it wouldn't seem callous.  The beauty of it is my dad knew and loved me.  He would have been cracking up right there in that room with us.  That's how my family has always been.  I wouldn't change a thing about that. 

Over the years I've accumulated numerous blogs and stories about my family, friends, college years, childhood, and life.  I've got stories about a first date I went on which involved picking up a dead body from a funeral home in Atlanta (all of my stories are not funeral based, I promise).  I have stories about medical experiences which were hysterical and I've written much about the people I love. 

I've often envied authors like Stephenie Meyer who can pen all-consuming stories of vampires and werewolves.  I've not been successful at fiction.  I'm very much an in-the-present person and my writing style reflects that.  I hope to one day write a book which the world will get to read.  My hope is that it would bring a moment of laughter to someone who may be having a bad day or perhaps one of my shared experiences will resonate with someone going through something similar.  I pray that God allows me this wonderful accomplishment.  I know if it is in His plan He will show me the way there.  To any of you readers who like to write, I encourage you to continue.  I've found no better way to cleanse my inner self of stress and sorrow than putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard.  Writing truly is a gift in that it gives something back to each of us.

If the world would just stop and listen to Linus van Pelt...

One of the fondest memories I have from my childhood is the exuberance and joy I felt each year when CBS aired A Charlie Brown Christmas. The show first came on in 1965 and has aired annually since that first broadcast (except now on ABC).

I had the privilege of sitting down with my own family and watching it recently...and I still got goosebumps at this famous monologue:






ABC did a very good job promoting the show this year too. Just when I'm ready to throw in the towel when it comes to any form of media...I get a ray of hope that not all Christian values have been abandoned by the mainstream. At least ABC continues to let Linus tell us what Christmas is really all about...

See you next on Christmas Eve. God Bless.

What Matters

But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. Was anyone called while a Democrat? Let him not become a Republican. Was anyone called while Republican? Let him not be Democrat.   Democrats are nothing and Republicans are nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.  1 Corinthians 7:17-19(Kinda)

Jesus ain't a Democrat and He ain't a Republican. 

He is the Son of God!

His Kingdom is greater than the United States.

He is the King of Kings!

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”

John 18:36

Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father,

when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.

1 Corinthians 15:24

The Lord said to my Lord,

“Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies,

making them a footstool under your feet.”

Psalm 110:1

Two Verses

There is a lot I don't understand about God and His creation. In fact, it was this conclusion that lead me to determine that He is the one true God. By acknowledging that I was a man of limitations, selfishness, exaggerated self importance and immorality, I knew that any god that I could understand, could not be a god that I could serve. The God that was worthy of my efforts (yeah, I actually thought this way-a great example of my exaggerated self importance) had to be a Holy God.
Having been in the Faith for about 13+ years now (struggling at times, strongly committed other times and having quit a couple of times as well) I have come back to this initial conclusion many times.

He is God and I am not!

I am not shy about sharing my beliefs and I am not afraid to answer skepticism with "I don't know the answer to that." When it comes to 'defending', 'justifying' or simply 'reassuring' my Faith, I stand upon two passages:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6

The Bible is the Word of God, it is by Faith that I seek Him and He rewards me accordingly.
Over time, as I have grown in knowledge of the Word, my beliefs have been modified. My opinions about the Church, social issues and the world have been altered as I have grown more in my knowledge of Him and His Word.

Through the years of using His Word as my reference point of my Faith, I have grown more confidant in what I believe. What wasn't of God in my life, the Word revealed, sometimes to the very beginning of my Faith. In the past, I had to let Holy Spirit tear up the foundation I had laid and start over. I had to lay aside my perceived knowledge and my pride and start over at the Chief Cornerstone. He has revealed more of Himself and His Truth as I have searched for His answers and not the convenient answers that religion and the world would offer. It is interesting (and it can be frustrating) to me how God will 'answer' my specific questions and reveal deeper Truths to me when I walk in Faith and search His Word.