Take your daily....warning!

Can you remember as a kid tiring of warnings?   Sure you can.

The earliest I can remember is, "Look both ways before you cross the street."  I remember my grandmother saying "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and then I understood that years later when I figured out the difference between "ounce" and "pound." 

Later, when the government insisted, "Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that cigarettes are dangerous to your health," I determined never to light up.   A few years ago, walking through the Munich airport, I discovered Europe was less subtle.  "Tobacco kills" was on the lighted sign next to a pack of smokes.

What warnings ring in your head, from your childhood, or military training, or...?

Here's one I read in the Scriptures.  You must warn each other every day, while it is still "today," so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God (Hebrews 3:13).  

Or, "The Holy Spirit has determined that deceiving and hardening sin is dangerous to your spiritual future."

Sin is incredibly attractive, and deceivingly deadly.  It gets packaged brightly and marketed smartly.  And when we buy it and use it, we are both self-deceived about its benefit, and all-the-more hardened (or desensitized) to God.  

I find that sin has that impact in my life, and I am surprised by how many Christians ignore the warning.  Yet the writer to the Hebrew Christians insists, Take a daily...warning.  Warn each other day after day about the deceitfulness and hardening of sin.   Even Christians, this NT book says, can become evil, unbelieving, and turn away from the living God (cf. 3:12).

Do you have fellow Christians around you who are in the daily habit of appropriately warning one another about the liabilities and pitfalls of sin?

Perhaps we should.   No, not perhaps.

We should.

Let's start a daily warning movement, so we can keep our ears tuned to the daily voice of God (cf. 3:15).

Who Will Show Us Better Times? Ask Psalm 4

Pamela and I attended the 3rd Iowa Caucus I can remember.  The 1st was 8 years ago, in a room on the ISU campus, the 2nd 4 years ago at Bethesda Lutheran, in their commons area, and the 3rd last night.  To my surprise, each of the caucuses we've attended have become increasingly sedate, quiet, about as inspirational and "caucusy" as a funeral parlor.

Still, Americans seem in a froth.  Someone's got to be able to do better than our current leaders, from the President and Houses of Congress on out.  And, not surprisingly, everyone's promising that they can.

"Who will show us better times?"  That's one way to put it.  You find it put that way in Psalm 4:6, written circa 1100 BC by a king named David.  David confesses he is in trouble.  People are lying about him, ruining his reputation.  Was David running for office?

Not likely, but he had enemies, and many vocal people wanted "better times."  Which mean times don't change.  Nothing new under the sun.  Something like that.

But before you step away from this, take 30 seconds to see what David offers instead of the promise of "better times."

Offer sacrifices to God in the right spirit, and trust in the Lord.
You (God have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.  In peace I will lay down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.


Caucus for whom you will, no candidate nor sitting president can promise and deliver better times.  It is a right relationship with the Lord God, and a trust in His hand of safety in your life, that brings quiet sleep and a peaceful heart.

2012 Alignment

How have you begun this year?

Perhaps part of your start was "in church."  You went to a worship service somewhere, listened to a "let's get after it" sermon about making the year ahead really count.

I hope so.

Here's how I was coaching the team God has given me to under-shepherd. We began with a morning of prayer, prompted by Paul's letter to the early Christians in the city of Ephesus.  [A few years ago, I visited Ephesus...what a place!  Today, it's in western Turkey.]

In the early verses of the letter, Paul reminds us that it is God the Father's plan "to unite all things in Christ."  A pregnant idea, to be sure.  Someday, all things (yep, ALL) will be united in and aligned with the person and rule of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Perhaps you've heard, "every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

But what about now?  Today.  Are ALL things united in Christ?  Every part of your life integrated in Him.  Is He in the middle of all of it, and every part of it?

We know the rest of the world is disintegrating, and the lack of alignment around truth and Christ Jesus is frustrating at best and coming apart at the seams at worst.  Yet the individual life of a disciple can be a display of the best of what Paul means here.  To have a life--top to bottom, side to side--aligned with Jesus Christ, is a taste of heaven here on earth.   Elsewhere, Paul says we can be the fragrance of Christ in the world.

Here's the pastor in me emerging.  Take some time and pray at the beginning of 2012.  Get an alignment.  Give every part of your living, and ALL of it, to Christ.  Let Him unite it, direct it, empower it.

Pray for it.