Regrets, I've Had A Few......

By John Stallings

Sarah was rich.

She had inherited twenty million dollars, plus she had an additional income of one thousand dollars a day. That was a lot of money in the late 1800s.

Sarah was well known & powerful. Her name would open any door in America & all sorts of organizations clamored for her support.

Sarah was rich, well known, powerful, and miserable. Her only daughter died at five weeks of age & her husband died leaving her with her name, her money, her memories & her guilt.

Sarah chose a strange way to deal with her guilt. She moved from Connecticut to San Jose California & bought an eight-room farmhouse on one-hundred sixty acres. Over the years I’ve passed in front of this house several times but have never seen inside. Sarah hired sixteen carpenters & put them to work. For the next thirty-eight years the craftsmen labored every day, twenty-four hours a day to build a mansion.

This place has a macabre touch, even when driving by it. Each window has thirteen panes, each wall thirteen panels, each closet thirteen hooks, & each chandelier thirteen globes. Corridors in the house snake randomly some leading nowhere. One door opened to a blank wall & one to a fifty-foot drop. One set of stairs led to a ceiling that had no door. Trap doors. Secret passageways. Tunnels. This was no retirement home for Sarah; it was a castle for her past.

There were visitors…… The visitors came each night. Legend has it that every evening a servant would pass through the secret labyrinth that led to the bell tower. He would ring the bell…to summon the spirits. Sarah would then enter the “blue room,” a room reserved for her night time guests. Together they would linger until 2:00 a.m. Then Sarah would return to her quarters & the ghosts would return to their graves.

What guests, what ghosts? Indians & soldiers killed on the U.S frontier by bullets from the most popular rifle in America---the Winchester. What had brought millions of dollars to Sarah Winchester had brought death to them. So Sarah spent her remaining years providing a home for the dead.

You could visit the Winchester mansion if you wished to & walk the halls & see its remains if you’re into poltergeist, & see first hand what unresolved guilt can do to a human being. Truth be told, we don’t have to “know the way to San Jose” to see such a spectacle. We can see lives imprisoned by yesterday’s guilt & shame in our own cities. Lives haunted by failure are all around us. They are just down the street or down the hall. Do you know any Sarah Winchesters?

Frank Sinatra sang the song “My way” back in 1969, & it became his signature song. Actually Paul Anka wrote the song. In the song was the line... “Regrets…I’ve had a few…but then again…too few to mention...” It was a song sung to celebrate a tough life, a full life, a planned life, a life where a man stands tall, takes the blows, relies on himself & does it his way.

This song is nonsense of course. But it was the kind of nonsense that people bought & bought into, a life where I’m in control & I call the shots, a life with few if any regrets.

In truth, there is no such thing as a life lived with no regrets in the literal sense because we all fall short in so many ways. Only Jesus could say “It is finished” & know that He had perfectly completed all that God had for Him to do & He never made a single mistake doing it. The rest of us will struggle with a sense of failure, of jobs left undone, of projects left unfinished, of dreams unfulfilled, of steps not taken, or roads not traveled, or decisions made that now seem like wrong choices. I see no way to escape this.

There are many things we can look back on with joy & cling to them as “precious memories.” But sadly there are certain events in all of our lives that we remember with regret. While it would be wonderful to live a life of no regrets, it isn’t in the realm of possibility. By the time one reaches old age, & generally long before, one can look back & see things he wishes he’d done differently. Sometimes the regretful experiences are only mildly disturbing but other things can so upset a life that they lead to mental breakdown or illness.

In any life & in any family, even the best of them, there are regrets. Things don’t always turn out right. Parents disappoint us. Children don’t always turn out the way we hope. As hard as we try we can’t always get it together & make things turn out right. Things happen. People change. Words get said that can never be taken back. And our lives are forever altered.
Let’s go back & look at some famous men in the Bible & see if they had any regrets.

ADAM
There can be no doubt that our great ancestor had deep regrets. After all he lived in paradise & had access to the tree of life, meaning he was looking at unending life. He didn’t have to do any hard labor because everything was there for the taking. God walked with Adam in the garden, so for a time he had full fellowship with Him. Adam gave it all up.

I can imagine that many times as he toiled, he thought about how he blew it. He gave up the good life & exchanged it for fighting thorns & thistles & realized that his destiny now was to be dust himself. I can’t imagine Adam seeing how his children suffered & coming to terms with the magnitude of what he’d done wouldn’t have filled him with regret for his transgression.

SAMUEL

I can’t recall of a single passage in the Bible that speaks ill of Samuel. He was God’s man & he judged Israel all the days of his life. Samuel was a prophet who we find in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews along with the others in faith’s hall of fame. But Samuel in his old age made his sons judges over Israel & they were a deep disappointment to him to say the least. When a child goes wrong, the first thing a parent wonders is where they went wrong in their parenting. It would be hard to imagine anything more regrettable that would cut a man deeper than this one.

ANCIENT ISRAEL

God delivered these folk from Egyptian slavery & offered them the Promised Land & they had so little faith they turned back from Canaan into the wilderness. What regrets they must have had as they wandered back & forth, up & down until everyone above twenty was dead.

DAVID
David was the common shepherd boy who stood up to the Philistines & killed their giant warrior with a sling. When the Lord saw that Saul was unfit to continue to lead Israel David was crowned king. Under David’s rule the nation of Israel went from a backwater group of nomads to the shining star of the Mid East.

Though David was a great man & Israel’s greatest king, he stumbled into gross sin with Bathsheba. He had a great record but sadly it was marred by adultery, lying & murder. In many ways it’s hard to accept that a man who was after God’s own heart could have such a blot on his record. The majesty of much of David’s life wasn’t sufficient to erase the ugliness of his transgressions. We don’t have to wonder if David had regrets. All we have to do is read what he wrote, especially the forty-first & fifty-first Psalms to see the evidence of his regrets relating to his moral breakdown.

The Lord sent the prophet Nathan to face the king with his sin & David repented. True repentance is a dynamic, life changing experience that looks forward not backward.

I love the words David wrote in Psalm 103: 12—As far as the east is from the west so far has God removed our transgressions from us. David could well have adopted Frank Sinatra’s song, “regrets I’ve had a few…...” & so might you.

David reaped a lot through his children. Absalom, a son David loved murdered Amnon, another son of David. A while later Absalom tried to take the kingdom away from his father. David had to flee the save his own life. Later when Absalom was killed in battle & David got the news, he wept—

“O Absalom my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” What sorrow, what regret. Later, David’s son Solomon had another son of David’s put to death, Adonijah.

Moving into the New Testament we first look at;

JUDAS

It would be difficult to conceive of anyone having more regrets than did this turncoat & traitor. Though Judas did take the blood-money back & throw it at his accomplices, his deep regret is evidenced in his suicide. But think about this; Judas has been in hell for many hundreds of years & has had all this time to think about & regret what he did. Not only that, he still has all eternity to wallow in hell’s flames & wish he’d never been born.

THE APOSTLE PETER

Here’s another on our list of people who had deep regrets. In one way Peter did worse than Judas because he swore an oath that he never knew Jesus. As an aside, the difference in these two men I believe is the cross. By that I mean if Judas had gotten the revelation of what Christ’s death meant, he might not have taken his own life. If he’d lived long enough to see that the very essence of Calvary was to offer full & free pardon, he might have held on until he could be forgiven like Peter did.

Peter’s life & experience is an encouragement to all those who need to repent & turn around. Peter spent the rest of his life trying to erase the memory in his mind & in the mind of others of his failure. As sad as his failure was, his life after Christ forgave him was exemplary. Peter went on, according to tradition, to be crucified upside down for his Lord. May we all be as successful as Peter.

PAUL

Paul’s life is so well known that we need not spend all that much time with him here. Do you think Paul had any regrets? In Acts 22, when he described how he persecuted Christians, he said, “I persecuted this way—to the death.Vr.4. What did he mean by…to the death? One wonders how many orphans he left because of the killing & jailing sprees he conducted. He was on his way to wreak more havoc when God put him under arrest on the Damascus Turnpike. Do you think those regrets ever completely passed from his thoughts as he lived day to day? I don’t think so. If ever a man lived who must have longed to rewrite his past it had to be Paul. But he was able to get victory by turning his past over to Christ. He died out to self & let faith in the living Lord renew his life.

There are so many others that we could mention, but;

THE QUESTION BECOMES WHAT WILL WE DO WITH OUR FAILURES?

Though God can forgive & forget everything that has been wrong in our lives, we aren’t that capable. The Lord has been able to bury all our yesterdays but maybe we haven’t been able to bury them that deeply. Our horizons are shorter. We may still get troubling thoughts & try as we may we can’t get the thoughts outside our head & hearts.

IF ONLY

Maybe these words keep playing in our head…if only. If only I’d heeded the advice of my parents I wouldn’t be where I am. If only I’d been paying attention I wouldn’t have these problems. If only, if only, if only. To have appropriate & legitimate feelings of regret is one thing. But to allow our failures to shape & dominate us forever is something different.

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister was the first man to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. Within 2 months John Landy eclipsed the record & on August 7, 1954 the two met together for a historic race. As they moved into the last lap, Landy held the lead. It looked as if he’d win but as he neared the finish he was haunted by the question “where is Bannister?” As he turned to look Bannister took the lead.

Landy later told a reporter, “If only I hadn’t looked back I would have won.” The devil wants us to look back & dwell on the past but we need to keep our eyes trained on the future.

The prophet Joel said, I will restore to you the years that the locusts have wasted. The life Christ gives to us isn’t about constantly ransacking the archives of our lives. It’s about standing face to face with the resurrected Christ & saying… “We’re not going to talk about this anymore.” There’s no way you & I can recreate segments of our private histories, we’re stuck with them. We can’t alter a painful past any more than we can control a threatening future. But God recreates our past by forgiving it.

So the key is to say, “I’m not going to live in the past. I won’t let my yesterdays define who I am today. By God’s grace I’ll go forward one day at a time, one step at a time, trusting God to lead me, following the Lord to the best of my ability, believing that with Christ the best is always yet to come. In the spiritual life it’s not where we’ve been but where we’re going that matters.
Grab hold of God’s pardon & rejoice in knowing that Jesus Christ is your advocate & there are no accusations coming from heaven.

Your forgiveness & your future are grounded in the love of Christ.


Blessings,

John

PLEASE-JUST LOCK THE DOOR!!

By John Stallings


The boys & girls who have made ObamaCare-the law of the land...

...are going to follow up the ‘easy pickings” by ramming through their program of “amnesty” i.e. allowing anywhere from 15-45 million illegal aliens safe passage into the U.S. This is purely political to pack ballot boxes & make sure only Liberal/Democrats are elected until Jesus comes & maybe beyond.

Also, we shouldn't forget that will come with any perks we who've paid into the system are getting. Just to keep the record straight, we paid for our Social Security etc. over the decades with the threat of unbelievable fines, interest & possible incarceration.

Close on the heels of the HealthCare "victory" will be “cap “n” trade”/ “cap & tax” which will reach into our homes & set our thermostats, plus in short order having us driving small cars with our knees up under our chins. Of course the Washington guys will continue to ride in their big black SUVs.

Obama is doing nothing he didn’t pledge before he was elected; the American electorate just wasn’t paying attention.

The following blog “Please-just lock the door” was written almost three years ago, but I thought it might be interesting to read it again.—Thanks for your time.--

John


PLEASE- JUST LOCK THE DOOR!


By John Stallings


I have a friend who has a beautiful house that sets on a nice piece of property. He has a nice family, a lovely wife and three kids. He keeps the house up very well but laughs about some of the things that still need fixing, says they give the house character. I think he’s right, and there’s not enough wrong to detract from how nice his house is. My friend’s neighborhood has changed for the worse over the last few years. It’s gotten much rougher. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not nearly as bad as some places, but suffice to say it’s just not the same place he knew a few years back. One of his neighbors down the street was mugged recently as she walked from her driveway to her porch. Another neighbor just a few blocks over from him was attacked in the middle of the night when he surprised a burglar in his house.

But what really got my friends attention was one night recently he came in late from work and went in to check on one of kids and found a man going through his little daughters dresser. Scary, right? Well the intruder escaped, the cops never caught him and my friend’s daughter sleeps with the light on now.

My friend’s home isn’t the same anymore.

He now has cameras all over the house, outside and in, and has six or eight monitors all over the place and everyone’s instructed to call him if they see anything the least bit suspicious.

My friend now has a 90-pound Rottweiler named Evil that roams around the place. Evil knows who’s supposed to be there and who’s not and Lord help anyone who’s not supposed to be there if Evil catches them.

My friend has also bought shotguns and they are positioned all over the house as well as a 357 magnum which he keeps at his bedside. My friend is well gunned and prepared for the next person who would dare to approach that house and threaten his loved ones.

BUT MY FRIEND HAS A STUPID HABIT

I know it sounds CRAZY but this friend of mine just will not lock his doors, -ever. I’ve told him several times and everybody tells him that he must keep his doors locked but nothing doing, he’s old fashioned, he won’t do it.  I tell my friend;

The easiest, most common sense thing he could do that wouldn’t cost him a cent would be to lock his doors.

Then I point out the obvious, -that locking a door isn’t a permanent type thing, you can always only open the door for the people you want to come into the house. I tell him that he’d be better off to have saved the money spent on guns etc. and just close and lock his doors. But nooooooo my friend won’t listen; he wants those doors unlocked.

He has his arsenal.

He has his cameras.

He has his dog.

They will surely keep the bad guys away from his house; the doors will stay open.

Even as I write this I am so frustrated with my friend that I can’t see straight.

Anyone should be able to figure out that his duty would be to use the first line of defense to protect his family and that is;


JUST LOCK THE DOOR --AND LET IN ONLY THOSE WHOM YOU TRUST.

I’m SORRY!!

By now you know that I don’t really have a friend this stupid.

But do you know what? We have a Nation that is armed to the teeth and that’s good. We have enough nuclear explosives to destroy the world several times over. We have smart weapons that just to hear them described takes your breath away. I appreciate all that! But what sense does it make for us to have all this if our “Achilles heel” is going to be a mule train ambling over Canada’s or Mexico’s porous borders laden with poisonous WMD or suitcase bombs? By now we all have heard that the 19 Islamic terrorist’s who hit us on 9/11 had between them 67 different driver’s licenses. Can it be true what one man said, that a nuclear attack will be mandatory before we ever “lock the door”? Has America’s safety really become a “tombstone industry”?

We’ve got the dog, the guns and the cameras, but for some reason that escapes me -they refuse to lock our doors.

YOU MAY ASK IF I WOULD LIKE AMERICA TO ISOLATE ITSELF AND NOT LET ANYONE ELSE IN.

A THOUSAND TIMES NO!!

Listen carefully;

We can always open the doors to let whomever we want to come in.  Historically this practice is what made our nation great.

But instead, we leave our borders open risking our safety simply because we won't do the first, most simple thing we could do to protect our security. Obviously I’m no expert. I really didn’t need to tell you that did I ?

Some say politics is why we keep the doors open, maybe so. That’s too deep for me. Some say we need the cheap labor of the people who come in illegally because not enough of our citizenry will do mundane work. Maybe so. Some say we should build a wall. I don’t know about that either. But if we are smart enough to send men to the moon along with a car to drive around up there, aren’t we smart enough to come up with a plan to keep people bent on doing us harm from waltzing through our doors?

NOTE TO OUR LEADERS. PLEASE LOCK THE DOOR!


Blessings,


John

Take A Little Honey!

By John Stallings

He was an ambitious & clever liar. He was a cheat, a crook, a gyp, a con artist, a flim-flam man, a fraud, a fake, a phony, a trickster & a swindler.

He was selfish & egotistical, cold, calculating, scheming, conniving tricky & sly.

We often speak of “bottom feeders,” describing people who are low-down. Well, before God changed him he would be said to have reached the lowest possible place, sunk a little lower & was looking up through the bottom.

He was the younger of twin brothers who came out of his mother’s womb holding his older brother’s heal. His name really meant “grabber” before God changed it & he spent a good part of his life grabbing everything that wasn’t nailed down. If there ever was an unlikely candidate for sainthood it was this man yet he was the third of Israel’s “holy three.”

He had twelve sons & at least one daughter but unfortunately there were no women’s groups in those days to help keep up, so the fairest sex didn’t count. Most of the world is still this way. Who is this man? Right-it’s Jacob.

Among Jacob’s twelve sons was a gifted boy, a boy who was a dreamer, a boy called Joseph. Not only was Joseph a dreamer, he was a naive, unsuspecting, trusting dreamer. In fact Joseph was so young, inexperienced & naive, he wasn’t aware of a thing called jealousy. This almost proved deadly for him.

DREAMERS HAVE TO BE CAREFUL

Dreamers must be careful who they share their dreams with. There are “non-dreamers” who specialize in seeing that other people’s dreams don’t come true. In fact, these dream killers actually think they’re doing God a favor when they kill the dreams of the dreamer. If you share your heart with them there’s a good chance you’ll end up with blasted hopes & shattered dreams.

Don’t waste your dreams on the dreamless.

Joseph’s jealous brothers plotted to kill him but changed their minds & ended up putting him in a pit. Don’t miss this next point;

-- After they put their brother in a pit, they took a lunch break. Isn’t it interesting that some people are so heartless that they can attack you to the point that you are so emotionally & physically damaged that your heart is hanging on the outside of your body, & sit down to eat as though nothing has happened? As a matter of fact they’re so mean spirited they actually get a morbid sense of satisfaction out of the harm they bring to you.

But let’s move the story on. This group of slimy brothers saw a group of Ishmaelites on their way to Egypt & sold Joseph into slavery. In their minds they’d gotten rid of the dreamer but they failed to realize that Joseph was a special son of destiny. God had a plan for Joseph & that plan involved bringing him from the pit to the palace. It would be an understatement to say; -- these boys will see Joseph again.

You’ll remember that Joseph went to work at Potiphar’s house in Egypt & in the course of time Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of rape & he landed in jail.

Years went by & it looked like Joseph would rot in prison. Meanwhile back in Canaan, Jacob & his sons are experiencing a drought. The lakes & rivers are drying up & the people are perishing & the rain won’t visit the land.

Jacob hears there’s corn & grain in Egypt & decides to send his sons down to buy all the food they can get. Unbeknownst to them, Joseph is not only alive; he’s interpreted Pharaoh’s dream & gives warning of a coming famine. He tells the king how to prepare for it by storing up food during seven years of plenty in preparation for the coming seven year famine. At last Joseph gets a break. He not only gets out of jail, he’s now second in command in all of Egypt.

Before Jacob’s sons leave for Egypt, he tells them to take gifts including myrrh, spices, balm, along with money to buy grain. But then in Genesis 43:11, he added;

---Take a little honey with you. Egypt wasn’t famous for honey but Canaan was known as a land that “flowed with milk & honey.” Honey was also used as a medium of exchange.

LOOK WITH ME AT FOUR WORDS-- “TAKE A LITTLE HONEY,”-- AS A METAPHOR FOR CHEERFULNESS, - JOY, - KINDNESS, -COMPASSION & CONSIDERATION.


Things aren’t looking good right now in our country & good-cheer is going to be necessary to survive. We’ve fought a war that’s lasted longer than the 2nd World War. We’ve seen real estate devalued & it looks like the dollar is suffering the same fate. I can’t be far off the mark to say America has the “flu” & it’s far from certain that the big doses of “antibiotics” being pumped into her [borrowed money] is going to save the patient.

2012 by all predictions is going to be rough for millions of people, especially if the economy doesn’t pick up before unemployment insurance gives out. As we face this coming year, I can’t think of anything more important than, by God's Grace maintaining a sunny, happy attitude. Here’s where the honey helps.

A lady was late for work & she was driving behind a man who was intent on not exceeding the speed limit. She honked a few times but it did no good & he just kept the same speed.

As they approached a light it turned yellow & it was one of those times when you could get through if you pushed the envelope a little. The man slowed down & stopped & the light turned red.

This was the last straw for the woman. She went ballistic & started yelling, blowing her horn, cursing & worse. A cop pulled up & ordered her out of the car with her hands in the air. He arrested her & took her downtown where he put her in a holding cell.

About two hours later he came back & let the now calm woman out. He apologized to her & said he verified that the car was hers. She asked why he’d arrested her in the first place. He explained that when he pulled up behind her she was cursing & yelling & coming completely unhinged. He said he looked at the Christian license plate holder, the silver fish emblem & the “honk if you love Jesus” bumper sticker & he thought it was obvious that she’d stolen the car.

Sometimes we Christians react to things around us is such a way as to appear anything but Christians don’t we? What kind of testimony is it for the Lord when we don’t have a dab of honey on us?

I’m not talking about giddiness. If we act too happy people will think we don’t understand the problem. The honey of which I speak is that deep settled peace & joy that can’t help but be contagious.

I’m not advocating that we go around acting like we’ve just had a Valium smoothie or just landed in “The Sea of Tranquility.” However, a Christian who’s a chronic complainer, a dispenser of disillusionment, & a purveyor of pessimism needs to examine the boat in which he is crossing the sea of life & see if perhaps he’s sprung a leak.

I acknowledge that there’s enough in this world to make a person sour, somber, cynical, bitter & sad especially if we dwell on the ingratitude, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, failure & hypocrisy of others. But often the greatest problem is our own attitude, not the objective situation. Carrying a little honey can make all the difference.

Jesus was a “Man of sorrows & acquainted with grief & He felt more pain & loneliness than you & I will ever feel, yet He said, --My peace I leave with you…..” James said,--Count it all joy when ye fall into divers testing…..James 1:2. This is actually a command to carry a little honey.

THE HONEY OF COMPASSION AND CONSIDERATION


Author Somerset Maugham had a mother who was celebrated internationally for her exquisite beauty. His father however looked like he fell out of the ugly tree & hit every limb on the way down. People would often ask Maugham’s mother why she chose such a physically unattractive man. This sounds rather crass but its non-the-less true. She would always answer this way;-“He has never hurt my feelings.”

That would be a rather hard standard for most of us to live up to [sad to say I’ve failed the test more than I’d like to admit,] but the greater question is; how many married people even try to keep from tongue- lashing their spouse at the drop of a hat, & they’ll drop the hat themselves?

Could it be the divorce rate is so high because of something as seemingly simple as consideration?

Recently I heard a news report that said young people actually have physical fights while they’re out on dates. I was shocked. The report didn’t say that the girls were fighting the boys off to keep from being raped; that would be understandable. It was couples who’d been dating only a short time or were on their first date who got into shouting matches that ended in physical violence. The report said that more boys reported being physically attacked by girls than visa versa.

What does this kind of behavior portend for the institution of marriage? Unmarried people should begin now to learn to treat the opposite sex with honor & respect. It’s a habit they’ll need when they’re married. As an example, if little boys are taught at home to put the toilet seat down it won’t be a problem for them to be considerate of their wives & put the toilet seat down when they’re married.

MORE MARRIAGES DIE FROM INFLEXIBILITY THAN EVER DIE FROM ADULTERY, ALCOHOLISM OR ABUSE.


Marriage is constant negotiation & compromise from where we set the thermostat to where we go to eat. 1 Corinthians 13:5 says,--Love does not demand its own way. [LB.]

I can remember when I was a young preacher, I used to preach stem-winding sermons in an effort to lift the lid on Hell & allow the folk to smell the smoke. I was overly zealous & sometimes went too far in tanning the hides of the faithful. When I heard other preachers & they really burned-hides I’d say, “Now that’s what I call preaching.”

Please don’t misunderstand, I believe the Word should be preached without compromise, & the whole council should be declared without fear or favor, but I’ve learned that a little honey goes a long way. Through the years I’ve discovered that a little humor also helps.

Only unwise preachers say things like, “If you can’t see that you don’t have the brains of a Billy-goat.” Or, “You don’t have enough sense to pound sand in a rat-hole.” Or this one, --“Anybody with one eye & half sense can see my point.” A "one word" put down that seems to have surficed lately is simply calling people "stupid." Not good!!

I heard about a preacher who saw a man he knew was unsaved at a filling station pumping gas while smoking a cigarette. This of course is a very unwise thing to do, to say the least. The preacher yelled out, “If you don’t think there’s a hell, just blow yourself up with that cigarette & gasoline & you’ll change your mind in less than five seconds.”

This minister didn’t care what anybody thought, he felt everyone else was wrong & he was always right. This kind of behavior sounds a lot like the Pharisee’s of Jesus’ day to me. We don’t have to be vipers to tell people the truth. When we’re dealing with men’s immortal souls, often a little honey will help the medicine go down. Don’t you agree?

TAKE THE HONEY OF JOY WITH YOU


The Bible has many references to joy; the NASB uses joy in 170 verses & the KJV uses it 155 times. There are 15 different Hebrew words & 8 Greek words to describe joy & some are used as a noun & a verb. We recently celebrated Christmas & how many times did we sing “Joy to the world, the Lord has come?”

But Christmas to some people isn’t joyful at all. What if joy doesn’t come, what do we do then? The problem is- joy isn’t a commodity that can be produced or bought, sold or stolen. We can’t download joy. We can’t get it on discount at Penny’s. We can’t win it in a lawsuit or turn it on with a remote control. We can’t earn it or inherit it.

Joy is a gift we can only receive, an expression of God’s free grace. We can’t tell joy what to do. We can’t control it. We can’t manufacture it. Joy can’t be bought at any price.

We spent the day at Disney World a couple of months ago & I didn’t see a single face with joy on it. Most of the kids were frowning if not crying & most adults had looks of consternation on their faces, rushing from one place to the next as if trying to beat the clock & cram everything possible into one day.

We can get a certain sense of happiness in life from things we do; a good job, a successful relationship, a nice vacation or good health. But joy is different. Joy is as unpredictable as the one who bestows it. Happiness we can try to achieve but joy we can only receive.

It’s like the difference in contentment & peace….achievement & fulfillment…. Affection & love…optimism & hope…getting a cure & getting a healing….making a commitment & being born again. We are all on a journey to find joy but in truth it’s joy that must come to us.

Weeping may endure for a night but JOY COMES in the morning. Psalm 30:5

We can’t have joy unless we live close to the Lord, seek His face not His hands & feast upon His words, precepts & principles. Then we can be “honey carriers” letting the sweetness of Christ be manifest to the joyless ones we encounter each day.

THE HONEY OF KINDNESS


For God’s sake - be kind. The honey of kindness is essential if people are going to get along. Have you noticed the rudeness & ill-manners in our world? The “honey of human kindness” is desperately needed.

Let me tell you one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible.

There was once a boy who lived in ancient Israel about 1,000 years before Christ named Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, grandson of King Saul, the first king of Israel.

Up until the age of five, Mephibosheth lived at home with his parents. Outside this small family circle national events were moving quickly toward a day of trouble. His grandpa Saul was losing his grip both on his sanity & on his kingdom. He was enraged by David’s popularity & chased him for years trying to kill him.

One day the Philistines killed Saul & Jonathon on the battlefield & when this news reached Jonathon’s home, Mephibosheth’s nurse grabbed him up & took off running. This was a brutal time & when one leader won a victory over another, they would systematically kill all the man’s family to prevent later uprisings.

Mephibosheth’s nurse knew David would now be king, & she knew of the hostility between Saul & David, so in her haste to protect Mephibosheth, she began to run, but accidentally dropped him & he was permanently injured. We’re not sure of the nature of the injury but the upshot was he was lame in both feet.

Now 15 or 20 years have passed & David is consolidated in his power as king. There is peace all around & David finally has time to do some thinking. If you want to see why David was –a man after God’s own heart—you’ll find it in this story.

You’ll remember how much David loved Jonathan, Saul’s son. One day out of the blue, David asks—Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

Isn’t that beautiful? David wants to bless some relative, any relative of Saul—FOR JONATHAN’S SAKE!

Here is David holding all the cards with absolute power & he wants to show kindness to a relative of Saul, a man who tried to destroy him, because of his love for the man’s son Jonathan.

Well, Mephibosheth is Saul’s grandson so his name is given to David. Mephibosheth is located living in a little backwater town of Lo Debar. He was brought to live in David’s palace & eat at his table with the rest of David’s family, --for the rest of his life.

I know you see the parallel between you & me & Mephibosheth. Just as he, we were poor, needy & crippled by sin, but God, out of his great heart of love has invited us to come to his table where all manner of good things are spread; to come & dine, the only requirement being that we accept by faith the full & free pardon of our sins.

I remember an old song we used to sing when I was a boy;

Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed, He invites His chosen people come & dine.

We like Mephibosheth will always eat at His table.

This superlative act of kindness on David’s part was done, not because of his love for Mephibosheth. Jonathan was dead & David couldn’t show kindness to him, so he did the next best thing & showed kindness to his cripple son,--For Jonathan’s sake.

Listen to Matthew 25:40….Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.

If you & I can’t think of any other reason to carry the honey of kindness, we should be kind—FOR GOD”S SAKE!

When we’re kind to someone for God’s sake we won’t go unrewarded. Listen to Mark 9:41,--For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, he shall not lose his reward.

I think the strongest statement in the Bible about love is 1 John 4:8;

He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for GOD IS LOVE.

Does that verse strike a chord deep within your heart & humble you as it does me? I hope so.

As we enter this New Year, will you join me in taking the honey of kindness, joy, love & forgiveness each & every day by God’s grace?

King David was prepared to show the kindness of God to a cripple who didn’t deserve it. Certainly David was under no obligation to do what he did; he did it for Jonathan’s sake.

Yes, you & I will meet the unlovely& the unlovable on our journey in 2012 We will again be hurt by the insensitivity & downright hostility of others. That’s more or less a given. The question is will we take enough honey with us to be able to show kindness toward others, FOR GOD”S SAKE?

Blessings & happy New Year,

And don’t forget to “take a little honey.”

Blessings,

John

Getting Unstuck For A New Year

By John Stallings


In the movie, “Forest Gump” you may remember the part of the movie where Forest decides to go for a run.

He first runs to the end of the driveway. Then he runs into town. Then he runs to the county line & then he runs to the state line. Then he runs across half the United States to Santa Monica California.

Then Forest decides to turn around & run some more. This time he runs across the country to a lighthouse in Maine. He keeps running until people notice. He’s in the media, on magazine covers & starts to build a following. People start to run with him & follow him wherever he goes.With a full beard & dirty, grungy clothes, Forest finds himself with a large number of followers who will go wherever he goes.

One day, Forest stops running. Standing in the middle of a road he speaks to his followers. They wait with bated breath for his words of wisdom. They lean toward him waiting for the words to fall from his lips.Forest speaks like no man ever spoke before, sharing these words of unprecedented wisdom, I hope you’re sitting because this is big; Forest says, “I’m kind of tired. I think I’m gonna go home now.” He walks through his followers who part like the Red Sea.

Though the movie was first & foremost a comedy, I think, & certainly it was just a movie, there’s something here that rings a serious bell. You can’t help but feel sorry for these people following Forest, mostly because they have nothing better to do. They have no direction in their lives. These folk put their faith & hope in Forest & he has nothing to offer them.

WE HAVE A GUIDE

As we embark on the year 2012, we aren’t like the people in the movie Forest Gump, - so empty, - so lost -that we would follow someone who’s going nowhere in particular. Forest had a good heart, but really had no clue where he was going & why. We’re told in scripture & we know experientially that the Holy Spirit who resides within us will Guide us into all truth. We have God, His Son Jesus & The Holy Spirit to fill our lives with meaning & give us guidance.

STUCK

The greatest challenge of the coming New Year will be letting go of the past in order to grasp a new future. It’s not as easy as it sounds because we as human beings have a way of getting stuck. Many people find that though they want passionately to believe things can be different, a new beginning always seems to move just out of reach. They find themselves slipping back into the bondage of the past.In Philippians 3:13-14 Paul said….

but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind & reaching forth for those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

If you saw the movie Groundhog Day; you have a perfect example of a man who’s stuck, living the same day over & over. I don’t think there is anyone who isn’t, or hasn’t been stuck. Maybe our “stuckness” centers on a tangible such as buying, eating, drinking, drugging, worrying, fretting, gambling, risks, sex, love, books, movies, television, ideas, work, or power. Or maybe what we’re experiencing is a general malaise or vertigo that we can’t put our finger on.

Being stuck is sort of a twilight zone of sameness with no seeming ability to affect any kind of change. We yearn for new vistas but seem to be fresh out of ideas as to how and where to find them. We look down the road and see no chance of anything but more of the same.

We all know what it’s like to be in a car that’s stuck, either in snow, sand or mud. My heart bled these past few weeks as I watched the folk in the northeastern states being victimized by the white stuff.Though we love white Christmases, too much of a good thing can be devastating.

But being emotionally and spiritually stuck is worse. It’s the realization that we’re not moving forward, and we feel paralyzed. There are projects we know we need to start or finish, but we’re seemingly trapped and frozen in place.

Few of us will grow in our Christian lives in a steady, gradual, upward slope from birth to death. Granted there will be seasons of seemingly effortless growth but there will also be seasons where we somehow get “stuck” at one level and can’t “break out” to the next level.Something’s getting in the way!It's my contention that part of what impedes our personal and spiritual growth are the "stuck" places in our life.

There are varieties of reasons we get stuck but whatever they might be, our personal growth diminishes the longer we remain stuck. We can get stuck in our past, in our pain, in our problems, in our perspectives or in our life patterns.I get stuck sometimes, don’t you? It is not usually an absence of options, but a plethora of them. One gets stuck in the process of choosing & then shuts down.We can sometimes get stymied. That implies being thwarted by some outside force.

Certainly outside forces influence us negatively or positively, but the reality is that most of the stymieing comes from within. We are afraid. We are afraid of the shame, embarrassment, & disappointment that failure will bring & the increased responsibility of success. Therefore, we are timid, tenuous, and terrorized by fear of the decisions we might make or actions we might take. After all, we might make a mistake. We might produce mediocre work. We might open a can of worms. Our "mights take away our might.”

Maybe a large challenge comes up, -we get discouraged & we freeze. We put our plans on hold & break our pattern of discipline.Sometimes “being stuck” is a signal that something has gone wrong; somehow we’ve missed it, and we’re terribly off course. This is not always the case; as a matter of fact, feeling stuck is a condition that can be good for us. For one thing, a prime prerequisite for getting unstuck is to be stuck. When we’re stuck, we’ve lost our momentum and are forced, at least temporarily, to stop and assess our lives.

Feeling stuck acts as an inward summons or call. We face the fact that we are dissatisfied with where we are. We see the utter futility of our situation, and, if we are wise, we reach for another level to satisfy the desire for change. At that point, we are reaching for that which really satisfies, and, in so doing, we are calling out for God. So that’s why I say that being stuck isn’t really a bad thing. What has happened is, because of the stuck feelings, we have begun to readjust our lives, looking for a clearer perspective. In a way we are calling out, “What’s next for me, God?

PEOPLE GET STUCK IN THE PAST

Some people live in the past and seem to revel in the hurts of yesterday. They won’t shake loose from their past failures or calamities because, to them, the past is more important than the present. When you talk to them, you quickly see they are totally caught up with & committed to keeping the past more real than the present. They are stuck. What decade was it that Ronnie Millsap was lost in? Was it the sixties? I liked the song but always forget the decade. Oh well, it matters not; the important things is he was stuck.

In John 5, Jesus saw a man sitting beside the pool of Bethesda. He had been sitting there for thirty-eight years, trying to be first into the water after it was troubled by the angel. Jesus came along and heard the man’s story and immediately saw that he was stuck. I would say that thirty-eight years of sitting in the same spot, whining about the same problem is really being stuck. It didn’t cross the man’s mind that there was another way. When Jesus was able to get him to quit worrying about his past defeats and disappointments & look to Him, the man was healed, & he carried his bed away.

WE CAN GET STUCK IN OLD PATTERNS AND HABITS.

It’s not hard to develop bad habits (sometimes sinful), but more often people are just bogged in ruts. Some give up, figuring they can’t change, so why try? Perhaps because of resentment or a negative thought pattern they’ve been in so long, they think their situation could never change. Perhaps they’ve come to believe their lot in life is already static, & nothing can ever be different.

MAYBE YOU’RE STUCK FINANCIALLY OR WITH SOME OTHER PHYSICAL NEED.

In John 2, Jesus attended a wedding in Cana of Galilee, & they had run out of wine. The people were stuck with no libation, & obviously it put the wedding planners in a bit of an embarrassing spot. They were stuck with no wine. Though Jesus’ time had not yet come to do miracles, He responded to the need & performed His first miracle by turning water into wine. When we are stuck financially, emotionally, or in any other way, we should immediately turn to Jesus, knowing He’ll always be responsive to our needs.

YOU MAY BE STUCK WITH A FALSE ASSUMPTION

In Joel 2:23-32, the prophet speaks to a people who are stuck in despair, feeling things will never get better. He tells them to look up and be glad for God is going to do great things for them. They have a great future if they’ll rise up and take hold of it by faith.He says in verse 25,-

-And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the , and the caterpillar, and the , my great army which I sent among you. 26And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.28And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

In I Kings 17 we read the story of Elijah being sent to the home of the widow of Zarephath. A famine was in progress, & the only thing she had was just enough meal to make a cake for herself & her son, then die of slow starvation. This poor little widow woman was indeed stuck. Elijah asked her to make him a little cake first, and at that point she had a choice. She could believe the word of the man of God or do it her way, & no doubt die. When she opted to obey, she was given a miracle supply of oil & meal that lasted for many days.

When things are going bad & we are stuck in some situation or other, we should always listen for Gods voice. He’ll have a plan to get us unstuck. [He has a fleet of spiritual tow-trucks that can be on your case before you can say “Gesundheit”.] The only thing the widow had to do was exercise obedience, & her need was met. To get unstuck, you & I will often have to make that same choice--to obey God.


SOMETIMES BEING STUCK IS JUST PURE PROCRASTINATION.

We develop a habit of putting things off until it finally turns into resistance to tasks that are unpleasant to us. Though we don’t enjoy thinking about it, sometimes we can become stubborn, which started as a childhood-survival technique we may have developed to ward off controlling people. We learned early that we can resist certain things, & people can do nothing but accept our resistance. Perhaps we even enjoyed seeing how it frustrated others when we used those powers of resistance. This may have worked as a child, but it isn’t necessary now, and if we don’t recognize what’s happening, it can be a tool of the devil to sabotage our motivation. Now it translates to pure, old, mule-headed stubbornness, keeping us from the changes we should make.

MAYBE WE ARE STUCK BECAUSE WE ARE RESISTING CHANGE.

Are you stuck at the beginning of the great New Year, 2012?

HERE ARE A FEW HELPFUL HINTS FOR GETTING UNSTUCK.

1. Look at your situation realistically. Does anything in the aforementioned apply? Ask God to help you see what’s really stopping your progress.

2. Look for the bottlenecks in your situation & address them.

3. Develop a “what’s next” mentality. God will show you His will if you seek Him.

4. Don’t hesitate to go to people you respect & enlist their prayers & advice. Don’t forget to seek God.

5. When you get temporarily stuck on a project, walk away for a while, & you’ll come back to it with a new perspective. But do come back.

6. Home run king, Henry Aaron, had this advice: In a slump, keep swinging.

7. Help others with their problems, & yours will seem smaller.

8. Take care of yourself spiritually, emotionally, & physically.

9. Start each day with God’s Word & a prayer for guidance.

LET ME GIVE YOU A LIST OF IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR

1. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you’ll ask God to do for you this coming year?

2. What’s the single most important thing you need to happen to improve the spiritual quality of your family?

3. What spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress in & what will you do about it?

4. What’s the biggest time-waster in your life & what will you do about it in the coming year?

5. For whose salvation will you most fervently pray in the coming year?

6. How could you improve your prayer life in 2012?

7. What will you do in 2012 that will matter most in 10 years? In eternity?

8. What will you do differently by God’s grace this coming year?

9. What’s the most important decision you need to make in 2012?

10. What area of your life needs simplifying & how will you do it?

11. What important need do you feel burdened to meet in 2012?

12. What habit would you like to establish in 2012?

13. Who do you most want to encourage this year?

14. What’s the most important financial goal you need to meet & how will you go about doing it?

15. How can you improve the quality of your work life?

16. What will you endeavor to do to bless your pastor or others who minister to you?

17. What book in addition to the bible do you want to read?

18. What’s your biggest regret of 20111 & what will you do about it in 2012?

19. What important trip would you want to take this year?

20. What skill do you want to learn or improve?

21. To what need or ministry will you give to in an unprecedented way in 2012?

22. What biblical doctrine do you want to better understand?

23. If those who know you best gave you advice, what advice would that be?

24. Would they be right?

25. What will you do about it?You are looking for ways to make progress in your life. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have read these little tips by such a non-expert as I.

If we keep reaching, the best is yet to come.

In Saskatchewan there’s a sign by the side of a muddy road which reads:

CHOOSE YOUR RUT CAREFULLY, YOU’LL BE IN IT A LONG TIME.

Happy New Year,


Blessings,


John

Special Comments!!

Dear reader,

I regret the fact that it’s been so long since I posted a new blog. A little over a week ago my wife Juda tripped and fell in a Cracker Barrel parking lot sustaining a rather bad break in her right arm [her dominate arm] and cracks in her left hand and wrist. We’re talking about a lady with a cast on one arm and the other arm in a sling.

Welcome to the world of “Juda can’t do much of anything,” and  “John is doing most everything, much of which he doesn’t know how to do.” But I’m learning fast.

We’ve had some help but I’ve been doing the Lion’s share of the work. As I’ve always said about babies, they’re not “a lot of trouble,” but they do need “lots of care.” Of course Juda isn’t a baby but at a time like this the same goes for a spouse who’s incapacitated. This has left me little time to write but I’ll have a new message up and posted in a day or two.

We are fine and Juda is feeling better and we have every reason to believe she’ll be as good as new in a week or so. We covet your prayers that my lovely wife will continue to experience a speedy recovery.

Watch for my new post-It may come as early as tonight.

Blessings,

John

Move To Praise Avenue!!

By John Stallings


It is with pleasure that I tell you that I represent Glory Realtors Inc., an exciting investment opportunity.

Let me quickly confess that I haven’t always lived there but have visited enough to honestly be able to present it to you as a wonderful place to live.

I am trying to persuade as many people as possible to buy property on Praise Avenue. I don’t know where you live now but it would be safe to say many of you live in exclusive residential areas. Maybe you live on,

 Complain Court,

Lamentation lane,

Grumble Gables,

or Barely Getting by Boulevard, down at the end of the street, next to

 Ain’t It Awful Ally.

 However, I’m asking you to pack up, sell out, and move to Praise Avenue.

“Why should I do that? You ask. Good question. When an intelligent person decides to relocate, he does it for good reasons, so let me give you several reasons to make this move.

REASON #1:

WE ARE COUNSELED BY GOD’S WORD TO LIVE ON PRAISE AVENUE.

Psalm 135:1 says, “Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord; praise him O ye servants of the Lord.”

Psalm 106:1 says, “Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks to the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.

Psalm 103:1 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me bless his holy name.”

Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.”

Many other places in Gods word implore us to live on Praise Avenue.

Psalm 96:1-6 tells us; “Sing unto the Lord a new song all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people; For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all Gods. For all the gods of the world are; but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.”


REASON #2:

SOMEONE WHO WE SUPREMELY LOVE WANTS US TO LIVE ON PRAISE AVENUE.

When you love someone, you are always looking for ways to please them. You will have a keen listening ear to each and every suggestion because you know that some special day such as a birthday or Christmas is coming up and you don’t want to miss an opportunity to please the one you love. If you catch the slightest hint, you will file it away until you can fulfill that desire.

Some people are terribly hard to please, but look how easy our God has made it for us. He has plainly told us that He craves our love and praise so much that if we build him a house of praise He’ll be quick to inhabit it. To be frank, the very reason He created us was so that the creature could praise the creator. When a child climbs in his fathers lap and gives him love, the father receives great joy from it. Likewise our God receives genuine pleasure when we respond to His love for us with expressions of worship and praise.


REASON #3:

WE WILL GREATLY BENEFIT FROM THE MOVE TO PRAISE AVENUE.

Nothing blesses us in every way more than praise does. Note that God is always seeking to do us, His children good. A close investigation of all Gods commandments will prove that they are all designed for our benefit. If you feel that God isn’t answering your prayers, maybe you could make a change and start mingling more praise with your petitions and see what happens. When you and I start to recognize the goodness and mercies of God He will then start to consider our wants and needs more. Praise benefits us in another way, in that it will always make the devil run.

Have you ever noticed that if you are talking to a person about someone they don’t have much affection for, the more you say positive about that person, the more uncomfortable the person is who doesn’t like them. If you don’t stop building that person up, you’ll soon lose your audience. That’s what praise does to Satan. He so despises God that he won’t be around long when we start to praise the Lord.

REASON #4:

THE LANDLORD ON PRAISE AVENUE WILL KEEP US SAFE AT ALL TIMES.

As soon as you make the move to praise avenue, you’ll get a protection policy, not that you’ll never have a problem, but that God will always go through it with you. Someone might ask; if I already have problems and a move to praise avenue won’t guarantee no problems, why should I move? The answer is simple. If we try to solve life’s problems by ourselves, we are sure to end up in trouble. But if we live on Praise Avenue, God will fight our battles for us. The bottom line is; without praise, life will sooner or later become too much for us.

Think about how faithful God has always been to wake you in the morning as well as sustain, protect and provide for you with such regularity. Think how he’s blessed you with sight, hearing, and the ability to move around and enjoy life. If you saw the movie The Passion, it reminded you of what Jesus went through to purchase our salvation.


Should we not sing with the songwriter?

MERCY THERE WAS GREAT AND GRACE WAS FREE.
PARDON THERE WAS MULTIPLIED TO ME,
THERE MY BURDENED SOUL FOUND LIBERTY,
AT CALVARY.

REASON #5:

MOVING TO PRAISE AVENUE WILL EXPRESS OUR FAITH IN GOD.

Our ability to burst into praise regardless of the circumstances is truly a measure of the quality and quantity of our faith in God. If we believe that God is both willing and able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think,” if we believe that our lives are in his care, if we really believe that nothing comes to us except what in His providence He allows, why would we not praise him in bad times as well as good?

As the old song goes, “anyone can sing when the suns shining bright, but you need a song in your heart at night.”

When you live on praise Avenue, you may be “troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9.

You see, even in the darkest circumstances, we can praise God because we know that all things are not good, but “all things work together for good to them that love God. “Romans 8:28. When we believe Him, we turn everything over to Him and praise Him for whatever he does.

Some well known Old Testament residents of Praise Avenue are Jehoshaphat and his army, who were surrounded by three hostile armies. The story says, “Then Jehoshaphat appointed singers unto the Lord and that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army, and to say “ Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth forever.” 2 Chronicles 20:19-21.

Notice that Jehoshaphat put his full trust in the word of the Lord, not stationing the praisers behind the army where they’d have some measure of protection. No, they were stationed before the army relying on the fact that their praises would be suitable habitation for an all-powerful God who would fight their battle for them.

Two well known New Testament occupants of Praise Avenue are Paul and Silas. They had been thrown in jail in Philippi on trumped up charges. They had been flogged and their backs were sore and swollen. Their feet were in hard, brutal stocks. Every movement added more pain. By all rights they’d have been complaining but they weren’t. Instead they decided to praise God. And God, the mighty deliverer responded to those praises. The record says that suddenly a great earthquake came and the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s hands were loosed. Hallelujah!!!

The fact that God shows up when we praise is a good reason to keep praising, isn’t it?

REASON #6:

LIVING ON PRAISE AVENUE WILL ALLOW US TO PRACTICE FOR HEAVENS CHIEF ACTIVITY.

You can read Revelation 5:11-14 and Revelation 19 for a lifestyle of the redeemed as pictured by John the Revelator. In Revelation 5:11-13 John gets a glimpse on the inside of heaven and paints a word picture of a glorious service in heaven. He says;

“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature that was in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and honor and glory be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Hallelujah!!!

I don’t know how many trillions that is but let’s say that John saw more angels praising God than our minds can comprehend.

Aren’t you glad that this old world isn’t our home; we’re just pilgrims passing through. We have got a lot to look forward to because according to John, we’ll join the saints of all the ages and engage in Praising God throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.

So I’ll tell you what. In the light of all we’ve said, I have decided to move to praise Avenue and I’m inviting all of you to move with me. Regardless of our problems, let us praise the Lord.

God forbid, but if you sprain your ankle, praise him that he’s Jehovah Rophe, the mighty healer.

God forbid, but if you are dead broke, and the bills are high, and funds low, praise God he’s Jehovah Jireh, our provider.

God forbid, but if your spouse runs out on you or your children turn their backs on you, praise God he’s Jehovah Shammah and he’ll never leave you or forsake you.

God forbid, but if one day the devil, the accuser of the brethren, mounts a massive offensive against you and you feel your filthy rag of righteousness is filthier than ever, praise God that Jehovah Tsidkenu is only a prayer away and is eager to cover you with his robe of righteousness.

Have you ever noticed that the last five Psalms start with the words, “Praise ye the Lord?”
Reading these Psalms gives us the principles for improving the emotional landscape of our minds and the attitude structure of our hearts, so that we may have a blessed and happy life. The One-hundred fiftieth Psalm says;

PRAISE GOD IN HIS SANCTUARY,
PRAISE HIM IN THE FIRMAMENT OF HIS POWER,
PRAISE HIM FOR HIS MIGHTY ACTS,
PRAISE HIM ACCORDING TO HIS ABUNDANT GREATNESS,
PRAISE HIM WITH THE BLAST OF THE HORN,
PRAISE HIM WITH THE PSALTERY AND HARP,
PRAISE HIM WITH THE TIMBREL AND DANCE,
PRAISE HIM WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS AND PIPE,
PRAISE HIM WITH LOUD-SOUNDING CYMBALS,
PRAISE HIM WITH CLANGING CYMBALS;
LET EVERY THING THAT HATH BREATH PRAISE THE LORD,
HALLELUJAH.


I IMPLORE YOU, AS I AM DOING, TO MAKE THE PERMINENT MOVE TO PRAISE AVENUE SO THAT WE CAN,

…. “BLESS THE LORD AT ALL TIMES AND LET HIS PRAISE BE CONTINUALLY BE IN OUR MOUTHS.” Psalm 34:1.

Blessings,

John

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Offended Christians

By John Stallings

…..Love is not touchy. 1 Corinthians 13: 5-- J.B Philips translation


What’s the devil’s most deadly & deceptive trap?

What tool of Satan imprisons countless Christians, severs relationships, widens existing breaches between people in families & churches--& is a leading cause of disunity? It’s the trap of offense.

Offense is described as-“an act causing anger, hurt feelings, resentment, displeasure, or an affront.”

If caught in its early stages it can be dealt with before much damage is done but the deeper the offense & the longer it’s allowed to fester, the greater the chance that it will turn into a poisonous root of bitterness & bury itself deep within the soul. The result will be a harden heart against people & ultimately God Himself.

When an offense becomes a stronghold, an individual will develop a pattern through which all incoming information gets processed & then they start filtering everything through past hurts, rejections & past injuries.

Offended people feel justified in withholding forgiveness from the offender.
Offended people feel justified in gossiping to others about the offense.
Offended people feel justified in enlisting sympathizers in their cause & turning other people against the offender.
Offended people will produce much fruit, namely; anger, outrage, jealousy, resentment, strife, bitterness, hatred, envy & broken relationships.
Offended people often don’t know they’ve fallen into the offense trap.
Offended people feel; “I was mistreated or misjudged—therefore I’m justified in my behavior.”


Very often offended Christians [or Christians so-called] will refuse to be a part any longer of the Christian community. The people with whom they meet & rub shoulders are other offended folk. Sunday to them becomes a day for sleeping late or visiting relatives & friends or a day at the beach.

It’s not uncommon for these offended Christians to give up Bible reading & Bible study & God becomes a relic of their past, although they are known to continue to talk religious & carry a strong attitude of self-righteousness. The justification for the dismissal of God from their lives is that they’ve been hurt somewhere along the way & there are “too many hypocrites in the church.” This argument is simply an evasive tactic to justify one’s negative feelings toward others & of God Himself.

Satan knows how easy it is for all of us to hold on to grudges & he does everything in his power to remind us of the injustices done to us, real or imaginary. He knows that if he can get us to allow unforgiveness to remain in our hearts it gives him a foothold.

People get offended by the words or actions of others, & often sermons. They feel every sermon is intentionally aimed at them. They might say; “no one spoke to me, the pastor shook my hand but his eyes were on another person.” We all are presented with tons of opportunities to get offended every single second of our lives.

People who become offended in a church, usually move on to another church. Since they never deal with their spirit of offense, they keep moving around looking for a perfect church; a church that will never hurt their feelings. The truth of the matter is there is no such thing as a church that will never hurt our feelings.

CONSIDER THE LOWLY PORCUPINE

If you’re walking through the woods & you hear a rattling sound, step lightly. It could be a deadly rattlesnake- but you could also be in the proximity of a rodent called the porcupine.

The adult porcupine is about three feet long & weighs between 20 & 30 pounds. It’s known to rustle its quills to warn a potential predator to back off. In a worse case scenario [small animals such as dogs usually get the worst injuries] you could end up trying to pull out a bunch of barbed quills. The porcupines don’t have to aim perfectly either because they have on average 30,000 quills to throw, with fish-hook like barbs in them, located all over their bodies except their faces. [Thanks Wikipedia.]

When threatened the porcupine attacks by moving backward or sideways into the aggressor & the quills lodge in the aggressor’s skin. Every time the pierced victim moves, the quills penetrate further into its body. If the quills pierce vital organs the victim can die.

HAVE YOU NOTICED THERE ARE PORCUPINE PEOPLE?

We’ve all taken some quills along the way & to be truthful we’ve all thrown a few quills. There are some people who- through the look on their face & their body language seem to be saying,-“You take a chance if you mess with me. I have plenty of quills & I won’t hesitate to use them.” These “quill throwers” are raspy & harsh & if you have even the shortest of encounters with them you will doubtless come away carrying quills.

We meet “quill throwers” in all levels of life. They are in hospitals, doctor’s offices, schools, restaurants, department stores, driving down hi-ways & even in churches. You probably have one or two in your extended family.

Not only are there “Quill throwers,” there are also “Quill carriers.” If you’ve ever seen a church fight or for that matter a family feud you are aware of this. Quill carriers are folk who’ve taken some quills in life & have never gotten rid of them. Many times it’s because they don’t want to be healed. They savor the pain caused by quills.

GOD'S WORD SPEAKS TO THE PORCUPINE PROBLEM

In 1 Peter 4: there is what some call “The Peter Prescription.” Verse 8 says;--Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Notice Peter says—ABOVE ALL-love each other deeply. ……This is a biblical mandate! It means make every effort, -- go all out—make it priority one—love as if your life depended on it.

It may be painful to hear but the main reason we are super-bothered by others & the quills they throw at us is simple; we just don’t have the “love covering” we need to absorb the hurt & lighten up about the barbs thrown at us.

Notice Peter doesn’t say love covers-up sins, but love covers-over a multitude of sins.
When we don’t forgive others who trespass against us, or hit us with quills, the reason is—there’s not enough love to “cover it over.” Again…Love covers over a multitude of sins.

Love gets a little confusing because we mean all kinds of different things when we talk about love. I love to fish & I love chocolate ice cream however I have a much deeper commitment to my wife than I do those things. But I use the same word, love.

In the church we’re always saying-God is love-therefore we should love too but what do we mean when we say that? When we step out of the spiritual realm we have Hollywood & T.V presenting movies about love like Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve got mail, Titanic, Friends, & Dawson’s Creek. These things can’t help but affect us, & some of our expectations grow out of watching them. Harlequin Romance Magazines sells 130 million books each year; books purporting to tell us about love. Some of it might be good & some of it bad so it’s important that we understand what we’re really talking about when we speak of love.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote to a church that had all the spiritual gifts but they argued constantly. They had asserted how smart & gifted they were & so Paul had been critiquing this complicated & conflicted Corinthian church. The Love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 comes as almost an intrusion in the flow of the letter. Paul took great care to explain to them that though they had all these phenomenal gifts, anything minus love equals nothing. Zero.

When we think of love in the way the world presents it we’re usually talking about romantic love which is based on physical desirability. This love assumes that the loved- one is attractive & it assumes incredible emotional intensity so that one can’t help but pursue the loved one. But this is a far cry from what Paul is talking about because he writes love is more than an emotion. It’s capable of even loving the unlovable.

Sometimes when we use the word love we’re speaking of tolerance; you do your thing & I’ll do mine. Tolerance is good but it’s not the kind of love Paul is talking about. Sometimes love will compel us to be intolerant & demand change in an individual. Sometimes love will have to be tough, as in intervening in the life of a loved one who’s bound by drugs or other substances. It’s clear that tolerance isn’t the kind of love Paul’s talking about.

Sometimes love will be used as a cause; we love the environment so we wear wrist- bands & T-shirts to protest things that hurt the environment, but this isn’t the love Paul is talking about. Some of the meanest people in the world parade behind the banner of love for this or that cause & in crusading for tolerance; they can be so intolerant they’re downright dangerous. John Lennon wrote a song called “Give peace a chance,” & all the time he was at war with the Beatles. Their personal relationships were in shambles & they were calling the world to peace. Like the man who said, “I love mankind- its people I hate.”

The love Paul speaks about isn’t even friendship. Sometimes people will get sentimental & feel they have so much in common with an individual that they’ll say, “I love you.” There might even be an awkward hug & a few tears because the friendship touches them in such a way as to be thought of as love. Like two drunks in a bar who get a little lubricated & say, “I love you, man.” This isn’t the kind of love Paul is talking about.

As a matter of fact Paul isn’t going to let us guess what he’s talking about, he gets very concrete about love. He says love is patient. It can relax in the present. Love is willing to accept slow change & to try again. Love is patient & kind. Love is warm & sympathetic. It sees & feels the difficulties of the other person. It’s not cold & analytical. Love is kind & doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t boast & isn’t proud. Love avoids abrasive & inflammatory language. Love listens. Love is a dialogue. Love doesn’t scold a person like they were a family pet. Love isn’t easily angered. Love is more than biting the tongue; it works at the inner core of us.

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes & perseveres. Love is constantly hoping for change in people & doesn’t give up after one good try. Love is going to try & try & try again. Love isn’t what celebrities talk about on The Oprah Show.

Have you ever thought about the fact that right in the middle of the happy, romantic & love-filled marriage vows we start talking about better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness & in health? Just when we’re speaking of this feel-good love, we imagine those terrible scenarios. Why do we do that? It’s because deep inside we all want love that is secure. Deep down we know there is real, all embracing love. We want that love for ourselves & we want to be able to give it too. And so there it is in the vows- in the marriage ceremony.

But keep in mind; the love Paul speaks about is bigger than married love because he’s not talking to married couples. He’s talking to the church & he’s telling them this is the kind of loving relationships they should have. It’s the kind of love God loves us with.

FORGIVING THE QUILL THROWERS

These next words will be some of the most important words you’ll ever read because if you & I don’t get this thing called forgiveness right, we’ll miss the heart of the gospel. I am swinging this axe with great humility because I find forgiveness such a struggle. More than once in my life I’ve had people I trusted to prove unworthy of that trust by doing everything in their power to hurt me. As you know these kinds of people almost never ask forgiveness. But even in cases where I’ve been asked to forgive, & I’ve given that forgiveness to the best of my ability, I’d be less than honest if I didn’t say I still struggle with it. As Paul said, “I die daily.”

There’s no greater passage in the entire Bible that opens the heart of God on forgiveness than the narrative in Matthew chapter eighteen. I’m sure you’re familiar with it.

Even the disciples were having a hard time with forgiveness, so Peter came out & laid the difficulty of it right at the feet of Jesus. The Rabbinic teaching of the day said you should forgive someone up to three times & after that you could stop forgiving. To be on the safe side Peter doubled that & added one for magnanimity's sake. He asked, “Lord when somebody messes me over, how many times should I allow that to happen before I stop forgiving them? Seven times?”

Jesus said, “No, Not seven times. Seventy times seven.” We’d be missing the point here if we think Jesus was talking about a literal number. Jesus was actually talking here about how grace should operate in the life of the believer when it comes to the difficulty of forgiveness.

So Jesus told a simple, crystal-clear, scintillating parable & explained the issue of forgiveness to His disciples as well as you & me. We don’t have to be rocket scientists, bible scholars or great theologians to get the point of this parable.

It’s a story about a king & his servant. The king has loaned his servant money & decides to call in the loan. It’s pay-back time. Servant A is the first man we meet. He has run up a whopping tab, roughly 12 million dollars. The point is, it’s such a vast sum it’s impossible to pay back. The servant is unable to pay so the king took the next step & ordered the servant & his wife & children to be sold into slavery & his entire estate to be put on the auction block. At least the king can salvage a little bit of money on this deal.

But the servant begins to beg for mercy. He’s trying to buy time. He’s hoping the king will cut him some slack. He literally pleads for his life. Then the most unexpected thing happens; like a bolt from the blue the king totally forgives & cancels the entire debt. Suddenly servant, wife, children, & estate are off the auction block.

Now put yourself in that servant’s shoes. How would you be feeling at that moment? When somebody gives you a break in traffic aren’t you more likely then to give someone else a break? But after all that forgiveness, -servant A leaves as if nothing good has happened.

Enter servant B. Servant B owes servant A about $1.80 in today’s money. Like a scene from The Godfather, servant A says to servant B, “I’m going to remove your kneecaps unless you pay up.” Servant A shows servant B no mercy, instead he has servant B thrown into prison. We can agree that servant A is a jerk.

But there are always other eyes watching & someone went & told the king the whole story. Now for the second time servant A is called before the king. The king has another turn-around & this time his pity has turned to anger. He lowers the boom on servant A & throws him in prison.

The story is over for servant A & B but it’s not over for Peter & it’s not over for you & me. Jesus says, -- “Unless you & I forgive our brothers & sisters from the heart we’re going to wind up just like servant A.” And, oh, how God has forgiven the debt that you & I have run up. It’s far greater than 12 million dollars. The results of the tab are eternal death & separation from God in hell.

GOD IS EXTREMELY OBSESSIVE ABOUT FORGIVENESS

God is so obsessive that He mandates & orders forgiveness & just like any other scriptural mandate it’s for our own good. God knows that you & I will never be able to move toward wholeness, live victoriously & be healed until we let go of resentment, give up on revenge, & let Him take the quills out we’ve collected over the years.

The mistake we make is to look at the person who has wronged us & what they’ve done to us. This parable reminds us that’s a mistake. We need to look at who God is & what He’s done for us. There are no limits to forgiveness because there’s no limit to God’s grace.

The following is nothing new to most Christians but I have a feeling if we really took it seriously it would change the way we view the Lord’s Prayer.

Right in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer is a phrase that you & I, if we’re not careful will pray mindlessly. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Have we honestly thought about what we’re asking God to do here? Have you ever felt like falling silent at this point? We’re asking God to forgive us, to treat us --exactly the way we deal with other folks who’ve wronged us.

THE MOST PROFOUND, PUREST, HIGHEST, & FINEST EXAMPLE OF FORGIVENESS IN THE BIBLE HAPPENED WHEN JESUS HUNG ON THE CROSS.

He was condemned to death by evil men who plotted against him & produced lying witness to convict Him. As He surveyed the howling mob cheering His suffering, the man who knew no sin, the only innocent man who ever walked this sin cursed planet uttered the words that still ring across the centuries; “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” [Luke 23:34] Those 11 tortured words sweep away all our nonsensical excuses & reveal the barrenness of our hearts. They rip the cover off our unrighteous unforgiveness & show it for what it is.

Many of us say, “If only the people who hurt me would show some remorse, some sorrow, then maybe I would forgive them.” But consider Jesus on the cross. No one seemed sorry, quite the contrary-- they laughed, mocked & jeered Him. They hurled insults at Him. The people who killed Him were pleased with themselves. Pilate washed his hands of the whole sordid affair. The Jewish leaders hated Him with a fierce irrational hatred. They were happy to see Him suffer & die.

Evil was in the air that day. The forces of darkness had done their work & Jesus would soon be in a tomb. No one said, “I was wrong, this is a mistake.” And yet He said, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing,” --this is precisely what we must say to the quill throwers; the people who hurt us deliberately & repeatedly.

We must say it to those who intentionally attack us.

We must say it to those who casually & thoughtlessly wound us.

We must say it to those closest to us, to our husband or wife, to our children, to our parents, to our friends, to our neighbors, to our brothers & sisters.


“Father, forgive them” is what we must say if we want to follow Christ.


Blessings,


John