Choosing a Happy Ending to my Story

Choosing a Happy Ending to my Story

Galatians 6:7-8 NASB
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

   I once heard a preacher talk about making changes in your life.  He likened it to when the Apollo astronauts would launch on a lunar landing mission.  They would blast out of earth orbit and begin a course to take them to the moon.  Along the way they would check their course from time to time and if they were off course a bit they would execute what they called a “course correction.”  The course correction was to help them get back on course.  Course corrections were considered normal and were expected.  Many things could influence the space craft as it flew so corrections would be needed from time to time.
   In life we set a course and along the way we should examine our lives and see if we need to make any course corrections.  Problems come up that may cause us to get off course so corrections are needed to get us back on course.
   Of course, it helped a lot that the astronauts would begin their journey on a good course.  But even if their initial course was off they could still correct it to take them to their destination.
   I read a story; I think it was in a Reader’s Digest, about two men.  These two men came from similar backgrounds, both growing up in "dysfunctional" homes.  Both were raised by an alcohol-addicted parent and both endured numerous hardships as a
result of the many problems brought about by their unstable home life.  So how did they turn out as adults?  Quite differently.
   One of the men couldn’t keep a job; he was dismissed from several jobs for alcohol-related problems.  He was married for a while, but his marriage ended from many arguments and some physical abuse.  He felt helpless and hopeless to change and believed himself cursed by his upbringing and doomed to failure.  When asked if his childhood had influenced him, he said, "Given my background, what do you expect?"
   The other man held a steady job and enjoyed a stable marriage and home life.  He was involved in his children's lives and in his community.  Overall, he was successful and happy.  When asked about the effect of his childhood on his life, he said, "Given my background, what do you expect?"
   Our past will shape our present, and our backgrounds are crucial in determining the kinds of decisions we will make as adults.  In this example, both men were shaped in different ways by their past.  One slipped into the old, familiar patterns and recreated
them in his own life as an adult.  The other was determined not to repeat what he had experienced as a child and determined that his kids would never suffer as he had suffered as a child.  The first man felt helpless to change and the other used his background as a motivation to change his course and make a better life.
   Yes, we are a product of our past.  Yes, we are shaped by our parents, by our childhood and by influential people in our lives.  But we have the final say what kind of lives we’ll live.  I once read, "You may not go back and make a brand new start, but you can start right now to make a brand new end."
   What does that mean to me?  It means that I do not have to be a failure in life unless I let myself be a failure.  Rich or poor, healthy or sick, I get to determine what my reaction to life is.  I can have faith and believe God and live for Him or I can sink into despair and turn my back on Him and live a defeated and lost life.
   God has written a happy ending to the story of my life, and I get to choose whether or not to live it.

Stephen Cram                                February 25, 2012           Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8

A Firm Foundation

A Firm Foundation

Luke 6:48 NKJV

He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock

  I watched a show about a fancy building built with all the latest safety features and designed to be beautiful and functional.  The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by thousands and the party lasted for days.  With all the fanfare surrounding the opening of the building, I bet there wasn’t a party thrown when the foundation was laid.  The workers of the building crew cleared the land and compressed the dirt and laid the concrete, but there were no cheerleaders waving pompoms and no bands playing “we will, we will, rock you.”  Foundations are not exciting, certainly not as exciting as throwing open the doors and riding the elevator to the top and seeing the view.  Foundations are hard to build and the work is not glamorous.  It’s just dirty, time-consuming work. 

   Yet the foundation is more important than the style and a gingerbread façade.  There’s nothing too impressive about the building of the foundation, but if the foundation is built right you can build and rebuild the entire building a hundred different ways.  But if the foundation is faulty, nothing you build on it will be permanent.

   My prayer is that you go to a church that has a good foundation based on God’s Word.  If your faith is grounded on the Word, you can find your way through what the world will throw at you.  If you work on the basics, you will grow in faith. 

   I once did a study of the more common cults.  Nearly all were founded by well-intentioned people who were not properly grounded in the Word and took some favorite idea and ran away with it.  This is one of the greatest dangers of Christianity.  The way to God is a narrow way and there is only one Door, Jesus.  Trying to find another way is a grave danger but many try to find one.  Another danger is trying to rush to maturity. 

   Maturity comes from growing and that from learning and neither can be rushed.  Farmers plant seeds and wait for weeks until sprouts poke up from the ground.  As soon as a corn stalk pokes up from the ground they might want to go out and pick the ear of corn from it but it won’t be there.  It hasn’t grown yet.  Just seeing the little sprout does not mean the harvest is ready.  Too often we see a new Christina showing signs of growth and think they’re mature in their faith and give them responsibilities and depend on them to show mature judgment.  Just because we see growth happening does not mean they’ve reached maturity, they’re still learning the basics.  They’re still laying that foundation that they’ll need to build their lives on. 

   It’s always a good idea to inspect your house’s foundation from time to time to look for cracks and faults.  It’s always a good idea to check your spiritual foundation from time to time to look for errors and faults.  Keep yourself grounded in the Word so your life will have a sure foundation.

          

Stephen Cram                                  February 19, 2012                Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8 

    

Second Hand Worship

Second Hand Worship

II Samuel 24: 22-25 Amplified Bible

22 And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for wood.

23 All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king. And Araunah said to the king, The Lord your God accept you.

24 But King David said to Araunah, No, but I will buy it of you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God of that which costs me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

25 David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and Israel's plague was stayed.

   There is an old joke about sacrificing to God that goes like this:  A farmer owned a cow that gave birth to twin calves.  He swore he would give one of the calves to God, but he didn't decide which one to give until one day one of the calves died.  He went to the house and said to his wife, “Honey, guess what? God's calf died today!"

   OK, not really funny, but it does illustrate the attitude towards giving to God that many of us have.  We feel we can give God whatever we have left over and it’ll be OK because we gave God something and the idea is really the important thing, right? 

   Well, no, not really.  The intent is the important thing, not the idea.  Obedience is the important thing, not going through the motions to make it look good.  To really understand how God feels about giving, we need to re-read His instructions about sacrificing.  When we offer something to God, what does He say is the acceptable way to do so? 

   The biggest no-no is trying to give something to Him that’s not your best.  In the days of animal sacrifices it was the person who brought a lame or deformed animal to be sacrificed.  You wouldn’t breed it because you wouldn’t want to pass on defective traits.  So why not take it to the Temple and sacrifice it?  You could fulfill your obligation of offering a sacrifice and not lose a valuable breeding animal. 

   What is wrong with this way of thinking is that you’re bringing to God something that has little or no real value to you.  God asks you for your best - He wants the pick of the litter, so to speak.  He wants you to give something of value, and the highest value at that.  So why does God want your best for Himself?  Is He some greedy monarch gouging you for extra taxes?  No, God is love and His heart has only love towards you.  One reason He’s asking for your best is that He is trying to help you grow.  By learning to give your best to Him you will learn to give your best to help others. 

   God wants us to learn to love so He instructs us to do things that teach us to obey willingly.  When we learn to give to God willingly and from love for Him we will learn to give of ourselves to others willingly and from love in our hearts.  David illustrated the idea behind this commandment went he refused to accept the threshing floor of Araunah, which was going to be given to the Lord as the place to build the temple, as a gift.  David said he would not give to God that which cost him nothing.  He wanted his gift to God to have real meaning.  He was doing this during a time of crisis in his kingdom and people were dying and David really needed God’s blessing on his people.  He did not to be seen as making an empty gesture to God.

   David had served God for many years through many good times and triumphs and through many hard times and defeats.  His love for God was learned over many years and through many lessons.  His love was genuine and it was natural for him to make a sacrifice that was from his heart and not an easy fix sacrifice from his excess. 

   This concept carries over into our lives in many ways.  We want to help out at our local church but not if it takes too much time or the commitment will last too long.  We want to pray but not during March Madness or during a favorite TV show.  We want to give to missions but we’re already giving 10% to the church.  We want to study God’s Word but not for more than 15 minutes a day (or a week.) 

   Going up on my soapbox here:  I personally feel that if you can’t give something to God from love, then don’t give.  Learn to love Gods first and giving will come later.  (Putting the soapbox away now.)    

   The last point I want to make here is that giving is not really about you.  The whole prosperity gospel lie was that if I give to God I’ll be blessed and get something back in abundance.  If that’s all you understand about giving you’re so wrong.  When I give it’s out of obedience to God’s Word and for the benefit of God’s Kingdom.  Giving is about God and my love for Him. 

Stephen Cram                    February 12, 2012                                 Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8 

          

The Woman

The Woman

John 4:39 NKJV

 “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.””

   When I read the Gospel of John, the woman at the Samaritan well always draws my attention.   If you’ve ever doubted whether or not God works in mysterious ways, just re-read this story.  There are so many aspects of this story that are hard to grasp.  She timed her visit to the well to avoid contact with anyone else.  Her relationship with others must have had severe problems if she did that.  Why would anyone want to walk to the well in the hottest time of the day, draw water, and carry the heavy buckets back home in the heat of the mid-day sun?  And then Jesus, an unmarried male Jew, begins a conversation with a Samaritan woman of unknown marital status.  Any decent Jewish man wouldn’t be caught in the same area with such a woman, and yet here is Jesus starting a conversation with her; and a very personal conversation at that.  I often wonder if Jesus had supernatural fore-knowledge, or did the Holy Spirit give Him knowledge as the conversation went on.  Whichever it was, He looked beyond her many sins and meets the deepest need of her hardened heart.  His connection with her sparks a two day revival in Samaria.   There is no one else who would have chosen her to serve as an evangelist.   

   Why does this story speak to us so powerfully?  It demonstrates and demonstrates clearly that no one is beyond hope.  Here is five-time loser who is shaking up with yet another man and hiding from the public eye in her shame, and yet God’s grace reaches down in love and heals even her heart.  She goes from loser to witness in a very short time.

   Around the foot of the cross were many people who needed Him but didn’t know it, while on the next cross was a loser who did know it.  So Jesus promises that loser eternal life on the spot.  “TODAY you shall be with Me in Paradise.”   I wonder how many others there that day went into eternity without Christ when He was there right in front of them. 

   Jesus sees the hearts and intents of people, yet He loves us anyway.  Jesus reaches out to those who seek and knock and search for Him, yes, but He also finds those who don’t know they need Him and aren’t even looking.  I’ve watched unsaved people who think they’ve got life all figured out fall under the Holy Spirit’s conviction.  When God calls your name, you will answer whether or not you want to; even if it only to say “no” to Him.  I have a belief that no one will stand before the Great White Throne and be judged who will be able to say, “Gee, I didn’t know you were calling to me.”  I believe everyone will have an opportunity to say “yes.” He wants everyone to be saved and there is room enough around the cross for everyone.      

   He even works of Christians like this.  Jesus knows your heart better than you do, and if you’re being pushed this way and that and under conviction by the Holy Spirit, you want to stop and examine yourself.  Seek counseling and find out what it is in your life that He wants to change. 

   Keep praying for that unsaved person you have on your heart.  Keep praying for that Christian struggling with a problem.  God will answer and reach out to them in love.

Stephen Cram                   February 5, 2012                   Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8