Found You!

"He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 1:8)

Much has been made lately about how we will be found when Christ comes again. It's part of The Purpose Driven Life and even goes back to Kennedy's Evangelism Explosion when people are asked if they would be in heaven if they died tonight. How will we be found when we meet Christ, through death or judgement?

Some will read the verse above and believe that God will keep us strong in our Christian life until the day of Jesus Christ. That is, if we believe enough, if we trust enough, if we do enough of the right things, then we have nothing to be afraid of. We will be blameless because God has strengthened us and kept us in the right things as we have lived out our sanctified lives.

As I listened to the text and subsequent Bible study on this verse, I came to realize that the strength is not of life; it is a strength of faith. God will keep me strong in my faith, that is, keeping me constantly returning for confession and forgiveness, so that I will be blameless when I meet Christ face-to-face. When my day with Christ comes, whether through death or skipping into eternal life, the Holy Spirit will keep me strong in my faith and then I will be blameless.

I love that word, "blameless." Through faith, when I meet Christ, I will not be blamed for anything. I love that concept because I blame myself constantly. I still blame myself for mistakes made years and years and years ago. I have a bad habit of replaying past mistakes and blaming myself for them all over again. The Good News for me is that I will meet Christ and Christ will say: "Stop. Stop blaming yourself. Stop replaying the mistakes of the past. I now find you blameless." Not because of the strength of my holy living but because of the strength of Christ's holy death. I can't wait for that day!

Thanksgiving Thought

Sara and I spent most of yesterday travelling to Moorhead, MN, where a lot of her family lives. Before we flew from Atlanta, however, we had the opportunity to have some Thanksgiving dinner with the troops.

Here's an interesting thing about Thanksgiving: until 1863, it was a church holiday only. In November of 1863, President Lincoln visited the battlefield at Gettysburg and delivered his famous "Gettysburg Address." The sight of that battlefield and the 60,000 casualties of that battle, moved President Lincoln to be thankful for the sacrifice offered. It was this impetus that led him to proclaim the fourth Thursday of each November as Thanksgiving.

I know what he felt. Before we travelled, Sara and I had lunch with the troops. These are men who are at Ft. Benning, GA over the Thanksgiving holiday. Some of them have a lot of work still to do, others were able to take the day off. At least three NCO's will be at the building all day today because they have duty. This is just in America. Imagine the sacrifices that are being made in other places all around the world. All this being done so that you and I can sit around, eat too much, watch too much football, and sleep soundly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Joy of Discipline

After being up 24 hours straight, from early Tuesday to early Wednesday, I crashed a bit yesterday. Tuesday brough the Bayonet, a lengthy road march that is done that the end of a field training exercise, or FTX in Armyspeak. I got home Wednesday morning at 6:30 after 24 straight hours. Spent most of yesterday nursing the soreness that came with lugging 60-70 lbs of gear around for 8 hours the night before.

Enter Thursday. Thanks to some Tylenol PM, I am not as sore as Wednesday, but I am certainly not motivated to do anything, either. The more I sit around, the more I feel I have to do something. Finally, Japen enters and says, "Hey Chaplain, how about a run?" With that, we head out the door.

In the middle of the run, I ask myself," Why am I doing this?" I did more yesterday than some people will do all week, yet here I am just 24 hours later running again. If it were all up to me, I know that I would be in my office just working away. But something that seemed to be missing is found as my big feet patter down the pavement and Japen I talk about nothing more than which way to turn. The road has become familiar, a habit, a pattern developed with 18 months of regularity and devotion. Sure, some days my running was shortened or skipped altogether. My runs were rarely perfect, working out just as I had planned. But they were there and they have added so much to my day that now my day seems empty without them.

Through daily pursuit, with the help of an Army that has physical fitness standards, I have re-developed a habit for running in the morning that now makes my day seem empty without it. To be honest, I covet that kind of discipline with my devotional life. My devotional life is much like my running: I'd like it to be daily, I can tell when I haven't done it in a while, and it lends a great strength to who I am. My prayer today is that I would get as much joy from my spiritual discipline as I have been getting from my physical discipline.

Delayed Reformation Post

"Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in the earth.
The LORD Almighty is with us,
The God of Jacob is our fortress." (Psalm 46:11-12)

The previous verses of this Psalm talk about the awe-inspiring power of the Almighty. At the sound of his voice, the earth melts away. He stops wars and breaks and burns weapons. In the midst of all this violence, His word to us is: Be still.

Be still? What? Look what's going on in this psalm and you want us to be calm? Shoot, look at our own times; how can we be calm? Three hurricanes, tornadoes, all-out war in two foreign countries with small skirmishes in many others, papers, memorandums, deadlines, assignments, busy-work, physical fitness, family commitments, stress, strain, and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Stress, busyness, and working countless hours have been part of our existence since Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Today, we have wonderous "labor saving devices" like vaccuums, dishwashers, washing machinces and the like so that we can save all that time...only to spend it doing so many other things. With all the extra time that we have, one would think that we could "Be still." But who can do it?

I am so busy now that I have forgotten just to stop and be. There's so many good things that can be done! The same can be said for any of us; there are so many good things that can be done. But, as Jesus reminds Martha in Luke, there is only one thing that is "necessary," that which Mary chose to do.

Look, God doesn't need our help. He's perfectly able to accomplish his will on his own. To stop and be is to stop and admit that God's in control and no matter how much I run around, God is still gonna get his things done.

God grant me the faith to stop, be still, and let you control my life.