Peace Out?

My old television was a 27" Orion.

In November of 2008, my family and I moved into our newly built 1,500 sq. ft. home...we even have a basement now! We have hardwood floors and all new appliances. We upgraded from 2 bedrooms and 1 & 1/2 closets to 4 bedrooms and 5 closets. And we even have a basement! There's a big playset complete with 2 swings in our backyard with a nice new barb wire fence surrounding our property. And we have a basement! If you haven't noticed, I'm a male and I'm proud of my basement (a.k.a. 'man space').

That old television, remember the 27" Orion? Well, it was great in our previous residence where we sat about 7 feet from the screen. But in our new living room, we're about 16 ft away from the TV...which caused a problem. How do you see ESPN's BottomLine sitting 16 ft away from a 27" television? The solution: turn that 27" Orion into a 40" flatscreen. That's right, we got a brand spanking new flatscreen. And you know what......I love it! As a matter of fact, I'm typing this right now on a laptop computer with those 40 inches of radiant colors glowing in the background. I can now lay comfortably on my couch without squinting my eyes to see that little scrolling bar of sports knowledge pump my brain full of all the latest updates and scores.

What does all of that have to do with you? I'm on welfare and you paid for all of it! Not really, I'm just joking...I wanted to make sure you were still paying attention.

If you're reading this blog right now, you have a luxury. Many people never have the privilege to browse the internet or update their status on facebook. If we want a new TV to replace our old one (which still worked fine), or a basement to store all of our tools or toys or out of season clothes in, or even if we want fast-food because we had a late day at work and we don't feel like cooking....we can do all of those things. Some with a little more ease on the purse than others, but for the most part, if we really want something, we can get it at some point.

We have cars to drive us to the nearest store so we can park in the closest parking space we can find (so we don't have to inconvenience ourselves with walking) to buy batteries for a Wii remote, or light bulb for a closet - you fill in the blank. We can get e-mails sent straight to our cell phones. A box that let's us have 879 channels instead of 124. We can get a free haircut if we make the beutician or barber feel bad for messing ours up. I can microwave a frozen pizza in 3 minutes. I can fly to NY in less than a few hours. I can even not opt to walk in a convenient store and pay for my gas right at the pump.

Life is so hard isn't it?

Here's what has been weighing on my mind: How is it that we can have all these things along with so much more, and still so many people have no peace? Americans have so many things at their disposal yet some people are never content. Not that they keep wanting more and more stuff, but that they lack purpose. With so many things to make life a little more convenient for "me" and to entertain "me", how come there's no more (perhaps less) peace? There's no more drive. There's no following through with commitments. There's no joy.

If we are the body of Christ, have you ever thought if you were His broken arm? You've let petty trappings of the enemy sink their claws into your heart. You're certain you've experienced the Love of a Holy God, but suddenly you realize that it's really not that big of a deal if you can't read the BottomLine. It's really not that important if Mrs. Jones enjoyed your macaroni salad at the fellowship meal. Sure you're a part of the body, but you're in a sling. Has that co-worker caused you to have angry or hateful thoughts toward them? Maybe you suddenly realize that you said 'Yes' to too many people and now all of the sudden you realize you're in over your head. Casted over, you've become useless.

Useless, that is, until you're healed.

If you've struggled to find peace or purpose, let me offer you this advice:

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:4-13

What time is it? (Part 2)

In part one of this post, I discussed how through the eternal-ness of God, He is always present; in other words, He is who He says He was - "I AM."

The question is never "What is God going to do?" or the statement ever "I'm excited to see what God will do." Because throughout human history and until our time is no more, God is. Since God is outside of time, He is never waiting to do something, He is always just doing, because there is no time past nor time to come with God, there is only right now. It's very confusing to think about, but in short, our yesterday and our tomorrow is God's today. But even more so amazing, is that God's "today" has never replaced a yesterday and it never yields to a tomorrow. God is ever-present at any given time.

I ended the previous post by concluding how small, yet how significant my / your / our lives are in light of the mysteriousness and vastness of eternity. That may not mean much coming from me, but let me try to explain this so it grabs hold of your heart like it did mine:

The Bible tells us that because God loved man so much, He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins - He died so that we might spend eternity with Him. If eternity is ever-present, then that's not just saying that [through our faith in Christ] when we die and leave our earthly bodies we get the privilege of spending forever with God...that means God wants to be with us now - our eternity with Him begins here, at this very moment. An almighty God, who breathes creation, cares so much about me that He sees me right now, and is always fully focusing Himself on me. That doesn't mean that someone else is losing attention from God while He cares for me, because being outside of our realm of time, He is never cornered by deadlines. He is never distracted from those important moments in my life when it seems that I need Him most, He is always ready NOW...whenever NOW may be...for whomever NOW is for.

But that's not the end of it...or maybe I should say, the beginning...

If God has always been, that means there was no beginning to Him - He is the Alpha. And if God is the beginning, along with His perfect will, that means that He's always had me on His mind. All that makes sense when you think about a perfect Love.

In saying all of this, it's easy to see how small and irrelevant our lives could be. But at a deeper understanding, it's obvious to me how important we are to a perfect God with a perfect love - or rather - who is perfect love. Knowing that I've always been on the mind of an eternal, perfect, loving God brings a whole new sense of significance and meaning to my life than before the revelation of this knowledge.

We know that God came to earth in the life of Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago. My prayer is that God continues to reveal the mysteries of who He is and the greatness about Him in a way that compels us to live as though we know He's present now...still 2,000 years later. But not just in the way that we've always been told, but in a way that revives our slumbering spirits. In a way that's personal. In a way that's undeniable. Our God - Eternal.

Think about it...

What time is it? (Part 1)

What is time?

I don't mean time in a sense of 'a long time' or 'a short time' since something happened. Have you ever really stopped and thought about time in relation to eternity? I wish I could bring to light something new about a biblical story in this post, but this is just something to make you think a little deeper.

I don't like to take credit for things I didn't come up with, so I must tell you that most of these thoughts originated with St. Augustine's confessions...

We often speak of eternity as 'a long time past' or 'a long time to come.' Now let me stop here and get the wheels turning inside that head of yours. Though I can never fully comprehend the idea of spending eternity somewhere, the idea of eternity to come seems a lot easier to grasp than an eternal past. Think about it...this God we claim to know has no beginning. Which raises the question, "How does something come to be from something that never was?"

It's very hard to imagine a time forever - especially if you take away the aspect of time. I'll try to explain this more clearly than it seems in my head:

I often hear that eternity is a long time, but if you think about it...how can you even measure eternity by time? I believe God is eternal, which then raises even more and deeper questions: "What was God doing all that time before He created man?" I mean, if He's never had a beginning, He's always been. As Bible believers, we claim the earth had a beginning, from which God created it. If God created us, he had a long time before us (eternity past) to be doing nothing. But, if you believe that God was doing nothing before us, then just decided to create a man in His image, where did that will arise to want to create us? If God is eternal and His will perfect, it stands to reason that God's will is eternal, because how can something new arise out of something that always IS? To God, nothing is new. To man, everything God is is new.

If you're still with me, good...I lost myself there for a second.

Eternity, it seems to me, is always present. There is no eternity past, nor eternity to come...eternity is now. Sometimes I think that if I could fully grasp that, it would change dramatically every aspect of my life. Picture this: God sees Adam and Eve, Martin Luther, Adolf Hitler, you and your grandchildren's grandchildren...NOW. To even try to comprehend that brings a whole new smallness to my life...

...but at the same time, a whole new significance to it!

(to be cont'd)