tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16401555923649933172024-03-21T19:07:50.795-07:00Mission: Possible!Are you truly OK with who you are? Maybe you're not. Maybe you put on a front, but inside is a darker opinion. Maybe you listen to the voices of society, or someone who's hurt you. But GOD is OK with you. He is more than OK with you, loves you deeply, and has big plans for you. Does that seem impossible? Well, with God...nothing is.Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-64390690587824267022016-11-09T10:16:00.000-08:002016-11-09T10:16:20.708-08:00Not Left, Not Right, But Narrow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It isn't even lunchtime yet on the day after the election. But, if my social media circles are any kind of barometer for where my fellow Americans are at right now, emotionally, it's clear we're still very much a divided country. Many who voted for Donald Trump, who has won this election in a surprising upset and in even more surprisingly dominant fashion (unless you decry the electoral college), are heaving sighs of relief that Hillary Clinton won't be running America into the ground. Meanwhile, those who voted for Hillary Clinton (or an independent) are insisting that, <i>because of</i> <i>Trump</i>, America is about to be run into the ground over the next 4 years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Politically, there's almost no agreement in any arena or demographic. Women are asking other women how they could possibly vote for someone who has a laundry list of chauvinist or even (allegedly) sexually abusive sins. But other women are asking how they should be expected to vote for someone just because she's a female candidate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On and on it goes. For many, the very reason why some of you voted for Mr. Trump is the very reason why someone close to you voted for his opponent, and vice versa. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But I want to shine a light one thing we can all hopefully agree on: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>What's done is done. Our votes have spoken. It's out of our hands now, and all we can do is get back to business. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And just what is our business? If you're a Jesus-follower, this is just a reminder. If you're not a believer or you're in a season of doubt, this is a tip-off to what our playbook is going forward:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>We're not going to worry about the Left. We're not going to worry about the Right. We're going to worry about the Narrow.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." - Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christians should definitely research political candidates, and exercise their civic duty to impact elections of those who are to govern their nation or communities, just like everybody else. That's the beauty of a democracy. But, unlike everybody else, we don't need to lose sight of who the major players are in what happens in the aftermath. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That's you and me, fellow Jesus-followers. Armed with all that God provides through his Spirit, we carry at all times a message that offers our fellow man a source of hope that extends past this earthly journey and far overshadows whether America becomes great again or not. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Clinton supporters and Trump supporters alike - if they're Christian - need to lay aside their personal feelings about whether this election just went as it should've, and GET BACK TO BUSINESS. God has always been in the business of saving souls for eternity, and we are his business partners. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>So think long and hard about the narrow, treacherous, yet ultimately rewarding path that you and I are walking on towards our eternal destiny. Now think about how many others around us we need to recruit to our numbers. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our country may or may not always provide the kind of freedom we have now, to go out and make disciples wherever we can find them, and keep them off the highway to spiritual destruction. But doggone it, no matter what happens, that's our mission. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So whether you're worried about the Left or the Right, politically, let's remember that there's no time like the present to go do God's work, being a light that shines before others and illuminates their steps onto the Narrow Road. <i>That's </i>where we're all meant to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To God be the glory in all things, and may others find Him through me. </span></div>
Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-60915210413268878192016-11-07T18:10:00.000-08:002016-11-07T18:10:43.118-08:00Just the Right Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ten years ago now - <i>man</i>, that's hard to believe! - I was in seminary. It was a place where, among other things, I learned how to deliver a sermon. One of the biggest tips I've carried with me that I hope infuses every occasion when I talk about Jesus to anyone else, was to "make and preach every sermon first to yourself." What I'm about to write here I definitely have to also meditate on myself every bit as much as I want you all to. Cuz, believe me, I need to hear this too. It's so hard not to be emotional about what's about to happen with tomorrow's election.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And by the way, I know I'm not the first in this election season to promote the message that's to follow, but hopefully, as we're coming down to the last 24 hours of Election Season 2016, mine can be one of the last and thereby, one of the stronger messages, to pass by your eyes before you make it to the polls (and, if you're one of those early voters, this can still apply). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let me lay some Scripture on you:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>"[Christ Jesus] gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time." - 1 Tim. 2:6 (NLT)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This passage is incredibly timely, don't you think? I mean, isn't it amazing how ANY time is the right time to be reminded about our freedom in Christ. As the NIV Bible translates that verse's first part, we were "ransomed" by Jesus. We were held as hostages of Satan, sitting in a heap of shame on the floor of the bank vault with a vest full of C-4, and the Devil's thumb on the detonator. Then in walked Jesus, and he said, "Here, take my life instead, and let these people go free." And that's what happened. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Don't get me wrong, these ARE troubling times for sure. We're about to watch an election unfold, the stakes of which have never been higher, between two candidates who couldn't be more polarizing, and no one really knows what to expect next. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many Christians fear what will happen to our country's future if Hillary Clinton is elected. And even among Donald Trump supporters there are very few who have a lot to stand on, to insist that he's a sure bet to lead us to greener pastures as a nation. We're all just holding our breaths, hoping it doesn't end up as badly as it feels like it could. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But even though the expected implications of this election are worrisome or uncertain at best, or downright terrifying (from a political standpoint) at worst, let's all just chill out. We don't need to be truly fearful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>At the end of the day, God is once again standing by with a banner of his own waving...and it says "I have given you true freedom through Jesus!"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's right, at the end of tomorrow, when the results are coming in and we're all glued to our TV sets, nibbling our fingernails clean off, Jesus will still be our savior. We'll still have a message to consider that, once again, comes at just the right time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No matter what happens tomorrow, Jesus is Lord. No matter whether we keep our earthly freedoms, gain some back, or lose even more, Jesus is Lord. No matter whether we see our religious freedoms restricted or protected, Jesus is Lord. No matter whether our country heads down a road toward tyranny or even complete collapse, Jesus is STILL Lord. We want the best for ourselves and our children, but once this life is over, and once this world exists no more, we who place our trust for eternity in Jesus Christ will have a home with complete justice and freedom, pure love and equality, shining with real safety and prosperity, and radiating with the presence of our King. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If the thought of your salvation, and heaven as your eternal home, hasn't been pondered heavily enough lately, PLEASE - - you owe it to yourself. It's great news, and especially right now, it's a message coming to you at JUST THE RIGHT TIME!</span></div>
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<br />Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-12182095899722455152016-07-09T09:55:00.000-07:002016-07-09T09:55:51.089-07:00Interruption of Assumption<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We are absolute experts in generalization. While sitting at the first red light of the day, we think about how the rest of the stoplights we encounter on our commute are probably going to do the same. The young woman who's been in an abusive and manipulative relationship with a man will often leap to the belief going forward that <i>this is just how men are. Men are scum...none are worth my respect. </i>We see some failed financial situations in our immediate family and think, "Well, everybody's broke. What's the point in financial planning? I'll be broke like everyone else. Give me another credit card!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The generalities that form our stereotypes in our cultural lens are so ingrained from the gradual, suggestive socialization we undergo, that there's no avoiding the fact that we have prejudices beneath the surface. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This week generalities have once again come bursting back to life and course through the veins of the media. <i>Cops are dirty and racist. Black people are worth our suspicion whenever crime is in the air. If someone got shot it was probably a mistake in judgment or a flat out hate crime. If someone uploads a video to Facebook that's streaming from the middle of an incident, and is narrating themselves in the heat of the moment to their phone camera, it must be a reliable account. All black people riot or become violent when other black Americans die. No Whites respond in such despicable ways. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We take the singular thing and we choose along with it the path of least resistance for analysis: to apply our judgment of it to ALLLLLL similar situations (and even the non-similar ones). It's lazy and hazardous, but it's human nature.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Generalities, and the assumptions that produce them, make up so much of the reality we perceive in our world. When "perception is reality" (maybe you've heard that expression), a conditioned response is expected from anyone and everyone not choosing to pause and give a second thought. This is the vicious cycle we have going on in our world nowadays. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How can this cycle be broken?? In the midst of yet another tragic shooting in a routine pullover, and yet another outburst of outrage towards others who merely represent someone responsible for the outrage, including more police officers dead around our country, breaking this cycle seems impossible. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think the only real change that ever happens is the kind that happens between two people in a singular interaction. That dynamic seems so insignificant because it's just you and one other person. But remember - each of us gives off ripples into our own corners of the world. The effect of each of our ripples within our own circles is exponential. Exponential ripples create change. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So what good ripples can we create? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>I say we need to interrupt the assumption.</b> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let's break the pattern of generalities and stereotypes by doing that one little part <i>we </i>can do <i>ourselves</i>. Remember that age old quote saying <u>"Be the change you want to see in the world"</u>? Even though it's not divinely inspired, I believe in that expression so much as a truth. It's an empowering idea for those who are overwhelmed by feeling like there's nothing that can be done to change what's bad. And it really works. In fact, for change to take place, this is the only way. <i>They </i>will not stop perpetuating the stereotypes for you. <i>They </i>will not stop resurrecting these volatile debates by committing more crimes or targeting people out of fear or hate. <i>They </i>cannot change what the masses believe about you as a human individual who may not conform to what the generality is. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Know why <i>they </i>can't? Cuz no one even knows who <i>they </i>are!! "<i>They" </i>is just another generality. It's the term created for reference to the unnamed, the unidentified, the unspecified...and yet the ones we somehow all agree should be the ones to make stuff better. <i>They </i>don't exist. Only you and I do. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You and I can be the change that needs to be seen in the world. And we need to do it whenever and wherever possible. We need to have those conversations when they're hard, or when they come at a bad time. We need to show love to someone who is looking for a reason to add someone just like you or I to their list of evidence for their generality. If all of this hate and discord really hurts our hearts, we need to set it as part of our daily mission to go out and change generalities wherever possible. We each need to be One Man Armies (or One Woman Armies) who fight this battle against assumptions right on the front lines - the trenches that exist between us. We need to make ripples every chance we get. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Everyone you meet... Everyone you think you know but might not know well enough... Heck, even the ones you DO know, but need to win over to this way of thinking... These are our mission field. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Decide for yourself today that you can be an exception to the generality that's driving division in our land and in this time in history. Then go out into your daily life, right in your spot, and be an interruption of everyone's false assumptions. Show them there's a different variable out there. Show them not everyone is who they think they are. Drive home that point with your love and kindness and unconditional regard for your fellow man. It's what you'd want for yourself, and it's what God asks you to give. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Interrupt the assumptions with the fresh reality of YOU. Start a ripple in your world. Let's see how far that can go. </span><br />
Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-39162210930660649662016-04-26T12:36:00.000-07:002016-04-26T12:36:58.393-07:003 Reasons Christians Should NOT Boycott Target<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chances are, if you're a reader in my social circles who was already talking or posting on Facebook about a good ol' Target boycott, your guard is up as you clicked this link. I've learned to try and be more provocative with my blog titles so as to grab interest. I'm not taking a position here that's so cemented that I'll look down on anyone whose opinion opposes mine. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That being said, I do feel strongly opposed to the phenomenon I see some Christians live out when things </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">take place</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> like Target's transgender policy about bathrooms. I'm talking about the following:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Meet Casey Christian (going with a nice, gender neutral name, so nobody thinks this is specifically about him or her). Casey is a lot like you and I can be, when it comes to faith. Casey goes to church almost every Sunday, and usually not out of a sense of obligation. Casey tries to avoid cussing in public, doesn't chime in with the ugly gossip or dirty sexual jokes in the workplace, and genuinely tries to instill Godly principles into the kids in Casey's family. Casey believes that Jesus Christ died to remove the guilt of the sins of all the world, including, most importantly, Casey's. Casey is truly a Christian. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>But Casey also enjoys a certain level of comfort with being acceptable in the eyes of society, with friends, with coworkers, and with relatives who aren't "hard core" about the faith thing. In fact, Casey can be a little wary of situations where putting faith out on the sleeve or speaking up about God is uncomfortable. It's not that Casey is ashamed of Jesus. It's just easier to pick the battles. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Then Casey learns of a social development that causes a stir in the conservative and religious community. XYZ Company or Politician has decided to publicly endorse homosexuality, Planned Parenthood, etc. and now Casey feels like there's a chance to show some righteous indignation. Even though Casey hasn't spoken face to face with an unbeliever about faith in Jesus Christ in a very long time, NOW is a chance to make a Christian stand! Casey rallies as many people as possible to talk about a boycott or a picketing rally, and sure enough, within 24 hours, <u>at least</u> 15 people on Casey's Facebook feed have commented their agreement, or reacted with a "like"...or maybe even an angry face. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Meet Casey. Casey is actively living out the Christian faith.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NO. Casey's not. Casey's reaction to boycott isn't the perfect response to a situation like this. Casey Christian is someone I've been in the past a few times. Maybe you've been Casey Christian too. But this is not what God has called us to do to be living a life that follows and honors him, and spreads the message of his love. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consider my 3 reasons why NOT to boycott Target's policy of allowing transgenders to enter and use the bathroom of their choice on Target premises:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Firstly, it just usually doesn't work.</b> Folks seem to get it in their heads that when something strikes them as boycott-worthy, it'll somehow turn out like what resulted from the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Without getting into the nitty gritties of why, politically and economically, that was able to work for the colonials, suffice it to say that was NOT the same situation as a - let's face it - small percentage of Christian or political activists boycotting one of the biggest retailers in the world. As John Wesley Reid pointed out in his blog <a href="http://theodysseyonline.com/liberty/should-christians-boycott-target/441113">Should Christians Boycott Target</a>, if you recall what happened with Chick-Fil-A when their COO announced his support of only traditional marraige, the response from the offended liberals only barely slowed their sales. In fact, ultimately the supporters created so much added revenue for Chick-Fil-A that the boycotting party was completely undone. There's no reason to expect any different outcome here, folks. Any dent you and I make in Target's pocketbook by not going there for our shopping needs is bound to be more than made up for by the thrilled support of transgenders and liberally minded people in general. So, unless your motive is to <i>morally </i>take a stand merely for conscience's sake, you'll be wasting your time. Which brings me to my next point...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. Boycotting Target over something that's a moral stand for you, as a Christian, sets a precedent that's probably impossible for you to uphold. </b>Think about it. If you boycott Target because you're offended by and can't agree with an ethical position held by their corporate brass (and remember, that's where the decision was made - not by cashiers and floor workers who make peanuts for wages), then who else should you boycott on similar grounds? What other major corporation has already, or will soon take a stand on a hot button societal issue that will confront Christian values? If you decide to not support the businesses run by these liberally minded individuals or boards, you'll find that the owners of most large businesses will offend you. They must be that way, to survive in a nationwide or global market, because the world has a monopoly on non-Christian values. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Listen...Christian values are <i>not </i>at the heart of business anymore, whether you like it or not. Unless you identify the mom-and-pops places to shop that are local to you, where you can interview the owners, or at least more safely assume their values based on the community you're in, you're in for a long road of boycotting. There simply aren't that many Pizza Ranch, Hobby Lobby (who are actually owned by Mormons, not Christians), or Chick-Fil-A kinda businesses. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, depending on the degree of Biblical foretelling about our world's current state you subscribe to, it's probably inevitable that more and more businesses will be disappointing us in this way in the coming years. I'm all for striving towards a spiritual reawakening, but the Bible also tells of how things will be, morally, in "the last days." We're IN the last days, people. We need to be realistic about our expectations of our surroundings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. This isn't what Jesus called us to do. </b>Let me qualify that statement. I'm not calling you a heathen, or ungodly, or anything more than maybe misled if you want to boycott a corporation who doesn't care about your consumer loyalty in the first place. I'm just saying it's a matter of M.O. As Christians, do we really expect things to be different in our world? Even Jesus said that as he came into the world there was darkness, and that darkness did not understand him. Are we greater than Jesus Christ, that our impact will be greater than his was?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm kinda wondering...When will we stop being so utterly appalled all the time, by the movements of this world? When will we come to grips with the fact that living our lives according to <i>God's </i>ways will set us at odds with <i>everyone </i>else? When will we followers of Jesus finally realize that, unless they too are pulled from the shroud of sinful rebellion and blindness by the saving work of the Spirit, THEY CANNOT DO ANYTHING ELSE but pass these policies or laws in our land. This is what life without God looks like, folks! It's foul language, sexual promiscuity, hatred and violent acts out of spite for one's neighbor, dishonesty, selfishness... It's being opposed to the things considered traditional because mankind in his own ways is about progress and building every possible tower of Babel that we can! As the philosopher Dostoyevsky said, "If God does not exist, everything is permissible." Without God's standard for living, mankind cannot be expected to do anything but create his own standard, at his own whim. That's what we're seeing. It's totally normal. It breaks God's heart, but it's normal. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we stop ourselves from the outrage that Target would do such a thing and just consider that, without the moral compass that God's enlightenment creates within us, we'd do THE SAME....well, then, we can calm down and look at this differently. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consider the life of Jesus Christ. The only time Jesus was really publicly disruptive about something was when he overturned the tables of the people doing business in the temple and drove them out with harsh words about making God's house into a "den of thieves." He was attacking not only <i>how </i>business was being done (thievery), but also <i>where </i>(in his father's house of worship). These people he drove out with a ready-made whip were religious people, not heathens. They were people who SHOULD'VE known better. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are Target's brass the kind of people that SHOULD know better? Without knowing them personally, it's impossible to judge their character and faith. But actions tend to show where someone stands. These sort of political actions show one's values. They are outsiders to the faith. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus was harsh with those who should've known better. Think about his interactions with the religious leaders of his lands. But he was patient, loving, and even went <i>toward </i>those who were on the outside of God's lifestyle. Jesus didn't picket the bazaars and parade past the trading stands on the byways ranting and raving about how evil those sellers of cloth or grains were. Even women whose method of income and business was prostitution he talked with plainly, dealt with them as people he loved first and foremost, and then spoke his word of truth when he had their attention. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THAT is what God has called us to. Whether we gain an audience to speak the truth in God's love to corporate business people, or whether it's our neighbors in everyday paths, THAT'S where we start. God's love, passed on through the humble hands of sinners he called out of our own personal blindness, is what brings real change...and salvation! Let's be more concerned with others' salvation than our own vindication. C'mon, we already know where we stand with the Lord!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've avoided a lot of other points in the wider discussion of implications of this policy rolled out by Target. I hope that's not taken as a sign of disregard for those issues. And at the end of the day, will I be uncomfortable with the idea of my wife or little girl being in the rest room somewhere, someday, with a man who believes, in his confusion, that he's a woman? Maybe a little. Will I be uncomfortable with the slightly higher risk of assault by someone who would abuse that bathroom policy? Yes. But I serve a God who has called me to live in confidence and boldness, not fear. And he's called me to be out on a mission, loving others and talking to them about these issues everywhere I can, so as to win them to Him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He's called us to BE uncomfortable. </span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-45652855666216514112016-03-26T12:41:00.001-07:002016-03-26T12:41:56.634-07:00The Comeback Win<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing I love about Easter is that it falls in springtime. Have you ever considered what it would be like if Easter came in the middle of summer, or as fall was descending? <b>There's such beautiful, inescapable symbolism in that Easter takes place in spring</b>. At this time of year - in fact, on this very year itself - we Midwesterners usually find ourselves being toyed with by a teeter-totter effect between wintry and spring-like weather, and depending on how March "came in" (i.e. like a lion, or like a lamb, as the old addage goes), we may have snow still on the ground at Easter, trying to make it look like spring is a ways off yet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But many years Easter is a triumphant display of spring winning out over the last fling of winter. Perennial flowers, green grass, and buds on tree branches are forcing their way forth from any lingering snow, bringing the landscape back to life after the deadness of winter that can seem to envelop our very spirits at times. <b>It's as if the earth is coming back to life, and no amount of stubborn loitering by winter can prevent that resurgence. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">I love how well this dramatic phenomenon of life on earth symbolizes what my savior did on Easter.</span></i></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the day Easter now commemorates, there were no such things as Christians yet. Only some Jews who had faithfully followed around a Jewish man from Nazareth who was the son of a carpenter turned celebrity and miracle worker, who, by the way, claimed to be the Son of God. It was the third day. He had said mysterious things in the years, months, weeks, and even days before last Friday...about knowing he would die, but that he would actually come back to life. And to their horror he was indeed taken prisoner by the religious leaders, put on trial overnight for blasphemy, and then executed by crucifixion on Friday morning. Their master and teacher, Jesus, was lain in a tomb and it was over. They might be the ones next to be slaughtered because they were witnesses of this man and might be a threat to carry on his blasphemous teachings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now.....it was the third day....and still Jesus was dead. The jig was up. They had gotten their hopes up for nothing. The longing in their souls would never be answered. The snow would never melt. The deadness of winter would never end. It was over...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And then it WASN'T over. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Women who had also followed Jesus with the disciples came rushing back to their place of hiding with a shocking report, having just been at the tomb where Jesus' dead body was put to rest. They'd gone just to see if the Roman guards would let them go honor him with spices and embalming...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>....But the guards were GONE, the tomb was EMPTY, and angelic beings were there saying Jesus was alive again!!! Could it be???</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Later that day other followers of Jesus encountered the risen and living Jesus Christ, as did many others in weeks following, and the miracle was established as fact. Suddenly, instead of Jews hoping for freedom from Roman oppression, there were Christians from all surrounding regions who'd been set from from the ultimate oppression of sin and guilt. Instead of fearful hibernation in safe houses, there were people on fire spilling out into the streets of Jerusalem and beyond, with the message that God <i>had </i>kept his promise in the ancient prophecies, and Jesus had <i>proven </i>he was the Messiah and in the process, had proven the <i>most important fact of all</i>:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JESUS IS MORE POWERFUL THAN DEATH ITSELF. JESUS, AS HE SAID HE WAS, IS LIFE ITSELF. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I am the resurrection and the life," Jesus once told another good friend named Martha, when he visited after her brother Lazarus had died (immediately following this, by the way, he raised Lazarus back to life after four days in the grave). "The one who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die... (John 11:25-26)."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Winter eventually ends. No matter how much snow is on the ground today, no matter what cold winds blow... Winter eventually loses to spring. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Life gets its comeback win.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I so often feel like I'll never escape the hold sin has on my life. I feel hemmed in on every side like I'm surrounded by a stealthy mob of assassins that lurk around every corner, waiting to slice me or hit me with a poison dart as I go by, until this dark life and even darker world eventually pull me down to the curb and my spirit ebbs out to nothing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each year I feel like winter will never end. But each year, sooner or later, winter gives way and the snow and ice and cold and gray skies just can't hold down the verdant and colorful life that must burst out again!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The winter of this life lived in our bodies, tainted by sin and sadness, loss and grief, pain and frustration, sickness and addiction, WILL END. And when it does, death will immediately turn us right back over to life because of what God has done for us in Jesus. <b>When Jesus stepped out of his opened tomb and out into the morning sunlight, greeted by angels from the Father, he was giving the mic drop to end the speech of truth and freedom that his whole life and death beforehand had started. </b>He told the rest of mankind for the rest of history that the winter of our captivity to sin was over, and he was the vibrant shoot of a flower busting out from under the shroud of snow that covered the ground. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And now, because he beat his own death with his own life, you and me and every other follower of this risen, invincible Jesus can look forward to beating our own deaths too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Winter may come and take us all for a season. But there WILL BE SPRING!! There will be a comeback. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Jesus' resurrection is OUR comeback win. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Death has been swallowed up in victory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 'Where, O death, is your victory?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where, O death, is your sting?'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">through our Lord Jesus Christ."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- 1 Corinthians 15:54b-57</span></div>
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<br />Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-14648118208603157952016-03-01T15:32:00.000-08:002016-03-01T15:32:00.399-08:00Heavy Love<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There I sat, my confession still lingering in the air, its words too saturated with meaning and pain to be absorbed as quickly as a funny joke or piece of daily news. My tears squeezed out with the confession, but now there were tears from us both. I knew God had already forgiven me and wiped away my guilt, but now it was <i>her </i>forgiveness that I had to ponder and savor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">See, what I'd just done was get the deceit out of my spirit. On Sunday morning this week we had heard a guest pastor speak about Psalm 32 and how we can become truly happy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He read: <b>"Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them <i>and in whose spirit is no deceit</i> (emphasis added)."</b> - Psalm 32:1-2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Repentance is a common idea among those who follow Jesus. Yet confession, especially to another human being, is almost taboo. It certainly can be terrifying, to say the least. Especially if that confession is meant to dismiss some "deceit" that has been in your heart as a result of keeping sin from someone who needs to know. You're probably like me, in that you feel pretty brave about many things in life, until it comes time to decide whether to make confession to another. <b>But it's something God invites - nay, commands us to do in our lives as his followers. There's necessary therapy that's meant to come from it.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That Psalm 32 passage was somehow unpacked more powerfully than I'd ever heard it. Line by line, that pastor read and elaborated each part with a smile on his face for the liberation that each part carries...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"<b><i>Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven</i></b>..." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Yes, awesome!" I thought in response.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"...<b><i>whose sins are covered</i></b>..." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Amen! Covered so God can't even look upon them!" I thought in jubilation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"...<b><i>whose sins the LORD does not count against them</i></b>..." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Yes, Jesus," I responded, "THANK YOU! What a relief that you and I don't have to talk about it anymore!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"...<b><i>AND in whose spirit is no deceit</i></b>."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"............"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Wait, what?...The clincher on all that is that I don't have ANY hiding or lies about it?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"So I have to confess it and get it out in the open?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is where it gets painstakingly hard, doesn't it brothers and sisters? <b>And I can talk openly about this because we all have something to confess.</b> Know how I know that? Because we're all sinners. We all have our buttons Satan pushes. Our vices. Our addictions. Our weak spots. Call it what you will....unless you're spiritually blind to every flaw you carry, you KNOW where you could stand to get that deceit out of your spirit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The point our preacher for the day made next was this: <b>"If you don't sing a "sad song" (the confession part), you won't be happy for long."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The sad song reference to confession comes from the fact that this very Psalm 32 was itself a sad song King David had written as he confronted, confessed, and found full absolution for the horrible sins he had committed (adultery, murder, false witness, lies - quite the list). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But then Psalm 32 goes on to describe that this deceit that needs to get out to complete the picture of blessedness and happiness is something that won't be forced out of us until we realize how God is trying to show us his desire for repentance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>"When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." </b></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- Psalm 32:3-4</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Have you ever just felt like there's a weight you're living under in life that you simply cannot get out from? It may take on other labels at times, or be interwoven into another diagnoses, like stress, anxiety, depression even. But do you know what I mean? <b>It's as if the world is just holding you down and something isn't right. It's God's hand, actually.</b> He's laying it right on you, refusing to lift it until you come out of your heart-fog and accept that you have something that's chipping away at your soul that needs release. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have felt that way for a long time. Certain things here and there were fine. The "dailies" would come and go, but each and every night I put my head on my pillow, I knew "that one thing" has crossed my mind and plagued my conscience at some point or another. I could run but not hide. God's hand had been heavy upon me. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>After this confession was made, and all remaining hiding games and deceit had been let go of from my spirit, I began to step towards a true happiness</b>. There's the kind of happiness we wear like a mask before others, not letting on what's really wrong. Then there's THIS. Not only had an immediate weight been lifted, but my relationship with that person who needed to hear my confession was given a deposit of improvement. And best of all, my relationship with my God began brightening again. With his hand freshly lifted, I saw it, like a light bulb brightening in my mind and heart. And that's when the tears changed from tension and sorrow and release.....to an almost indescribable joy and gratitude. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I got it. It made sense. Once again, it was as if I had JUST BEEN SAVED by the Lord, for the very first time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>I realized that the Lord, my God, the maker of the universe and my savior, who has 7 billion other people to attend to that he loves, had been making sure to specifically hold his hand upon me like a weight, until I would awaken to what he was doing, hear exactly the sermon message I needed, and then remove the deceit from my spirit so I could be blessed and happy. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He did that not because he likes to nag. He did that not because he's an obsessive enforcer and wants the power trip of wringing guilt out of human beings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No, he did that because he loves me so much that he'd rather I live awhile (however long I <i>chose to</i>, really) under the discomfort of his heavy hand on top of me than lose me forever because of what sin and impenitence can do to a person if left for too long. We go through life downplaying the sins we live with, telling ourselves that as long as we can say today that our faith is still in the Lord, we'll be fine no matter what's wrong with us.<b> But when God lets his hand, his presence, weigh heavily on us, he's trying to remind us that he knows better.</b> He knows the foe, and our own sinful weakness, far better than we do. He knows he HAS TO hold on to us, even if with a heavy hand rather than a gentle one, lest we're torn away from him bit by bit and then lost to the separation and ugliness of hell for all eternity. It can happen to Christians, and it does happen all the time, when the heavy hand is run from with a hardened heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But - praise the Lord! - that will NOT be my fate, because I somehow finally heard God's spirit, through the speaking of that Scripture, whisper loudly enough that his hand was upon me too, like it had been on David's life. And now, having obeyed his call to repentance and confession, the healing could begin. <b>And the reminder of his astounding love for me was blaring like a Newsboys worship concert over the quiet dirge of the sad song I'd just sung.</b> God loves me that much!! He has to keep me from getting away!! He wants to bless me and make my life happy, and now I no longer stand in his way with my hiding and deceit! Praise the LORD!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today I read a verse of the day in an email, and it too was from the book of Psalms. Psalm 105:1 (NLT translation) said, <b>"Give thanks to the LORD and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So that's exactly what I'm doing! It's only too bad that the reaches of my blog site and Facebook account don't extend throughout the actual whole world. But God's goodness to me is certainly worth trying to shout out to as many as I can. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My blog page's theme is "Mission: Possible." I like to discuss things in terms of what's possible, where we often perceive impossibility. The Christian truths can re-program our minds to see possible (with God's help) where mankind only can see impossible. Normally that centers on what's possible or impossible for me and you. But today's lesson of possible conquering the impossible has entirely to do with GOD himself. It's simply this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>It's impossible for God's love to let me down. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>When it seems impossible that I should deserve a love that goes to all lengths and trouble, that blows the mind of man in its lack of conditions and demands, God loves me anyway. He forgives me anyway. He pursues me; follows me around everywhere I go with his hand lying heavy on me, until I wake up again from my sin and deceit.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I hope folks read every one of my posts. I hope that every piece of what I put into this blog can speak truth into someone's life, lead them to God, convict them of something to change, provoke thought, etc. But THIS one I really hope everyone reads. Because when God's love is needing a spotlight, EVERYONE should see that love illuminated. My life is meant to be all about bringing him glory. So I hope every last one of you sees how my sin led to my confession and that led me back to the foot of the cross, where Jesus Christ's blood ran down that wood and my sins were forgiven for all time. I hope you all see that and rejoice. This is my Lenten testimony to God's greatness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And I pray, for the sake of your true happiness, that you let this same thing happen to you. Dear Christians, don't hide. Let go of all deceit, bleed out your own confession. Then watch as God's mercy and unbelievable love bandage your wounded spirit and wash you clean. You will be blessed like nothing else can!</span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-27704645294969315152015-09-29T19:08:00.000-07:002015-09-29T19:08:39.233-07:00Whack-a-Mole Christianity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ever since Sunday school I've had the picture in my head all wrong. It seemed everybody wanted to make those Pharisees in the Bible out to be such villains. <i>How dare they get it so wrong about Jesus? How could they be such hypocrites. How could they be so blind to how much THEY needed the Savior?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I originally wanted to list all the occasions where these infamous Pharisees are recorded in indicting situations, and receiving rebuke from Christ. But here's one in particular that can serve as the prototype for most all of them:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">John 8:3-5:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"The pastors and life-long church-goers brought in a woman caught stating she was a homosexual. They told her story on Facebook and said to Jesus,'Teacher, this woman was caught being sexually immoral. We all know that's against God's commands in Scripture, and we're commanded to ostracize her from our churches, stop talking to her, and shame her publicly. Now what do you say?' "</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>O</i>OPS. I mis-typed that a little bit. But if you know your Bible well or looked up or Googled <i>John 8:3-5</i> to see how far off I was with my hyperbolic translation, you realize I'm not taking any liberties. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The Pharisees aren't our villainous scape goats of Sunday School stories. They are you and me (or at least they very well may be). </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What was Jesus' response to the Pharisees - the super religious people of the day - when they put him on the spot?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>"If any one of you is without sin, let him throw the first stone at [the woman caught in adultery]."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">**Let me make a disclaimer quickly before I proceed: I have a pretty specific crowd in mind as I write this. I'm writing this to, firstly, MYSELF, because for many years my own pride in my spiritual standing has been founded in so many silly things that don't count with God that I can't name them all. And despite the work He's done on my heart recently, I still have mental constructs and lies within my heart that I have to catch and correct daily. Next, I write this for every one of you who went to a Christian school, entered a Christian ministry position, or has a shiny church attendance record and - if you look deep down - believes this is something God pats you on the back for. I write it for the moralists and the politically active who like to throw their hat in with "conservatives" and "right wingers" and "Republicans" when it comes to social issues like abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, and every other politicized issue that's making the world think Christians just want others to behave like them. Listen, if the shoe fits, WEAR IT.**</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">People...we have seen this verse umpteen times. We KNOW it's in the Bible that Jesus himself stood up for someone who was openly a sinner and, instead of siding with the experts in religion and theology, whose lifestyles were so outwardly commendable, he reminded them rhetorically that they too were sinners and, therefore, had no right to condemn. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Moments later he spoke to this woman using a gentleness and grace that is all too rare these days:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"No one, sir." She said.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus didn't entirely let her off the hook and convey there was nothing wrong with her sinfulness. But he showed her that, with Jesus, there is forgiveness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm at the point where I almost can't stand it anymore. In everything I read or see in society, or especially in social media (where hearts are really worn on the sleeve), my eyes and heart are bombarded with all the vitriol. The way some of us viciously attack others who disagree with us! The way we rip to shreds the intelligence level, the sanctity level, or even the level of humanity of those who oppose the Biblical viewpoint on hot topics these days -- my, my, my....I have had my moments too, sadly. But I can't handle this hatred, this animosity, and this verbal violence being a representation of what Christians are in 21st century America. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's gotten to the point where so many of us out there - in my close circles, or strangers on the internet, and anywhere in between - are <b>going about their lives like being a Christian is a game of "whack-a-mole." </b>"Oh, <i>there's</i> a sinner!" *WHACK!* "Oh, <i>there's</i> another sinner!" *WHACK!* "Oh - *gasp* a <i>homosexual</i>!" *WHACK WHACK!* </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We are in an age of continual outrage as Christians. And it has to stop. We are called to be witnesses, not to come out guns blazing with every disturbing headline in the news or law passed or repugnant thing you think a neighbor, coworker, or friend on social media did. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Robert Paul Wolff said, "...Moral outrage is the last resort of the powerless." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is that what we feel? Do we feel powerless? Do we feel like no one is standing with us or standing up for us?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Do we realize how errant it is if we think it's US at all that are being offended? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Make no mistake about it. We are all in the gallows to which we point our adamant fingers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Romans 3:23 reminds us that <i>"all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Both pieces of that verse are critical for breaking apart our stony, judgmental hearts. We ALL have sinned. Who are we to place one category or quantity of sin above or below another's? Who are we to think that God can forgive my sins, but someone else's need to have a floodlight cast upon them for all the world to see, like a prisoner trying to escape a POW camp? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Apples...oranges... Homosexuals...owners of lustful thoughts... Abortionists...haters and slanderers... Potty-mouths...potty-minds... Those who don't go to church...those who go to church thinking it makes them right with God...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All. Have. Sinned. They. Have. Sinned. I. Have. Sinned. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Your sin is just as ugly and wretched when you think it's your job to point out every other sinner we should turn up our noses against.</b> Their sin or category or label is public content. Yours may be more private. How would you like it if it WEREN'T? I know I wouldn't!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">AND....all are justified freely by His grace. It covers them. It covers you and me. We are no different. These high horses need to be dismounted from, and spanked with a "yah!" to be sent galloping off into the hills. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The point with all of this is: <b>studying how Jesus interacted with the sinners of his generation shows that his way of addressing sin was radically a different way from how many in the Church seem to think it should be done</b>. And we wonder why the culture is so anti-Christian! They're simply repelled by all the anger and vehemence and moral outrage. They see us doing nothing but pointing with our fingers instead of reaching out our hands. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What are we afraid of?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Next time one of these people you think should be an outcast is found before you in your life, what if you engaged with them? What if you invited him or her to church? What if you stopped what you were doing, or paused where you were going, and had a discussion - lovingly and humbly - about whatever they wanted to discuss? What if you became a friend to that person? What if you learned their story? What would it cost you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm betting it would cost you nothing, and grant you much. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ultimately, that would be the only way you'd ever have the opportunity to influence them to see the truth to which you and I hold so firmly, trusting in our Lord. They sure won't come to that truth if their head is bruised from our "whack-a-mole" mallet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps this is all summed up best by something written by a friend of mine, who works in ministry here in the Midwest:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"In all of this, I need to remember this very important thing: It is the Gospel that changes hearts. We're in a season right now where far too many Christians are trying to "stand up for the truth" by standing in opposition to same-sex marriage, as though getting people to follow God's Law is the goal. It's not. The goal is to introduce them to Jesus. Let your life be a testament to what he has done for you, and how much you love him, and let that be what brings people to him."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>We cannot ask for legislation of morality, folks.</b> We cannot expect that our country will be granted a renaissance of godly spirituality through the functions of government. Stop thinking it all comes down to picketing, boycotting, and crossing your arms with a big frown on your face. Unless your endgame is for the world to see Christians as a bunch of legalistic grumps. But good luck talking to anyone about God's grace in your own life <i>that</i> way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let your guard down. Have conversations. Get into the messes with people. Let your light shine (don't use a flame-thrower!). God's powerful goodness and mercy will do the work. Just be the "jar of clay" (2 Corinthians 4:7) who's good at making friends and sharing the hope you have found for yourself. Love this world as your Savior has loved you and has found you desirable enough to save. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We are ALL saved by the same grace. Praise God for <i>that</i>!</span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-83820176955186548542015-09-05T18:36:00.000-07:002015-09-05T18:36:24.786-07:00Enter the Fray<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIxjJnupY44IsaOFY6-6FgHVDIizk6bSSewqruxc5YONBIQEpMABGh1P7hi87WoT6k2_bGzkXW4lIYzYKY6Xqb918QqfXNe_jMNus7kj_APmFdZ5Hjd_rLV8Q6IabcPIzWUPsBeNZ4jPE/s1600/Aborted+child.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIxjJnupY44IsaOFY6-6FgHVDIizk6bSSewqruxc5YONBIQEpMABGh1P7hi87WoT6k2_bGzkXW4lIYzYKY6Xqb918QqfXNe_jMNus7kj_APmFdZ5Hjd_rLV8Q6IabcPIzWUPsBeNZ4jPE/s400/Aborted+child.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Don't you look away. Don't you dare.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If any of what I have to say stands a chance of sinking in the way it ought to, you must start with the grotesque truth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Before writing this, I put images like this before my eyes for the first time in a little while. I'd seen the flash in a pan stuff associated with the videos that have been released this summer, exposing Planned Parenthood. But it had been a while since I sat and looked at a picture of an aborted child. <i>Not an aborted fetus</i>, an aborted child. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Looking at images like this didn't take long to bring me to tears. Those tears were of grief, for the hideousness of the loss of precious life. They were tears of anger, as I almost snapped a sharpie in my hand from clenching it so hard, thinking that this has been allowed to go on over 40 years. They were tears of intervention, a desperate pleading for mercy from God - mercy on our country, where images like this are of something <i>legal</i>, and not a <i>crime</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I remember a time when, as a high schooler, I used to point out to others, in my frustration, how contradictory it was for the law to count as <i>two deaths</i> the death of a pregnant mother in an auto accident. "What if she was on her way to an abortion clinic??" I'd say, and plead for your agreement that this was so backwards. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Somehow...to my shame...this issue has dimmed in the spotlight of my heart and mind over the years since I first grappled with it. <b>But recently, God has nudged my conscience repeatedly, and I've had my moment of realizing I must do more. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Have you had your moment? </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Take an extra 2 minutes - please! - and click the link below for a slice of a message at Hope Church, given last Sunday. <i><b>For right now, listen from 21:30 to 23:40</b></i> (though I'd highly recommend setting aside the 42 minutes to listen to the whole thing when you can, or go check it out at www.hopeinjesus.org. </span></div>
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<a href="http://hopeinjesus.org/hope-messages/item/273-called-part-6-fair-exchange">Hope Sermon - "Called" Part 6: Fair Exchange</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There is a lot of outcry in our lands today, for many different reasons. And if your personal outcry, about which you've already taken action and are passionately committed to making a difference, is something else besides this, God bless you in that. May you stand strong. May you "seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But if not, listen up. God has called us. He has called you and I to do something about this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In 2013, 3 people were killed by the explosion at the Boston Marathon, arranged by a terrorist. There was massive outcry for justice. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In 1995, 168 people were killed in Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. There was a massive outcry for justice. When he was executed, you probably weren't sad about it. Maybe you even nodded in righteous approval. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On September 11th, 2001, nearly 3,000 of our dear American citizens were killed when terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center towers. America went to war over it. The outcry still lives in the hearts of many, and we are a country divided to this day over the issue of how to view Muslims. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Where is our outcry over abortion??</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Where is our outcry over the 57,000,000 (that's 57 MILLION) babies who have died in America since the Roe v. Wade decision??</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There are several reasons why we might <i>not </i>do something about this issue. The reason that it's not wrong, and that a woman has sacred rights to her own body that supercede those of anything/anyone growing inside her - - THIS reason is for a different discussion. If you uphold this reason, I really truly pray for you, and hope that your eyes are someday opened, and the lie is cast out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But other reasons exist too that have held far too great a power over us as Christians. We might agree it's terrible, yet feel powerless to change anything. "What can I do as one person?" might be the thought inside. Or we might feel at a loss for where to start. "What part of the warpath should I first step foot on?" we ask. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Frankly, I think the biggest reason most of us do basically nothing is that we are like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. We are "overfed and unconcerned."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Hold on a second, </i>you say. <i>What gives you the right to lump us into that kind of company?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">See what God said about Sodom and Gomorrah in Ezekiel 16:49-50:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>She and her daughters were arrogant, </b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">overfed </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">and unconcerned;</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>they did not help the poor and needy.</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">detestable </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">things before me.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Therefore I did away with them </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>as you have seen."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Sounds like the masses in America, doesn't it? Sounds like the corruption, the moral backsliding, and the general apathy that's out there on account of being a society that, for the most part, has it better than 90% or more of the rest of the world's population. We have fast food chains whose coverage maps shame those of cell phone providers. We have our flat screens, our smartphones, our jacuzzis. We have our flex spending accounts, our grocery stores with entire aisles dedicated to <i>just</i> chips.We have our IMax theaters, our $200 Nikes, our sofa sectionals, and our "bling." We have our cake, and boy, do we eat it too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>That passage also sounds like <u>you and me</u>. Don't shake your head or cross your arms at me. We have everything...except the time of day for causes that matter. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Disagree? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">What do our calendars look like?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Is abortion still running rampant in our country? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Don't our children still die in the womb or on cold metal trays because we choose in favor of ourselves and our comfort, or because we don't know we have other choices?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Don't women still get bullied by someone else into thinking abortion is her duty in her circumstance?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Don't people that we know go on down the road, led by the conformity to a politician's statement, or the murmur of the crowd on social media, simply because actual conversations with others about sensitive issues make us uncomfortable?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">We are the apathetic ones. We are the ones ignoring the outcry. We are the ones preferring to play Judge instead of entering the fray and rolling our sleeves up and DOING SOMETHING about this. We are the ones who, by veritably sitting by and allowing injustice to happen over and over, are no better for that than those carrying out the heinous acts themselves. And meanwhile we content ourselves to think,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Somebody else will do something."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Somebody else is YOU. Somebody else is ME. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Enter the fray with me, brothers and sisters. Stand up against the injustice being done, and find a way - any way you can - to take action, in prayer AND donation. In prayer AND adoption. In prayer AND foster parenting. In prayer AND volunteering to get the word out there that there is another option besides ending new lives God has started knitting together in the womb. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One such place you can begin is in support of an organization like WELS Lutheran for Life (www.alife2.com). Their mission is <b><i>"Saving the life of a baby, transforming the family from at-risk to thriving, and doing it all again tomorrow."</i></b> They need your prayers, they need your monetary first-fruits, and they even need your hands, feet, and voices! They are acting on behalf of God's children who cannot speak for themselves!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The point is, let's not sit idly by any longer. The outcry has been reaching God's ears for over 40 long years. We are God's church. We are his "church militant," as some like to say. Well, then let's get militant already. Let's form ranks. Let's put on the full armor of God, and with boldness and an audacity for justice, march out and take action in answer to the outcry in our land! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Please.....don't ignore this. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you about this. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Enter the fray. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For me, this all started because one day, I realized I'd only written my own posts on social media, or shared someone else's, about this issue...and that's it. One day God whispered to my soul that he wanted me to take a step (or a thousand, I don't know yet) farther than that. I have taken a couple steps onto the warpath for myself (beyond just writing this). I'm saying "Here am I, Lord, send me!" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Will you? The warpath awaits, soldier.</b></span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-63649950543606615332015-08-26T09:33:00.001-07:002015-08-26T09:33:56.358-07:00Pass the Salt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another day started with sadness. My own life was just fine, actually. But it took less than an hour to become aware of yet another group of people for whom today, and many days to come, is a day of mourning. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another shooting. States away from me, sure. But in my country, happening to two people just out doing their jobs as news reporters. Another senseless act. More tears. More heads shaking in bewilderment. More eyes lifted up asking God, or just the skies, "Why <i>my</i> loved one??"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>This life can have such a bitter taste</b>. Sometimes I get so tired of feeling like the good is just being drowned out by the noise of the bad. I can even lose my joy for living in the now when I stop and think long enough on all the things we have done to mess up this world so terribly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After checking out news on the shooting in Virginia today, that claimed the life of a 24 year old female reporter and a 27 year old cameraman, I sat on my couch looking dismally at the floor. Then I sent the following message to my friend in China via WeChat:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"<i>Can you imagine what it'll be like when we're with [God], and we get to like, Day 5 of no bad news, no crying, no fights, no pain, no anger over someone doing something?"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I answered my own question to myself silently for a moment as I awaited his reply. I really couldn't. I really could not imagine for myself what that will feel like to have gone days, then weeks, then months, then YEARS without those things that bring sadness in this life. See, I tend to focus less on the visuals and stuff like whether our pets will be with us in heaven. I meditate more on the way it'll feel to my human soul, to be forever removed from this existence, and instead alongside Jesus in a place of perfection. I want so badly to know what heaven is like, and I want even worse to be there now. Especially when the news is bad. And it so often is. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then my friend on WeChat broke the gloom of my despairing thoughts and yearning for what isn't, with this reply:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"<i>Until that time, we must be that taste of what's to come. I believe that's part of what was meant by being salt."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Of course!! I realized I couldn't agree more. This had to at least one nuance of what Jesus meant when he talked about salt. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For those of you unfamiliar with this, in the book of Matthew Jesus was recorded as saying,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"<i>You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men" (Matthew 5:13).</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus said this during a famous sermon he preached while a large group of people was gathered around him on a mountainside. He'd just talked about how we who believe in him and follow God's ways will be persecuted and unpopular in this world because of it, but that we are meant to stand out, and meant to be different, and we'll be blessed because of it. Here he is telling those who get sick and tired of this world, like I often feel, that we are meant to be a flavoring that changes how life tastes to others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many people don't know God but they long for hope. Even those of us who know God and love him can lose our hopefulness too, while living in the deep shadow of the fallen ways of mankind, in a world that seems like it's growing darker by the day. While on earth, heaven can certainly feel far away. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>But every Christian like me has a mission. We can change this bitter taste into something more flavorful, more savory. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>All it takes is a pinch of salt. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With every kind act we perform to someone around us, or every seized opportunity to love those in our lives with a kindness and selflessness that Christ exhibited on a daily basis, we give a foretaste of heaven. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There will be nothing that our hearts or brains can experience or contrive during this lifetime to truly capture the beauty, the relief, and the elation of what heaven will feel like to enjoy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But that doesn't mean we need to live as though it's a far off reality that nobody can know of until they get there. The life of a Christian is one that has countless opportunities to add the flavor of good news that, no matter how dark this world is, Jesus overcame the world's darkness, and defeated death and violence and malice and all the other sad headlines. He overcame all that by his death on the cross, and his resurrection to eternal life. He has promised to allow me to inherit all that because he loves me so much. He wants me to pass that deliciously salty flavor to the drab and boring and hopeless plates that sit at everyone else's tables. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Those of us who follow Jesus will get to taste heaven someday, when our time here is up, because of God's undeserved and incredible love. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And in the meanwhile, we can share something that's different with everyone else. Something that's new, and fresh. Something that isn't sad, depressing, or painful like so much else in life. Something that's reason for hope and peace because it speaks of never-ending tomorrows in a real paradise that will make us forget this place. Something that drowns out all the noise of the bad with the goosebump-inducing symphony of the good and beautiful - God's love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>We can pass that salt, and let everyone taste heaven <i>now</i>, through us.</b></span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-6925436197632103312015-08-17T08:53:00.000-07:002015-08-17T08:53:30.148-07:00Selective Amnesia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A Facebook meme crossed my timeline today that asked the question, "What would you tell me if I lost my memory?" In other words, what would you want me to know?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I don't know how many of you are like me, but my first thought was about how nice it would be to lose all memory of the evils I have committed in my thoughts, the words from my mouth, and my deeds. Not all of my sins of the past are at the forefront of my mind, but don't we all have some (or a lot) that are only a subtle trigger or a quiet, pensive moment away from recall? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Part of that curse of living with past sins is that Satan loves to remind us of how we've messed up or done evil. Even though Satan, whose other common name is the Devil, knows that God forgives all sin equally and irrevocably, his devious scheme is to drive doubt into our hearts that it can be so, and the more he gets us to remember our sins, the easier it can become to doubt God's forgiveness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We can live lives of "quiet desperation" (to quote Thoreau), where that desperation is rendered from a feeling that, despite the Gospel message, we still stand in shame, accused. In fact, that's what "the devil" means. Its Greek word </span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: Cardo, GentiumAlt, 'Galilee Unicode Gk', 'Galatia SIL', 'Palatino Linotype', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px;">διάβολος </span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> (pronounced "dee-AH-bo-los" - think "diablo" or "diabolical") means "the accuser."</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> That's his baddest trick. Accusing God's forgiven people and fooling them into forgetting grace by overwhelming them with the ghosts of their sins. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In that first moment of reading the question of the Facebook meme, I almost felt a little stutter of the heart, signalling a hopeful "What if?" My inmost self actually instinctively <i>wanted </i>the prospect of my memory slate being wiped clean. It wasn't until my second moment of reaction that I realized all the beautiful things from my life - all gifts from God, made possible only because he has grace for me, because Jesus died to <i>erase </i>my sins - would be lost memories too. Imagine that: holding in one hand all your bloody, lustful, greedy, arrogant iniquities, and in your other, holding your proverbial photo album/video archive of every dear moment in your life....and actually considering letting go of the latter just to be rid of the former!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What would <i>you </i>choose, if you could? That's where I was...but thankfully, only for a moment. Then that moment was ended by truth coming back to my mind, to blow away the yearning for memory loss like a soothing southern wind on a chilly day in March. In swept words that I've known, but that, if Satan had his way, would be forgotten:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>" 'This is the covenant I will make with</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>them...' says the Lord. ' I will put my</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Then he adds:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>'<u>Their sins and lawless acts I will</u></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><u>remember no more</u>.' "</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>(Hebrews 10:17)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That's what the symbol of the cross stands for. That my sin and yours has been acquitted, and dismissed from our record. God could be a harsh judge and hold it against us, as we do to ourselves. But he can't. He is a holy God who is bound by his own ideal that he will honor the sacrifice of Jesus. As part of his covenant of love (unconditional, undeserved) for people who follow him, God <i>has to </i>forget our sins. He "will remember them no more." He chooses, rather he selects, amnesia of our sinfulness. It's gone. Poof. Erased forever at the cross. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sometimes this prospect of forgiving myself as God already has seems impossible. Does it ever weigh you down too? Does it ever hold you back from things in life? Does it maybe just linger, like a pesky, haunting little spook that hangs out in the back of your mind, eroding your true joy in daily living? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's not impossible to let it go. It's not impossible to forget. It wouldn't require some all-or-nothing mind wipe either. We wouldn't have to be strapped into a lab gurney with electrodes and a metal crown of probes from some sci-fi film that would zap all memory out of us, just to rid us of the guilt. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With Jesus, it can be left behind. Satan's accusing voice can be shut up. To quote a song from the Christian band Sanctus Real, "just hold onto the promises."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPO3meEuU24">Youtube video of Sanctus Real music video "Promises"</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hold on to the promise that Christ made through his act of laying down his life on the cross, for you and me. Hold on to the promise he made by rising again from his grave to defeat even death. Hold on to the promise he made when, as he left Earth for Heaven, he told his disciples watching him rise into the clouds, "<i>Surely I am with you always, even to the end of time</i>" (Matthew 28:20). Hold on to the promise he made when he said, earlier in his lifetime, "<i>And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am</i>" (John 14:3). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hold on to the promises of God. He will remember our sins no more. He selects forgetting them. He chooses to lose those memories. So can we. It</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>is</i> possible!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And we can keep the beautiful memories at the same time.</span></div>
Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-67881823737034742412015-08-10T14:53:00.000-07:002015-08-10T14:53:50.161-07:00The Number of Completion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It was a sharply cold night in early March of 2008. I was not myself. I was spiritually lost. I felt like a shell. I strongly disliked my life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I had wandered the city streets near my apartment complex in Eagan, MN, with a beer in my hand, and even though my light mock army jacket wasn't keeping me at all warm, I endured the bitter cold a bit longer while sitting on a swing in a dark municipal playground, shuffling the shallow snow with my shoes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Looking up, breathing out frosty breath, gripping the icy chains, I peered to the overcast sky and asked aloud, "WHY, GOD?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"WHY is it impossible to get anyone to stay?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It was a swing of a playground where I'd hung out months earlier with a woman now vanished from my life. That day we'd passed through was one of those quintessential days of dating when two grown people, very seemingly in love, had lightheartedly played on children's play equipment. It was the scene of a memory that, for me, signified happiness I thought I would share for years to come. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But she was gone. And I couldn't understand it all. Even though I was familiar with the grief of letting go of someone I wanted badly to share my life with, I never got used to the scenario. This time it was kind of the nail in the coffin. I was ready to give up hope. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In hindsight this seems overly dramatic, and even silly. But when you're a young man (or a man of any age, some would say) who's grown accustomed to giving his heart away with deep fervent ambition, and who's grown to believe that love is always meant to be a movie-like battle, then there's only so many deathblows you'll take before hope runs out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If you're someone who's given up on anything before, I hope this story speaks to you. Have you given up on love? Have you given up on finding a gratifying calling in life? Have you given up on God? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>What is <i>your</i> impossibility?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I want to tell you about grace. God gives us things many times when we least deserve it. That's what he did when he sent Jesus Christ into the world a couple thousand years ago. Humanity didn't deserve God's love anymore at that time than they do today. Yet people like me and you are saved, in spite of ourselves, through faith in what Jesus accomplished for us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Grace, folks, is when God steps into your life and, in spite of the things you've been doing in ignorance, in violence, in selfishness, and self-pity, or with an ugly chip on your shoulder, he places a gift before you that is so beautiful and right. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">That, for me, was a woman named Jennifer Krueger.<b> To this day I still call her my "Second Grace."</b> First, 2,000+ years ago, Christ died on the cross to save me, spiritually, from my sins. Then, in 2008, he arranged the intersection of Jeff Ulrich and Jen Krueger to save me from myself and give me someone I couldn't possibly deserve. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">When we met I was unprepared, skeptical, wounded, and undeserving....but I knew what was good for me and did not let her get away. Three months later we were engaged, and by August 10th we were standing before God, a small group of family, and a minister, and declared our vows and love publicly and became husband and wife. First there was that small, somewhat private ceremony (below):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Then, in December of that year, we held a more formal and full-scaled "public declaration of vows" with all friends and family in attendance, to make it more official (below):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>(Don't mind the weird facial reaction - the kiss marks were from all the females in the wedding party - I was VERY sure I wanted to be there!)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Today marks seven years since that beautiful day that we began our official journey together. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It's commonly agreed on by Biblical scholars that the use of the number 7 in Scripture points to an idea of completion, or completeness, of something. If there were 7 years of something, that's how long God wanted that thing to go on until his purpose for it was complete (Jacob waiting and working to earn the hand of a bride, the length of a drought/famine, etc.). If there were 7 of something else, like the 7 seals in Revelation, that represented everything of that which the symbol represented being accounted for. In Genesis, God is reported to have used just 7 days to create the whole cosmos, down to every droplet in the oceans, every blade of wild grass, and every tuft of fur or hair on Adam and Eve's heads. The seventh day of that first week of human history, since his creative work was done and complete, he put his stamp of approval on everything by resting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I like to loosely make use of this analogy now. Not to say that my ability to love my wife and family won't grow or mature further (because it sure better!), and not to say that we've been through everything there is to endure in a marriage (because that would be silly to presume, and I just know we haven't)...but when I look back on the storyline of my life with the woman who married me, and the family we've made together, with two sons, Daniel (6) and Braden (just about 4), it's at this point that I feel some completeness embossing the print of this chapter heading. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In seven years we've lived at more addresses than we'd care to, have held more unwanted, dead-end, part-time, temporary, or plain ol' annoying jobs than we'd care to, have lost grandparents to death, have had a sibling go through cancer, have spent thousands of hard-earned dollars on car repairs or buying new clunkers, have seen friendships end, and have dealt with the turbulence of a struggling economy. We've cleaned up the messes of many a poor decision, many a victimization at the hands of a rude or dishonest folks, and many a random crapshoot of this unpredictable life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In seven years, we've learned many lessons relationally, spiritually, financially, physically, and parentally. We've ridden the roller coaster of raising two children over 6 years (if you're a middle aged adult who's maybe even gotten to the empty-nester stage, yes, I know that sounds like nothing compared to your fuller spectrum of experience....but, as you assuredly recall, those first several years were very foundational to your parenting). We've lived in two different states, both near to and far from each side of our combined families, and have experimented to the greatest extent that we'd prefer with rental housing (both in management and in residence). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In seven years, we've had joyful times, angry and bitter, battlesome times, worried and anxious times, placid and serene times, depressed and sorrowful times, and elated times. We've seen the mountain highs of being "in love" in the giddy ways that accompany dating, engagement, and being newlywed, and we've fought our way through the dark valley times when love was harder to find because of sin and self-centeredness. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But most of all, in seven years we've seen every opportunity to learn again and again what the love of a marriage is supposed to truly be. We've seen time after time, in example after shameful example around us in society, what it's NOT meant to be, and have agreed continually to not let that be us. We have made up (eventually, though sometimes more quickly than others) after <i>every </i>fight. We have apologized for as many wrongs to each other as we could think of or see. We have worked through the differences in preference, the pet peeves, the differences in personality and temperament, and even the really difficult topics, like how to maintain a healthy balance between fantasy football and family time during the NFL season. :) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Thanks to countless great examples in our community or family or among friends, and thanks to great sermons at our church in Oconomowoc (somehow, these have been the best of our lives), we've learned over and over to remember that our marriage is a sermon itself. We've worked through tears and tragedies and selfish pride and hurt and anger to always arrive together once more at a place that recalls how much Jesus loved us, that he died for us, and forgave every wrongdoing. We wake up each day committed to demonstrating that marriage is for showing the world what Jesus' love looks like in everyday life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Through the experiences, the humbling lessons of life, the ebbs and flows of good times and bad, the memories, the joys of being parents to two active, sweet and rascally little sons, and the adventurous path of always learning about each other, we have been made complete. Seven years of completion....and we know we're right where we're meant to be, doing all the things we're meant to be doing, and loving the ones we were made to love. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It all began when two mid-twenty-somethings who liked to call themselves "cool, but in the nerdy way" were nudged together by external forces, snapped out of their self-absorbed heartbreak comas, and began following God's path of learning to love the way he drew it up long ago. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Sacrificially....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Passionately and tirelessly....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Unconditionally....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">With a complete and peace-filled recognition that no cause is ever lost, nothing is ever hopeless, and, with God....ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">*<i>Happy 7th anniversary, Jen, my sweetheart! I love you forever and always, and I'm even more overwhelmed at your devotion and the certainty of your love than I was when I first laid eyes on your lovely face. Thank you for being the better half of genes in these crazy, smart, fun little boys of ours. Thank you for never ceasing to forgive me when I fail to serve you correctly. Thank you for being reckless and generous with your heart, with me. Thank you for letting me be the one who gets to hold you close, and kiss you goodnight, for the rest of my days.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">- <i>Love, Jeff* </i></span></span><br />
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-70949421952290375962015-07-27T12:32:00.000-07:002015-07-27T12:32:03.756-07:00Why Are We Surprised?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is the face of the Christian these days, as the world sees it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I wish I were wrong. I wish I were overreacting, and that it's only in personal experience. The fact is, it's been a long time since someone accused me to my face of coming across this way (so I pray there aren't a bunch of people silently thinking it!). It's what you hear in the media. It's what you can see in the responses of non-Christians or non-spiritual types on social media platforms, when they rant and rave against our attitudes, judgments, and airs of superiority that come out in rantings and ravings of our own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Look, I get it. I have been the chief of sinners, of the overly indignant and righteously angry variety, many many times. I have been the Matt Walsh-esque ranter and raver over the atrocities of our godless society, and have found justification in the manner of delivery because many others will yell "Here, here!" and "Amen!" along with me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And hey, I get it... I've seen the headlines. I've witnessed the manifestations of leftist living in my communities, and have shaken my head quietly to myself. Probably in the not too distant past my own Facebook page has occasionally had more frustrated posts shared that just bemoaned the loss of Christian values along with more popular outspoken Christians like the Robertsons of "Duck Dynasty" (and don't get me wrong, I love the show, love the values, love the family). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The point is, what good are we doing by being so shocked at the horrible deeds of murderous ISIS members? What's accomplished by public outrage over the Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage nationally? Are we fixing anything or getting anywhere when we rant and rave piously about how the government isn't kicking down the door of Planned Parenthood? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Why all the ruckus? Why all the clamor and commotion in righteous wrath? Why are we so surprised at the way the world is living and operating today?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I say this not to discredit the evils in all these things. Rather, I want to encourage us all to wake up and smell the coffee. This is ALL - all of it - to be expected....IF we understand the times in which we live.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>"The person without the Spirit does not</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>of God but considers them foolishness, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>and cannot understand them because they are</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>discerned only through the Spirit. The person</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>with the Spirit makes judgments about all </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>things, but such a person is not subject</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>to merely human judgments, for,</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>'Who has known the mind of the Lord</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>so as to instruct him?'</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>But we have the mind of Christ."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>- 1 Corinthians 2:14-16</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Americans today have lost the culture.</b> It's a simple fact of the times. Every dominant civilization throughout the course of history has ridden the same roller coaster of morality in their own national history. Everywhere the gospel has thrived at one time has eventually turned its back on God's Word and kicked it to the curb. That may very well be what's happening, historically, before our very eyes as the 20th century has transitioned into the 21st and the new parameters of enlightenment are qualified by just how unChristian they can be. We are continually becoming a nation of "persons without the Spirit." And St. Paul says in the above portion of his letter to Corinthian believers that wherever there's an absence of the Spirit, there's an absence of wisdom. There's an absence of discretion and ability to make proper judgments. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's just such a sad thing to see happening, though. That's why we all get so worked up. Maybe at the center of it there is often a truly righteous zeal for God's Word to be protected and abided by, and although we may have said, like Joshua in ancient times, "As for me and my house, WE WILL serve the Lord," we're grieved in our souls to watch as so many other millions of people or families just have abandoned him, or never really knew him to begin with. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But if you're like me, all this supposedly righteous anger and stern indignance comes out in its frowny-faced, index-finger-wagging form because we believe the lie that we're actually better than others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>We forget that the sins we each commit every Sunday afternoon, barely hours removed from church fellowship, are every bit as damning as the ones committed by Muslim extremists, abortionists selling baby parts, crooked politicians, homosexuals, or criminals whose acts reported in the evening news make our blood boil.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you're not a committed follower of Jesus, this message isn't for you. I pray for you, and hope that you'll find the peace and amazing promise of a heaven free of charge, thanks to Jesus Christ, that has been mercifully given to me and all true Christians. I pray that you'll understand we don't mean to be so.....mean...We're just upset that we look around in our world and feel sometimes, culturally, like it's all closing in on us and the values we hold dear. Frankly, we're proud of ourselves and the stand we want to make, and we just get - well, defensive! If we take it out on non-Christians like you and judge too harshly, when we should be focusing on our own problems and lives, we're very sorry. It's NOT how Jesus lived, nor how he wants us to live and represent him. Seriously.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But brothers and sisters in the faith we share in Christ, this message IS for you, and for me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>We need to chill out. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>We need to stop believing the lie that A) we're better than the ones we think are ruining the culture, and we should shame them all back into line, and B) that this world's salvation is about us. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is our Father's world. The wisdom that comes through his Holy Spirit, that we're privileged to possess, comes only from one place, and when and where it's found, that's literally a miracle. By nature, every last one of us, including the pastors, including the life-long Lutherans, including the faithful Baptists, including the born-again Methodists, including the spiritually passionate and the ones who know every Bible verse hands-down...we were ALL born diametrically opposed to God and his will. If it weren't for his act of mercy, to reach into our lives, just as we wish he would with those in the headlines, we'd be JUST as lost. We'd be JUST as despicable looking to the pious ones. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And as for the fate of our society, our culture, and our nation.... All we can do about that is live how Jesus lived, and pray about the results. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus' M.O. was not all about the table-flipping in the temple bazaar. It was love-centric. It was hope for redemption cloaked warmly in acceptance of the person, and value of their humanity and their eternal soul. It was sacrifice, humility, and a courageous willingness to lay himself down for another, no matter the personal cost. It was a submission to God's will at the expense of personal comfort or agenda. It was never about appearances and pedigree, and ALWAYS about what's on the inside, the heart of man. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God doesn't call us to be judges up on high pedestals. We can speak his truth and convey his wisdom and reason with people who don't have his Spirit yet...but when the situation allows it, and with tact, with gentleness, and with a love and concern for their spiritual welfare, not with the selfish desire to be right or to be vindicated. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God calls us to be faithful. What was Jesus' image of faithfulness? Did he get dragged to his crucifixion, kicking and screaming, frothing at the mouth with furious condemnations of his accusers and executioners? Did he rant and rave about how they'd get their just desserts in the flames of hell for treating him, God's own son, like that? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nope. He was silent, like a lamb before the shearers. As he was led to his own physical slaughter, he quietly bled, and prayed, and yearned inside for there to be room in heaven for all those he would save with his blood. And upon the cross, as the spikes pulled through the flesh of his wrists, and the jeers of his fellow Jews and Roman soldiers seared in his ears, he prayed, <i>"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>They know not. Remember that.</b> Because they don't have the Spirit, like we do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is it in stark opposition to God's ways? Yes. Is it the kind of living that will earn hell? Perhaps. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>But we'll pray them and love them into heaven long before we'll finger-wag them there. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And when they stand next to us in eternal paradise at the foot of Jesus' throne, we'll look exactly the same to our Savior who loved us all. </span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-52671867604678122242015-07-08T22:47:00.001-07:002015-07-08T22:47:15.580-07:00The Next Place<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAdAd_JkycE7pKLiYXaIhyFzkN3GivHqtrQtohxOKqrKgWt48Smfn_fXGVh0Zmo_HF1ux62EHh9xprxNcd-PDB-9_g3qzSKN4T4AnwIvqtVOUEyirKk9Uis-KDfLuCb3pTcgQyMRD1qfg/s1600/Artificial+Intelligence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAdAd_JkycE7pKLiYXaIhyFzkN3GivHqtrQtohxOKqrKgWt48Smfn_fXGVh0Zmo_HF1ux62EHh9xprxNcd-PDB-9_g3qzSKN4T4AnwIvqtVOUEyirKk9Uis-KDfLuCb3pTcgQyMRD1qfg/s400/Artificial+Intelligence.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>"It's just a temporary body, Mommy. You don't have to go to the next place."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Long after the credits rolled, I sat stunned and thought about what I'd just been taught by the movie "CHAPPiE." Could it be that there's more this film was saying about mankind's perception of this existence than just some fanciful curiosity about artificial intelligence, as a possibility in our modern society?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've seen other movies in the past 10 to 15 years that explored this idea of artificial intelligence, but something about this film - maybe even this one line with which I opened, uttered by CHAPPiE to a deceased Yolandi - really struck me with a thought:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>We don't want this life to end. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To give a quick background on everything (and if you haven't seen this movie, and would like to without a spoiler, then go rent it on Redbox, watch it with a grain of salt - it's rated R for pervasive language and violence, mostly - and come back to my post later):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">CHAPPiE is created when an engineer repurposes a scrap robot from a futuristic robotic police force that's been put into play in Johannesburg, South Africa. His maker, Deon, has had a breakthrough in A.I. and CHAPPiE is the test bot who comes to display extraordinary development and all the traits of humanity, down to discerning between right and wrong, truth and lies, and fear and loyalty. CHAPPiE is caught between the influences of good and evil (i.e. Deon, his programmer, and a family of criminals). In the end, he comes to realize the gravity of the fact that his battery, which is inextricably connected to his body's chassis, will run out, and he'll die, in essence. Among all the fracas of the various plot lines converging, CHAPPiE wants to find another robot body to download his own consciousness into from a programming he's made himself. He gets his chance to first see this manifested successfully when he transfers Deon's consciousness into another robot before he can die of a mortal wound. The two get CHAPPiE transferred into another robot (there are lots of vacant, "offline" robot bodies lying around by the end of this flick) before his battery life ends, and they return to the family of criminals to help Ninja (CHAPPiE's "daddy") bury his girlfriend, Yolandi (who had CHAPPiE call her "Mommy"), who died in a gunfight. As the movie ends, CHAPPiE is accessing manufacturing to autonomously create a replica robot body for Yolandi, so her consciousness can be transferred off a flash drive it was saved to from syncing with her consciousness earlier in the movie by way of a helmet that controls other robots. Before that final image of Yolandi's replica creation, CHAPPiE says the words I opened with as they bury Yolandi:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>"It's just a temporary body, Mommy. You don't have to go to the next place."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"The next place," according to Yolandi in the movie, as she tells CHAPPiE about death one night, is the name of the ambiguous place we go to when we meet our end. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Aside from what CHAPPiE learns experientially during the movie, there's no direct indoctrination of this sentient being that he shouldn't want to die, or that going to the "next place" is a horrible thing. The fact that CHAPPiE wants so badly to stay alive that it essentially overrides his program and leads him to break promises to his maker, to not commit crimes, to ensure his survival, seems to suggest that this subtext of the story is a reflection of our society's view of the afterlife. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I wonder if this is why movies about artificial intelligence are so popular, and seeming to spike in number in recent years ("Lucy," "Transcendent," "Ex Machina"). Mankind has always been searching for a solution to the problem - as mankind sees it - of mortality. Be it the Fountain of Youth that Ponce de Leon tried to find as a conquistador, or any other elixirs or scientific advancements, fictional or real-life, that have been concocted...it's as if we just can't stomach the idea of having to die, or lose others to death. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is, of course, nothing new. We want to live forever, and in a way that's totally natural. There was a time when such a desire would've been completely normal and would've been realized, since we were originally created to live forever, by God. That original design, though, was sabotaged by the Fall into sin and ever since those first people, Adam and Eve, mankind has been pining for the immortality that we lost. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>The "next place," however, doesn't have to be the dreaded destination that most will make of it nowadays. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The creators of the idea in the film "CHAPPiE" will have you believe that one way of looking at the consciousness of humanity is that it's the soul. Science has yet to truly come to terms with what the consciousness is, and maybe that's because it is the soul, as God speaks of it in Scriptures. Maybe the lines on that subject are too blurry for us humans to ever understand. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But what I <i>can </i>know, as a Christian, is that my soul is meant for heaven. That next place that waits for me, until the God-ordained time when I'll pass away from this earth, is a beautiful place that will be the awarded to me because of God's mercy and grace. It will be an existence completely devoid of sadness, anger, sin, pain, death, or fear. Everything dark and dreadful about this life on this fallen earth will be in the rearview mirror and fading fast. As many a hymn will say, "Heaven is my home." I'm just a tourist here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Watching CHAPPiE struggle and strain with his last gasps of energy and battery to survive to prolong the "life" of his maker, Deon, and then to ultimately extend his own consciousness -- basically, to live forever, just makes me wonder "WHY?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What is there here that's so worth clinging onto? What is the often times maniacal drive of man to try and stay alive, as if every inch he creeps closer to death and the afterlife is a torment and a cruel harbinger?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I guess where there's no God, there's no hope of anything more. Maybe that's all these artificial intelligence plots serve to remind us of. Of course, there'll be other messages sent in movies such as this that suggest that this is all about an evolutionary truth that, in the grand scheme of things, mankind has only ever been an entity of consciousness, and the human body as we know it today is just the latest vessel we've had to deal with traveling in. If we were to evolve further and live on in more durable shells like robots or other mechanical means, maybe we'd be better off?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or maybe....just maybe....we're not meant for any of it. We do serve a purpose while here in this mortal life, but that's God's purpose. It's a sometimes mysterious mission, but it grows ever brighter and more vibrant under the light of God's grace, forgiveness, and new life in Christ. And when this time here is up, according to his heavenly plan, we <i>get to </i>go to "the next place." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This "we" I'm referring to is anyone who has the one true God in their heart. It's true that, without knowing him and his plan for me, and all of the liberating truths he has in store, this life's brevity and fragility could be so frightening, and could lead me to scramble for any options that could prolong my time. That's why it's an indescribable relief that, thanks to Jesus Christ, I've been given the prospect of a far different ending one day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That ending will be only the beginning. "The next place" will be the place where God's always been wanting me to be, the true home I long for in my heart. That's where eternity in God's presence begins. I guess the makers of "CHAPPiE" got one thing right: We <i>can </i>live forever. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just not <i>here</i>. Nor should we want to, considering how immeasurably greater life in "the next place" can be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the deepest part of my being, I wish for this destiny for everyone. CHAPPiE was spot on. It's just a temporary body...But we <i>do </i>have to go to the next place. If heaven, where God dwells in eternity, is <i>your </i>next place, you'll be doing better than ever. </span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-11557529555923649872015-05-30T19:35:00.000-07:002015-05-30T19:35:59.717-07:00The Christian Franchisee<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So many things in life can feel impossible at times. Those of us possessing melodramatic tendencies know especially well how it can feel overwhelming to do this thing called life. For the Christian, it can be even worse if you, like me, are a <i>hypocan'triac. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(Okay, okay, I'll pre-emptively oblige my wife's request to explain the geeky made up term: a <i>hypocan'triac </i>- not to be confused with a hypochondriac, someone who always believes they're sick - is someone who's always up against something impossible.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">See, the <i>hypocan'triac </i>suffers from a disease of the mind. It's all in their head. After all, Philippians 4:13 encourages us with the message that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." When God's power attends the man or woman who truly wants to be about his will and his business in life, their missions and pursuits cannot be stopped. Successes may not always come in streaks or bunches, and may not be to the scale that our human perspective feels entitled to require of God for us to see proof. But with God, nothing is impossible (hence the name of this blog site). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the <i>hypocan'triac </i>just continually feels overwhelmed by something that CAN'T be done. Maybe it's a pesky temptation that hasn't been defeated, and it's become a vicious and debilitating pet sin. Maybe it's circumstantial; the checkbook just refuses to be balanced, the favorite sports team just will not have a winning season, or the spouse fails over and over to meet some very *cough* reasonable expectations about coexisting in the same household. Or it might be more big picture stuff, like discovering a true and defined purpose in life to really feel invigorated by. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To be honest though, whether you share the symptoms or behaviors of a classic <i>hypocan'triac</i>, or you're just someone who has experienced feelings of impossibility in life a couple times...there's good news for all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">[Spoiler alert: I already tipped it off in a general fashion with the Philippians passage.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've had some things really get in my way this year so far. I realize that much of this hindered feeling is self-generated and overplayed in my mind, but there's truth, too, in the reality that obstacles have sprung up in my way as I seek to move forward as a husband, father, friend, church volunteer, citizen, employee, and grad school student. Just one big example of these things to get me wearing out the word "impossible" again is a year's worth of neck, shoulder, and back pains that have culminated in an MRI diagnosis and surgery recommendation for July. I'm not over-exaggerating when I say that'll throw a bit of a wrench in our summer's spokes. But I've gone farther than that in my mind and heart as I anticipate that event and its before-and-after ramifications. Suddenly, having a good summer and a successful rest of my 2015 seems to be leaning toward "impossible." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What a wuss I can be! Would I really succumb that easily/quickly to "just getting by" mode, or to having a "damage control" year?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thankfully Pastor Jason at our church, Hope, recently gave a powerful sermon to close out a recent sermon series called "Undone." His message that particular Sunday, "Right Hand Man" (check it out on hopeinjesus.org - see Messages tab), made a life-giving point:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"Jesus' life is not only to be admired, it is to be experienced."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When hearing again that day about the deeper meaning to the day of Jesus' ascension back to heaven, I was reminded that as a Christian, all this defeatist talk is just so counterproductive. The idea has taken time to set in and take root because, well, we <i>hypocan'triacs </i>are a little too set in our ways sometimes. But God keeps knocking at the door of my heart with his truth-o'-grams, waiting for me to be ready to really let it in. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Do you get that? Do you grasp that we've got so much important and amazing work to be done, as Christians, that we can't afford to sit around whining and wondering if something is possible or not?? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Your life is God's work. OF COURSE it's possible!!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Matthew 28's final verses hold something for the reader that's considered by Christians the world around to be the "Great Commission." In other words, if you're a follower of Jesus and you wrestle with the ages old existential query, "Why am I here?" you may want to start with Matthew 28:19-20. It'll guide so much of your ambitions, and begin to heal wounds and solve problems faster than any other manmade philosophy. And the passage of the sermon I'm citing refers to the same account from a different angle, in Acts chapter 1. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Therein lies the empowerment to "do work, son." <b>Because Jesus left behind his mission for us to carry on, we know we are meant to succeed. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You see, while it's wrong thinking and false theology to want to act like Jesus because we think it'll put some icing on the cake of our salvation, which only his blood won for us on the cross, it IS acceptable and spiritually enlightening to recall that every Christian is an embodiment of Christ's roles of prophet, priest, and king in our own individual lifetimes. We have been endowed with the mission. We have been left with the humbling responsibility to keep his kingdom growing in the hearts of mankind even today!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When you look at the words of the Great Commission, it's sobering to note that Jesus didn't say it was somehow optional to be an evangelist with your life if you've become a Christian. It's no add-on, custom feature when you buy into following Jesus (and, theologically speaking, for the record, the Bible shows there's no actual buy-in, per se, it's a free gift, a true inheritance). He said in Acts 1:8, "...You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When he said, "...you WILL BE my witnesses," that was a little stronger and more affirmative language than, "You can decide to maybe be witnesses if you want," or "If you feel like you've got the gift of sermonizing, and nothing stands in your way, you can consider being witnesses." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Also worth noting about this passage is its timing. Christ's words came as an answer. His disciples' question was the same type of question we often ask of God. They were out there in that meadow, gathered together, and as the sensation that Jesus was about to doing something else really big was mounting in everyone's minds, disciples asked, "Are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom of God?" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus' answer: Nope. You are. You're my witnesses. You know the truth. You have facts, a real actual story of salvation for all people, and YOU get to be the ones to go share it. I'm leaving you behind with that mission. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We too more often than not spiritually rest back on our laurels and ask this sort of thing. Not necessarily about a full, dramatic restoration of the kingdom (which, in the disciples' case, meant that Christ would ruthlessly overthrow the Roman empire's presence in the Judean province and set the Jews free of their political and earthly oppression). But we have our own preconceived notions, whimsical dreams, or even real issues in life that seem insurmountable to us, and we just want God to solve it. Maybe it's because we're thinking about how powerful God is, and it's as natural to ask him to step in as it is for a pipsqueak little boy to ask an MMA fighter to go take down the neighborhood 3rd grader bully. But maybe it's also laziness. I know for me, it usually is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But we're meant for more. God had a reason for his plans to not include Jesus converting the entire human race before returning to his home in heaven, next to the throne of the Father. His reason was that <b>he delights even more in having entrusted that huge mission to his children, his redeemed sons and daughters - YOU and ME - and letting us share in the tremendous glory of accomplishing it. </b>We get to be the Lord's tools. We are his hands and feet, bringing that saving word of truth with us. We are his megaphones, calling out hope in the midst of confusion and darkness and spiritual hopelessness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is some serious work to be done. We have been left something big to get done. It won't be all on us to make it happen, because luckily the power of God has also been left behind to us to use in his name. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here's an analogy I think is very fitting. The Christian, the Jesus-follower, is very much like a franchisee. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Think about it. Any entrepreneur is going to automatically be striking out on their own to accomplish their goals of financial freedom and business autonomy. But to buy into a pre-existing franchise and utilize all the tools, resources, programs, services, and reputation of the franchise in one's own individual business endeavor is very savvy. It's the act of harnessing something that was started without you, that you just carry forward, and as long as you stick to the program, you yourself can be a successful embodiment of the franchise's brand which you represent. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As a Christian, we receive the already existing, undeniably effective, all-important enterprise of the one true faith, and the commission of the Kingdom of God whose reign expands within hearts and minds of people. We're not mere representatives. We're not meek, bored, underpaid employees who don't qualify for any benefits, or can be laid off at any moment. We are the owners of the kingdom too, because it was left behind by the original founder, Jesus Christ. He has given us the rights of children, and with his advocacy and empowerment, we're not meant to fail. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So if there was ever something to aspire to that could never be labeled futile, or impossible, it's carrying out God's work. You don't have to be a pastor or a Sunday School teacher, you don't have to be a Seminary professor, you don't have to be the most knowledgeable elder of your local congregation. You don't have to be this or that. You just need to be a Christian. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is a Christian someone who's morally better than others? Someone who sins less, or commits puny, PG-rated sins? Someone who's memorized every Bible passage? No. Every Christian is someone whose evil heart has been made new by faith, whose slate of unspeakable deeds and thoughts is washed clean, and who now belongs to God instead of being his damned enemy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All you need is the laminated tag of being a franchisee of the Kingdom. And you got that handed to you for free - no entrance fee, no capital, no solid credit score requirement - all because Christ found you worthy of his sacrifice on the cross. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Hypocan'triacs </i>really run clean out of excuses when joining those slack-jawed disciples on that grassy hill, watching Jesus ascend to heaven, with those words fresh in the mind...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"<b>All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is no "can't." There is no impossible. There is just a mission, a Great Commissioner who set me free with his own death and resurrection, and a promise that I'm never alone in my endeavor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am the Kingdom. I am the temple of God. I am the franchise headquarters. His mission is mine. His power is mine. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now that we know that success is promised, and victory is sure, and nothing's impossible, let's get to work!</span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-49121462840735819112015-03-28T20:21:00.001-07:002015-03-28T20:21:17.298-07:00Pssssssst...Look Up.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAJ73oyQAmSH6sDQetZIeookwNW6oaAs3TvAFkhceRKcNS7h0_1mhbXzEwBZ7Q_5KFaSKLgG-aLNQEidTofNkye7sRsGchF7Yylxr9mYo4xUb6QKbuPDyIbwo9_Gv8e3tV2SZ7uA7aBEo/s1600/jesus-eyes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAJ73oyQAmSH6sDQetZIeookwNW6oaAs3TvAFkhceRKcNS7h0_1mhbXzEwBZ7Q_5KFaSKLgG-aLNQEidTofNkye7sRsGchF7Yylxr9mYo4xUb6QKbuPDyIbwo9_Gv8e3tV2SZ7uA7aBEo/s1600/jesus-eyes.jpg" height="281" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm going to be really vulnerable, really transparent, and show some brokenness right now. I hope you don't mind. In Euro-American culture - in most cultures, I think, in fact - it's not exactly masculine to lay it out there like this. But sometimes, truths of God, and going along with <i>His </i>"culture," is counter-cultural to everything we know. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And right now, that's ok. It is Lent, after all, and Lent is when we are stripped to our most vulnerable place, to our core, to where all is made evident and nothing can be hidden anymore. How could our sin, our pride, our facades, and our brokenness remain hidden when Jesus is making his way to that bloody cross, and about to be literally stripped, and to hang there for us, in all his humiliating vulnerability?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, here it is...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>I need people. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yeah, so? You shrug as you start humming and clapping to the tune of "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers. <i>We all need *clap* somebody....to lean...</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>NO. </i>Listen. You don't get it. I NEED people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look, it's nothing I like to admit. A basic need of human living, psychologists may say. We are indeed relational beings. It's why solitary confinement drives prisoners literally crazy. But for some of us, it can go to unhealthy lengths. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brokenness is that, lately, I am needing people too much. This is not something I go around thinking to myself about at a conscious level each day. This has been a recently re-recognized disruption of my psyche, and I only truly became aware of it to its fullest extent today in a singular, solitary, painful moment of clarity. More on that in a moment...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes we're going along and, you know...something just feels....off. You have some things in place, some critical things have panned out your way, you have the confidence of the love of those closest to you, and yet you just feel off. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me, I often find it curious and kind of deranged that anyone can ever feel alone in this day and age. We have social media outlets, shopping malls crowded with people, bustling cities, bars, coffee shops, libraries, bus stops, train depots, subways, churches with fellow church-goers joining you every Sunday morning, workplaces, and, for many of us, people right in our own very domiciles (either a spouse, spouse-and-kids, kids, significant other, or at least a roommate). Getting away from people, for those who value true alone time, is actually a very highly sought after commodity and challenging thing to come by....when you want it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And yet, as ultra-connected as we are, with as busy lives as we lead, and with fellow human beings swarming all around, we can still wind up feeling ALONE. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe you can relate. It's not a feeling of actually not having anyone around, and physically being alone. It's the feeling that no one draws near to you, relationally, and no one understands you; <i>no one knows what you're specifically going through, right NOW. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you're me, what do you do about that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I guess, in retrospect, what I end up doing about it is proverbially scampering around, looking sideways at each person in my life, sizing up their availability to be closer, to "get me" more, and to fill those needs of validation, appreciation, encouragement, respect, loving affection, reassurance, or whatever it may be that my soul feels a lack of inside. It tends to be 'round about that time when my gauges' needles are all quivering up at the top of the meters and I'm red-lining in these pursuits or concerns that I finally hit a wall and sit back and realize I'm doing it, and that I should chill out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only lately, what my friend Josh posted about on Facebook is even more confoundingly true than usual. He said:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>" 'Did God really say...' An effective deception that worked on Adam and Eve and still works on mankind today."</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I shared with him that I thought this was so true, and definitely poignant about how Satan gets us to fall into many of our sins everyday. I didn't even realize at the time how self-indicting that was for me to say. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I fall, and fall hard, for the lie Satan uses on me when he whispers with that conniving forked tongue, "Did God really say, 'Surely, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20b)'?" No, instead he slowly but surely, over the course of days and weeks, and maybe even months, <b>eases me into a funk where I'm going about my days under the assumption that God, my Savior, has forgotten me. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>So</i>, says my subconscious, <i>since I'm not finding that approval, that validation, that encouragement, that empowerment or respect from God since he is absent and silent, why not search for it in my relationships with a spouse, a family member, a friend, a coworker, or whoever might oblige me? If I have to, why not even demand it or beg for it? Aren't my needs my NEEDS??</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the confusion, the desperation, the loneliness, and even at times, despair, settles in. It winds its way through the ebb and flow of everyday moods. It lurks when I'm tired. It pokes at me quietly yet annoyingly when I'm already on edge from some external provocation, like a child pestering when you're trying to focus on something else for a critical moment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it becomes me. I become a man who believes he is marooned on an island. Surrounded by a sea of people who exist so that <i>I</i> may serve <i>them</i>, and yet my selfish and egocentric wiles driving me to hope to extract something from any interaction with them that I can. And all because...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I'VE FORGOTTEN JESUS. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, I still know he exists. But when those crunch time moments carry me onward and I can only look inside, or persistently all around at those who are my fellow human beings at my sides, it's as if I'm forgetting who he is, who he means to me, and why he went to that cross for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until that painful moment of clarity arrives. It may find you anywhere. It may find you on the trip to work, in your pew at church, on the sofa during a quiet evening, in the classroom during study hall; it may find you here, there, or anywhere....or it may find you while you're showering, and the state of relaxation and the ambiance of soothing water running down you to cleanse you somehow finds your fog clearing just enough to see it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Pssst....Look up," the Spirit said. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freezing in my place, and stopping every tiny motion or thought in my mind, I listen again...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Why do you look in vain all around? Why do you run and run, and search frantically, my son?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Why do you forget me? I haven't forgotten you.........Look up." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The whisper beckons within my mind. I let the thought run its course. Really, I can't help it. It seizes me and takes hold of me. The tears run with the shower water that already cascades down. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I forgot all about him. I lost him in my fog. I let myself believe he forgets about me, and I went searching for what only he can provide. He's right there, looking at me, looking <i>for </i>me, waiting, oh so patiently, wondering when I'll wake up and look back up above it all, to see him again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And he continues:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I cannot forget you. I don't know how. I wouldn't forget you, or any of the billions of you and your brothers and sisters, as I walked that bitter road to that rugged cross. It was with YOU in mind that I let myself be staked down, let myself bleed, let myself give up that final breath, and all while knowing the Father forsook me so he wouldn't have to forsake you."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I know your pain. I know how it feels to be neglected. I know how it feels to be marginalized or forgotten about. I know worse pains, like being rejected vehemently, and being made the brunt of ridicule so fierce you can't grasp its very origin."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<i>I'm</i> your brother.....<i>I'm</i> your truest friend. I never forgot those who are mine."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"So why have <i>you </i>forgotten <i>me</i>?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then the truth returns. It dispels that fog. It quiets the heartbeat that races in urgency and desperation without my even realizing it. The truth says...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>What you seek you can ONLY find in me. I've been waiting for you, right here. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cross is where I see that Jesus doesn't, and can't, forget about me. Selfish sinner that I am, spiritually blind and prone to straying though I may be, his gaze is always on me, and his words of affirmation and affection are always drifting on the breeze of his holy presence. I can always find him when I simply seek <i>HIM</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cross is where I am found once again. It's where I get healed again. It's where I remember, with a force like a western wind gusting up to fill the sails of a boat listing adrift, that I am someone, because I belong to Jesus, and because he gave his all for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I needed that truth to come find me again, so badly. I needed the reminder of my need for penitence and sorrow over this sin of self-centeredness, this sin of foolishly believing ancient lies that I am somehow alone. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope that, if you need that reminder too, especially during this Lenten time, that you'll find it as well. I hope that you'll lay down whatever has been weighing you down, stop looking around, and...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Pssssst......LOOK UP." </span></div>
Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-69878136886275405092015-02-16T09:26:00.002-08:002015-02-16T09:26:45.842-08:00Fixation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>"You will keep in perfect peace</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>all who trust in you,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>all whose thoughts are fixed on you!</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>Trust in the LORD always, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>for the LORD God is the eternal Rock.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>He humbles the proud and </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>brings down the arrogant city.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>He brings it down to the dust.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>The poor and oppressed trample it</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>underfoot, and the needy </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>walk all over it.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>But for those who are righteous,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>the way is not steep and rough.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>You are a God who does what is right,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>and you smooth out the path </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>ahead of them.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>LORD, we show our trust in you by</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>obeying your laws;</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>our heart's desire is to glorify your name.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>In the night I search for you;</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>in the morning I earnestly seek you."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>- Isaiah 26:3-9 (NLT)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lately the spiritual mantra that I've tried to set forth for my family is to live by the words of Matthew 6:33. This passage basically says, <i>Seek after the things of God first and foremost, and everything else will fall into place. </i>The first 30-or-so verses of that chapter talk about all the possessions and material matters and agendas we chase after, and how God tends to that stuff for us. So verse 33 exhorts us to try fixating on our Lord and Savior, rather than on those earthly needs and issues, since he's promised to take care of it all anyway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Always a good M.O. for godly living. But always SO difficult, isn't it? That's why it's great that God provides multiple reminders of the blessings and positives of those who are found seeking God, in many other passages as well, such as this one above, from Isaiah 26. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The point of that whole passage above, and Matthew 6:33:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Stay busy seeking God, and you'll find everything else. </b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've often wondered why it is that our Father in heaven makes such a concerted effort to convey through Scriptures that we should fixate on him. In my tainted humanity I ask, "Is he narcissistic? Is he self-centered in a vain way and just wants all eyes on him?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It usually takes us off in all sorts of convoluted tangents and dangerous philosophical rabbit holes when we try to ascribe the same motives to God for the behavior we often display. After all, even though God does <i>some </i>things men are meant to understand and appreciate, many things - nay, MOST - are just wrought from an intellect and center of being that's so much higher than ours that we just can't grasp it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So let's use one thing we know is true from God's Word to understand another. If I can honestly say I know the central message of this anthology of ancient manuscripts, the Bible, is God's passionate, merciful, never-giving-up kind of love for mankind, his creation.....then how does this desire of his to always have our eyes on him fit within that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Eureka! It's cuz he wants us to experience that love! It's cuz he wants us to trust him, and by doing so, to get out of our own way, so the blinders can be lifted and our widened and lifted gaze can fully behold all of the picture of his love. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB7awRf1NhpWa2S2B6TGILO4sO92UjrTJeLKdRrLwG9tme_-riPm0lzNyMwlwoRkg7vADeXG4HHk1zgpNe3dEFz1HxzgE8Rn8lT6pAk5WjEf5rFmPLIpFjFPPqF8rC8cA45fS8rfA2lw8/s1600/God's%2BLove%2BNever%2BRuns%2BOut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB7awRf1NhpWa2S2B6TGILO4sO92UjrTJeLKdRrLwG9tme_-riPm0lzNyMwlwoRkg7vADeXG4HHk1zgpNe3dEFz1HxzgE8Rn8lT6pAk5WjEf5rFmPLIpFjFPPqF8rC8cA45fS8rfA2lw8/s1600/God's%2BLove%2BNever%2BRuns%2BOut.jpg" height="191" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have only managed glimpses of this in my lifetime, because I still fail so often to just trust him. I know in my head that he sent his only son to die for my sins, and that such a love must mean he REALLY has my best interests in mind all the time, so it would naturally follow that he'd take care of all the rest too (see Romans 8:32, part of one of my favorite chapters of the Bible). <i>But does my heart follow? </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Isaiah says in 26:3, "You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Perfect peace, huh? Hmmm....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(I'm taking a moment to stop what I'm doing, stare out the window long enough to kind of daydream and picture that, and imagine such a thing...hold on a sec.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">*heaving a long sigh* Oh, to feel such a peace all the time. It's not like being zonked out by a hypnotist. It's not like being high or drunk and you just feel no inhibitions. It's not even so much a feeling of any kind, but rather a state of being. It's a knowledge. It's knowing that I'm never in control of all the moving parts of it all, and <i>that's ok. GOD'S GOT IT.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This Isaiah 26 passage gives us the rundown on how each method of handling worries or going after our own agendas works out. Pretty simple stuff:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Be arrogant, think it's all about me, or trample on others in life - Watch! God will humble me (and, as experience shows, I just won't find what I'm chasing after by my own means. Even if I manage to, it'll be fleeting, and will escape me in time...). Trust in the LORD, however, and leave it all up to him, and, as verse 7 says, he will "smooth out the path ahead of them." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Personally, I'm partial to smooth paths. Whenever I'm going somewhere, literally or proverbially, the smoother the path, the easier and more enjoyable the trip. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Promises of God are worth my believing. I can keep running in circles and getting dizzy over fixating on my own efforts and accountability for things, even the needs and responsibilities of life...Or I can remember that Jesus himself declared God to be "the one thing needful," and trustingly envision all the rest of my worries and needs being tended to. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God doesn't play Hide and Seek. He's always right there. My own crazy search and rescue missions of all the other stuff of life take me off into all these other directions, into thickets and bogs and dense dark forests, or into endless deserts or barren, steep mountainsides, or off into unceasing, bobbing, swelling oceans. I seek the "stuff," and I get lost. I get lost, and then I <i>feel </i>lost. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-Xd8uCo2x1D8GzdSKbrTz4AWKe-AJOZ0Lrs7VuucsAgBiJM1GuXHmWO7zM_9uXOiGweSIHwGDP-2qpXUNxqcDsB8F_jq342LHRNJXHxTSX-aL-h9wts8J14H7W2_k39wOEV51ppBdEY/s1600/Feeling+Lost.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-Xd8uCo2x1D8GzdSKbrTz4AWKe-AJOZ0Lrs7VuucsAgBiJM1GuXHmWO7zM_9uXOiGweSIHwGDP-2qpXUNxqcDsB8F_jq342LHRNJXHxTSX-aL-h9wts8J14H7W2_k39wOEV51ppBdEY/s1600/Feeling+Lost.jpeg" height="256" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But then I take my Lord at his word, and go seeking after him. What do I find when I get there? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That he's already busy taking care of the arrangements and needs and concerns anyway. He just wanted me to trust, seek, and find him to know that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He wants me to fixate on him and thereby see him loving me as only God can. He wants me to catch him in the act of loving me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That sounds like a pretty awesome design. </span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-52838375159979281742014-12-31T20:09:00.000-08:002014-12-31T20:09:36.064-08:00The Newness and the Maker<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">New Year's Eve can bring some of the most mixed emotions. I don't know what <i>yours </i>are this year, as 2014 ebbs out and prepares to give way to the new tide of 2015, but mine are certainly a mixed bag. There's nostalgia in reliving a few fond memories, remorse over some of the mistakes made or time I can call wasted - the missed opportunities, and there's expectation that comes from wondering how this blank slate before me will be written on. Will it hold many of the things I anticipate, or only a few? Will it be a year I'll look back on in 12 months and call a "good" or "bad" year? Part of my spirit really deeply longs for it to be a good year. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For some, there's no emotions about New Year's. Some are plain old numb about it. Maybe it's been a moot thing for you for as long as you can remember, and you just want the hullabaloo to pass so normal life can get back into swing. Or maybe you've just recently become disenfranchised with all the fuss made about such things as nostalgia, commiseration, catharsis, and resolutions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or maybe the pain of something that's hovering over your life like the deep darkness of these winter nights, that comes too early and lingers too late, is what's got you numb towards New Year's Eve this year. You just can't shed the dragging heft of this ugly weight in your life, and a calendar flip can't change squat about that. So what's the point? It's another day. So what? Working in retail as I do currently sure brings to light how many people might be, or admittedly are, living that way, as they have no issue spending all their time in a furniture store on a holiday, whether as a customer or employee, or have no special plans to do anything at home with family or friends. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My friend, I can't account for all that <i>you </i>may be feeling as we sit at the doorstep of another year. I can't be sure exactly what might be cheapening the potential value of another New Year. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But as I found myself thinking about this concept of "newness," I realized that it's all about the making.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Nothing can be new unless it's <i>made </i>new.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the most powerfully moving scenes in the 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ" was when Jesus, played by Jim Caviezel, took another of his nasty spills while struggling to carry his cross out of the city of Jerusalem and up to the crucifixion site on Golgotha. At this particular moment of the movie, the anxiety of Christ's path with the burden of the cross upon him, mixed with surging sorrowful music that mimicked the anguish of those around him who loved and followed him, mounted with Jesus' mother, Mary, running to his side after trying to work through the crowds to reach him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There, joining him for a heart-wrenching moment on her knees, as her son, the Son of God, panted for his labored breath and peered over to her with blood running all over his face, she tried to console him, and her motherly heart broke for him in his pain. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus, though, despite his suffering and fatigue, still had his mind set on the purpose of all of it, and showed that he still believed in what he was about to accomplish. He took her face in a bloody hand, gently pointed it towards his so she was close enough to hear his chortled words, and uttered,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>"Behold, mother, I make all things new..."</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Tonight my point is very simply this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Jesus Christ is the one who makes this year new, and makes you new too. </b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"But I'm broken. I haven't felt whole inside in so long," you say.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Doesn't matter. Christ makes you new. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"But this relationship is strained to the point of breaking, and I have no fight left in me to work on fixing it."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Doesn't matter. Christ makes you and your relationships new.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"But this addiction I've battled for years just won't let me go. It's got a grip so tight on me that I can't imagine being free."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Doesn't matter. Christ makes you and your behavior new. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"But I'm so lonesome and feel like I have no one to love me."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"But I'm broke and sick of feeling like a failure."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"But I'm afraid of what my illness, my cancer, my condition, my chronic pain will bring in the days to come."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"But I just doubt that anything good is ever going to truly happen to me."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"But I am numb, and done with trying."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Doesn't matter. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christ has made all things new. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It didn't look very promising in that dire moment when Christ was on his knees, bleeding, aching, sore from beatings, dirty and spit upon, and mentally taxed from all the hateful mocking of his opponents. He knew that death awaited him. But he rose from the ground and got back to his feet, shrugged the cross back onto the peak of his shoulder, and carried forward to that crucifixion site. There, even though his death sentence was carried out, the bitterness and ugliness of an apparent defeat was the victory mankind needed. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was a victory YOU and I needed. It made us new. It made everything new and changed everything forever. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Your newness is not a cape to throw on whenever you feel triumphant enough to play the superhero in life. It's not a badge to wear proudly emblazoned on your chest when you have a day of proud accomplishment. It's not something you can take off and put back on - it's a part of you. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Even in whatever feels ugly, disappointing, heartbreaking, maddening, or despicable in your life or in your very self, there is a newness that was MADE...made by Jesus on that day he died for you. That newness was assigned to you by his mercy, and whatever things that are weighing on you now as you contemplate another new year cannot erase that from within you. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I wish for hope for you, my friend. Don't see the darkness. It's a disguise, no matter how real or convincing. The darkness of the world, and our lives that are affected daily by sin, is a shroud that only just barely hides the light beneath. That's temporary. Christ has promised to come back again one day, and take all those who belong to him home to enjoy Paradise, and leave this shroud of darkness and numbness behind. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Wait on that day, and let that hope and expectation color over the gloom and numbness that sits in your heart. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />You are new. You may not feel it in this moment, but I pray you will realize it again and grab onto its sturdy truth like a bold hiking staff that will help you climb life's mountains. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2015 may not look like much as it approaches. But remember, the night is always deepest and darkest before the dawn. The light is coming. It's a light of hope, and it cannot be contained. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>It's the light of newness, and it springs from your soul. It was made by someone, to live inside you, and that someone is the Lord, Jesus Christ. </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">May your New Year be truly <i>joyful</i>, because of salvation and a home waiting in Heaven, regardless of how happy you are tonight. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's a New Year.....and a new you.</span></div>
Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-48922480968372007552014-12-13T20:13:00.000-08:002014-12-13T20:13:36.176-08:00Weak is the New Strong<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjScsRN43skrAL4mU6wR4BhV3AOsysaH_fOFjMv86408m1Tjku8J2-QeVFa4FV_8_5MsBAgukI2JyP4_v4V0CQEd-uhen8nhGLbpK5pK1Kmg46EGhWJCWlKAFyT9KFUE9aBkhF94bnbyaw/s1600/Thorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjScsRN43skrAL4mU6wR4BhV3AOsysaH_fOFjMv86408m1Tjku8J2-QeVFa4FV_8_5MsBAgukI2JyP4_v4V0CQEd-uhen8nhGLbpK5pK1Kmg46EGhWJCWlKAFyT9KFUE9aBkhF94bnbyaw/s1600/Thorn.jpg" height="207" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Are you strong? Are you powerful, a conquering warrior who
has never lost a fight? Are you the kind of man or woman who strolls with swag
into any room and people notice, and everything just goes your way? Are you the
owner of a spotless rap sheet, the doer of all noble deeds, with no scars or
emotional wounds to speak of? Do you pretty much have life by the tail, and the
world is going to be missing out something fierce if it doesn't know about you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then stop reading this, and move along. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But are you weak? Are you always plagued by that thing - you
know what it is for you - that sticks in your craw, that keeps you up at night,
that rears its ugly, annoying little head whenever you're poised for a personal
victory? Are you more on the downtrodden, delicate, self-deprecating side of
self-esteem? Do you hate feeling weak, being weak, coming up lame, never coming
through in the clutch, and it's all because of that doggone weakness
inside? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then I'm talking to you....and I know exactly how you
feel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">AND...I have fantastic news for you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You see, it's ok to be weak. It's ok that you are weak
sometimes, and that you have this weakness that taunts you and trips you up in
critical times. In fact, it's more than ok. It's a reason to throw a party, for
crying out loud!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As your party music of choice starts thumping and the
balloons are inflating and the sparkly hats and champagne are being passed
around, let me tell you why it's ok that the banner hanging from the ceiling at
your personal party says "Congratulations, Weakling!"</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>.........It's because weak is the new strong.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GNRRQCeGufVnXahOq59hynM1OzWjYMSldxXrRDr9grHTo1aecCveNDXBdEnnkVVk3vIhQmtwXMnCNuCO49Q2AJGhhZnR-50GllOJvA01RmqzBwOhz5Q0hk-_zySAimkC-F9GS0LZqJ8/s1600/Party+time.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GNRRQCeGufVnXahOq59hynM1OzWjYMSldxXrRDr9grHTo1aecCveNDXBdEnnkVVk3vIhQmtwXMnCNuCO49Q2AJGhhZnR-50GllOJvA01RmqzBwOhz5Q0hk-_zySAimkC-F9GS0LZqJ8/s1600/Party+time.jpeg" height="155" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let's talk about St. Paul. No one, and I mean no one, had
more to boast about than he did. He had the ministry all ministry-minded people
would die for, and technically, he almost did die for it a number of times
(see: Laundry List of Run-In's, Near Death Experiences, and Hardships of
Paul...you'll have to read most of the New Testament after the book of Acts to
get that list, but it'll be worth it), and ultimately his faith cost him his life.
But the guy was pretty much the main catalyst to the growth of the Christian
church around the known world in the Roman Empire in the first century A.D. He
was a missionary extraordinaire, and when he talked, or wrote an epistle,
people paid attention. From a human standpoint, Paul did work, son. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But if you know his story of his life as Saul, you'll also
know that no one had more reason to be ashamed, and he called himself the Chief
of Sinners in his writings. He was a prime persecutor of the church of Christ
at first, and about the closest thing to a member of ISIS in his day. Yet he
spent his later years in life leading and growing that very body of followers
of Jesus after a dramatic conversion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Paul spends the first few verses of chapter 12 of his second
letter to the church he planted in Corinth talking about boasting. He
references a story of amazing church lore where a man was called to heaven and
heard [and saw] "inexpressible things." That would be a guy worth
bragging about. What a rock star HE must have been. But, Paul says, "Me?
Nothing to write home about, unless of course you want to talk about my
weaknesses." In verse 5 he says </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>"I will boast about a man like that, but I will not
boast about myself, except about my weaknesses."</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Not exactly something you'd hear many men say, is it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's not like this was a cultural thing. Men in those times
in that part of the world - or any part, for that matter - always wanted to be
macho. They rarely wanted to show or admit any weakness, and that's no
different from men today. In our culture today there's an obsession about
power. I can't say for sure that it's only a male thing, but it sure weighs
heavier on men to be powerful, and not talk about what's weak in us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Nobody likes to talk about their weaknesses, much less admit
they have any to begin with.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've seen it. You've seen it. Most men - and many women too
- will run from their weaknesses. If the weaknesses are uncovered by others,
the next thing they'll run from is therapy, or any healthy solution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Power is everything today. It's attractive, engaging,
commanding, and sexy. It conveys status, dominance, mastery of something,
dependability, value. Power and strength also offer a protective shield for our
pride. The rich, famous, and powerful never have to let the world in, or have
their weaknesses on display, unless they choose to. Even the average Joe wants
to stay carefully protected behind whatever power he can project into his
world. Weakness, on the other hand, is a time-waster. It's inconvenient. It
bogs down the company, the family, the team, the church ministry...Who wants to
deal with that? Just ask Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He ain't got time
to bleed. Who of us has time for weakness? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>God does</b>. For the Maker of the Universe, who loves his
people immensely and beyond our comprehension, weakness is opportunity for him.
Not opportunity to exploit, but to come to the rescue, to shine, and to
advertise to the world, that weakness is ok because HE is strong - at all
times, in all things, and for everyone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:7 that he had a "thorn in
my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We all have thorns, don't we? Paul goes on to redefine this
thorn as merely a "weakness." Something in him that he preferred not
to have or deal with, that slowed him down, embarrassed him, and made him feel
inadequate or vulnerable, and Satan routinely used it against him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What's your thorn</b>? We all have them. We all have a
personal area of weakness that feels to the psychological side like a little,
obnoxious thorn lodged in the skin, that can't be pulled out with a tweezers.
We've worked to eradicate these thorny weaknesses, and we've covered them up a
thousand times, but they just....won't....go...away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So we turn to God eventually, after all of man's grand
efforts fail miserably to renew himself and develop personally into some
self-made giant within. We come to that breaking point in life when we just
HAVE TO be rid of the thorn or it'll do us in, and cause despair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>"How many times have you heard me cry out,<o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>'God, please take this'?<o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>How many times have you given me strength to<o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>just keep breathing?<o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Oh, I need you...<o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>God, I need you now."</b></i></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These lyrics from a song by the Christian musician Plumb
come ringing into my head when I think of my thorn, my weakness (YouTube the
song after reading this, it's an awesome, powerful song - seeing her perform it
live brought me to tears). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did you know Paul cried out to God for his thorn to be taken
away three times? Seeing how Paul describes his ordeal with this "thorn in
the flesh," and knowing how my own life has gone, I'm guessing this wasn't
three times all on Thursday one week, back in Shevat of 57 (that's like saying
"January of 2014"). I'm guessing it was at three separate passages of
time, in seasons of his life and ministry, when he had good,
knock-down-drag-out prayer sessions with the Lord that culminated quieter
periods of ongoing inner turmoil, and he pleaded with God to eradicate this
weakness from his existence. We all know what it's like to feel like we just
can't go on unless the weakness is taken away. The thorn may be a tiny little
thing in our emotional skin, but its weight is tremendous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But just as God didn't choose to remove the cancer of sin
from mankind's fabric with a wave of a magic wand, neither did he choose to
take Paul's thorn away. Nor does he just make ours go away either -
not all the time. Rather, he redeems the thorns. <b>He redeemed us, through
Jesus Christ, thus giving us a new standing with God that overcomes the
relevance of the thorns.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is how Paul described it: </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>"But [the Lord] said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for
you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' " (verse 9a)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've had a real weakness in me revealed in recent weeks that
sort of defies what I've always thought of myself, and shakes my confidence in
an area where I always felt I was strong. It's definitely going to be a thorn
going forward. When this kind of thorn shows up - and some days I think of have
several others, too - it leaves a man feeling suddenly more vulnerable about
the things he wants to take on in his future. The trust in oneself to win
life's battles can be eroded so thoroughly when you find yourself staring face
to face with a glaring weakness. Is it time to panic? Is it time to crumple up
the plans or dreams I've drawn up and throw them aside? It is time to curl up
and get overrun with depression?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Not even close. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It's party time, people. It's cause for celebration! </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>"...I will boast all the more gladly about my
weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's
sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in
difficulties..." (verse 10)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why, Paul? How does that make any sense?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>"For when I am weak, then I am strong." (end
of verse 10)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">During all the years of human history, and in all those
microcosmic individual moments in fallen people's lives, leading up to the day
Christ hung on the cross, mankind was very weak. Sin itself, and the eternal
spiritual death sentence it brought along, was the elephant in the room, and
the thorn in the flesh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What were we going to do?? How were we going to overcome
it?? How could it ever be right again?? Why would God our Father in heaven ever
want anything to do with impure, weak people like us??<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But on that beautifully black Friday afternoon, as Jesus
gave up his last breath, uttering "Tetelestai" ("It is
finished"), he made it all right. He overcame it. He tore down the heavy
veil that hung between us and our holy God, and brought wayward sons and
daughters back together again with their daddy. He redeemed us. His
unbelievable, sacrificial display of love that we couldn't possibly deserve -
better known as "GRACE" - stepped into human history as he died, and
it made us -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>FORGIVEN.</b> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It made us strong, though we were weak on our own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God used Paul, his rockstar of a missionary, whose name has
graced many a chapel or cathedral around the world since his time, as a
striking example of a man being kept humble through weakness. If such a man
would only brag on himself with respect to the stuff the rest of us would laugh
or sneer at, then I think the rest of us can take a page out of his
journal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So let the party go on. Take a selfie of that weakness.
Don't be ashamed of it. Continue to work on yourself, sure, and seek to glorify
your Lord through personal growth and a constant maturation of your faith and
spiritual life. But NEVER, EVER let your weakness become reason to despair. Let
it put a smile on your face. Even though that smile would be an impossible
thing for the face of someone who doesn't yet know that Jesus' love is for them
too, YOU can smile it up big time. You can throw that party and boast in the
weakness that God allows you to live with, because it means something
powerful...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It means God is on display. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If we were strong all the time, in every way, the world
would look at us. We don't want that. We want them to look at Jesus. Weak is
the new strong. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>When you're weak, God gets to be strong</b>. <b>He gets to do all
over again, through you and your thorn, what he once did in the most glorious
way as he bought us back from sin and death. </b>He's using you and your
weakness as the stage to show how awesome a God he is and how awesomely he can
come through for fallen people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For people like me, who are so fallen and weak, that's some
pretty fantastic news! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Next time that thorn shows up....Let that initial reaction
pass, then go look in the mirror, and say to yourself, "That's right! Now
God can show up!"</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-58782238888917015462014-12-07T18:15:00.001-08:002014-12-07T18:15:23.544-08:00The Perfect Impossibility<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Want to talk about something that's really an impossible mission? How about figuring out what God is up to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We've all been there. Whether it be the little, almost meaningless things that still get under my skin, like how my dutiful and studious efforts to select the optimal fantasy football roster still blow up in my face...or the big things, like why a loved one would get cancer, why poor children around the world are going hungry, why a certain politician is allowed to remain in office, or why my wheels of purpose in life seem to spin in the mud...So many issues find me staring up at the sky, asking God: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>"What are you up to??"</i></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A passage of Scripture I bumped into the other day really made me sit back and think about this tendency to strive for figuring God out. It was Ecclesiastes 11:5. Check it out:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>"As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I don't think this crazed desire to have God and his "work" all figured out is anything new. Many of the oldest philosophical works delve deeply into the heart of logic, trying to apply paradigms onto the divine that mankind has established which allow us to make sense of the world around us. There seems to be certain categories of things that science can explain, or other patterns that math or reasoning can rationalize or justify. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But God is in a category all his own, isn't he? He really is. Sometimes we explain things going differently than we'd expect with light-hearted sayings like "God must have a sense of humor." Sometimes we get downright miffed about things. Other times a person may find him or herself at the winter of their lifetime, looking back across decades of being upset at God all over a single event that shook their trust in him simply because it couldn't be understood. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The writer of this passage in Ecclesiastes was told by God himself to write these exact words so there'd be no uncertainty. There are just some things we're not meant to understand. By God's grace it's been made perfectly clear what we can understand about his plan to save us by orchestrating human history to create a time when it would be right for his son to come to Earth as Jesus Christ, become our substitute, and die in our place and rise to defeat sin and death. Aside from that, how he operates is really quite a mystery. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well, that's not entirely true. There are other principles about God and how he works that we find ourselves being educated on by Sunday morning sermons in church. And those lessons are to be taken seriously. But still, sometimes we just can't know why God did this, or allowed that to happen, or did this thing over here when normally one would assume he'd do that over there instead. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why do we try so hard to make sense of every last little thing? There's really nothing we human beings don't want to have figured out, is there? It's even worse with how we view God. We demand answers and explanations. We claim to have him or his behavior defined completely, and then when he breaks our mold, or goes beyond what we can fathom, it perturbs us. Why?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I personally think it's a couple traits in action, possibly simultaneously in some cases. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>First of all, there's PRIDE.</b> We are some seriously egotistical people. Especially nowadays in the 21st century, when so much of the prevailing philosophy of the times indoctrinates us with ubiquitous materialism, antsy instant gratification, and entitlement. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>We want it all, we want it now, and it's because WE DESERVE IT, doggone it!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The discussion of what's wrong with this <i>hubris</i>, as it's long been called, is deep enough for another time. The fact is, simply put, that it's flat out wrong. It's very near-sighted and narrow-minded. It's full of self and no one else, and definitely devoid of God, our heavenly father who has in mind the temporal wellbeing <i>and</i> eternal destiny of each of the 7.13 billion people (give or take) currently living on the planet. When you put it into perspective that way, the relevance of a single event, even as severe as contracting a terminal illness, for the life of just one person, is miniscule in relation to the grander scale of Earth's population. As for something like my fantasy football week not going my way? Well, we won't even go there....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Then there's another factor, FEAR</b>. We simply lack the composure to let some things go on unexplained. We are terrified of not being able to account for all the ramifications of an event, an issue, a change, a loss, an occurrence, a lingering question that seems to be bound for finding no resolution. We can't handle the thought of not knowing why God operates as he does sometimes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>But trust, as in faith, in our amazing God, is two things:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>It's necessary, and it's beautiful.</b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's necessary because, well, as that Scripture passage's author points out, <b>"...you CANNOT understand the work of God, the Maker of all things." </b>It just ain't happening. Just as impossible as it is for us to truly explain, much less comprehend, the miracle of conception of life in the womb, and just as impossible to predict perfectly how the wind and weather will behave - c'mon, meterologists, you know what I'm talking about - so is it with having God pegged. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And really, why <i>should</i> we? We are, after all, the creation. Not the creator. How could the minds of the beings who were fashioned from the boundless creative genius of an all powerful, divine craftsman POSSIBLY exist on the same par with that Creator's mind and consciousness? <i>That</i> really wouldn't make sense, actually. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I said, it's also a beautiful thing to trust God too. Trust without the explanation is something God craves for us to have, as part of the loving relationship he drew up for us and him. He wants us to see him as an infinitely more perfect father than the Earthly ones we all have had, whom many of us have been able to trust fairly blindly because we knew their love, and we loved them in return. The vibrant examples of followers and believers in God who simply fall back and expect God to catch them because of that loving trust, and assured affection, lend themselves as beautiful models for those of us who long for a peace of mind that only those trusting ones understand. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>It's the effortless, fluid, artful image of a dancing partner knowing the other understands the moves to be made, and knowing that the footsteps will fall where they ought, and trusting that when it's time to be twirled in the air, they will be caught and spun on into the next delightful dance move. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The biggest challenge of faith, that can engender this trust without explanations, might just be a letting go. It's a not-needing-to-know. It's recognition that he's told us, in passages like Ecclesiastes 11:5, "My son, my daughter, you just aren't going to be able to know. You won't be able to understand it. You're not meant to. You're meant to have faith in me, and watch me work."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a humbling idea, and an often times abrasive one for very natural parts of our human fabric. But faith is meant to transcend the frailties and shortcomings of what human nature has been ever since the Fall into sin. It's an opportunity to lay down pride, and to push past fear. It's meant to be a confidence that no matter how crazy, or scary, the dance moves, we WILL be caught, and the beautiful dance will go on perfectly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This isn't an impossible mission to trust God. With faith, it's all very possible....because with God, all things ARE possible.</span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-33909620021367525062014-11-25T21:37:00.000-08:002014-11-25T21:37:00.491-08:00The One-Sentence-Stand<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 20px;">"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." Exodus 20:7</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t want
to be one of those bloggers whose published thoughts are always ones of tirade,
ranting, or admonition. I aspire to be a writer, and an individual, who keeps
growing in his propensity towards speaking in positives, with uplifting ideas
or messages, and in encouragement. I’m learning the timeless lesson, slowly but
surely, that no matter how many things exist that can technically be
criticized, there’s no shortage of condemnation, so why should I add to the pile
of negative? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But
sometimes, a Christian’s conscience is led by the Spirit to stand up for God
and his Word. And that’s what I’m doing right now. Read the passage above again
if you need to, to remember that this isn’t my platitude I’m making up. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, before
I go further, if you’re a non-Christian reading this post, I respect that and
don’t expect you to hold yourself to standards a Christian like me advocates
just for morality’s sake or anything. If you adopt this mantra, great! But I’m
talking to my brothers and sisters who share my faith in Jesus Christ right
now. And, by the way, I’m doing so under the acknowledgement that we have all
fallen short in this regard before, in word or thought, perhaps many times
over. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But let’s
talk about a simple, three-letter acronym that’s becoming alarmingly common in
typed usage or imagery in our society, from all parties. The three words it
actually stands for are used – and abused – just as regularly out loud, without
much thought whatsoever. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m talking
about <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“O
M G”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of us
don’t use the acronym anywhere, at any time, nor does the expression come out
of the mouth, unless in actual, fervent prayer (where it belongs). For others of
us, this is something that’s a rare slip of the tongue, something born of habit
and influenced by the speech patterns of a society that really shows no regard
for tastefulness or reverence anymore. For many of us, though, this is a common
violation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Violation?”
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yup. That’s
an abrasive word, I know. But – and again, I’m speaking to those whom I should
be able to hold accountable, as I pray you do with me, my fellow
Jesus-followers – if we go against what God has commanded us to do in our
behavior, who of us can soften the blow of that verdict? It’s sin. It’s a
rupturing of the 2<sup>nd</sup> commandment, in this case. It’s violation. God
handed down ten mandates through Moses, long ago, for his people to learn to
show love towards each other, and, first and foremost, to their God, who was so
mighty and awe-inspiring in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. Nothing has
changed in those few thousand years, about what God expects of the behavior of
his people who are His Chosen through faith. So, yeah, it’s harsh to call it
like it is, but it has to be done. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The OMGs must stop,
folks. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I mean,
really… This pops up everywhere. It feels to me like I read it in every third
post on Facebook each day (i.e. “OMG, this recipe for these kale smoothies is
to die for!”). I’m pretty picky about who I keep in my Facebook circles, and
whose posts I allow to be seen, and still it’s rampant. It shows up in common
conversation among adults, too, and especially when it happens around my 3 and
5 year old sons, my ears burn just a little, because I know how impressionable
they are at that age. There’s only so much censoring of what I don’t agree with
that can be done. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is something God
called us to keep sacred, and it’s something we deserve to be called out on
when we slip up.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you get
down to it, whether we’ve been unwittingly trained into it by the influence of
the world around us or not, misusing God’s name is really just uncalled for,
when you recall who God <i>is</i>. His name
is a name above all names. Even though others may mean Allah when they say God,
or some other deity, or just a vague higher power who remains without much true
identity in their mind, when a <i>Christian </i>says
the name “God,” we are invoking the Almighty, triune God, who created this
universe, who sent his dearly loved son to a horrible death on a cross for OUR
salvation, and who gives us his Spirit of truth and enlightenment, to live
above the ways of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think we
just flat out forget who God is when the “OMGs” fly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would we
utter that expression if we knew God was physically right around the corner,
right in the next cubicle, right behind us in the movie theater, right in the
next room while we watch a football game??<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I doubt it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, and by the way…he is (physically
right there).<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brothers and
sisters, we are to be the light of the world…Something blindingly beautiful and
noble for the darkened world to see. We are to be the salt, a presence that
gives God-pleasing flavor to humanity. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." - Colossians 4:6</span></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just want
to encourage everyone to join me in resolving to keep this commandment better.
We can do better, we really can. And not because we want a better, shinier
church-people report card. Not because it’ll get us in good with God and usher
us a little closer to the front of some line into heaven. Not even so much
because it’ll be strikingly different and pure compared to the speech of those “in
the world.” Let’s do it because God is awesome, and his name deserves to be
protected. Let’s protect it from carelessness and abuse. Let’s keep it special,
reserving it just for those spiritually meaningful moments of prayer. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact, let’s
treat God’s name, even in acronym format, just like we would our very selves,
when holding back, waiting, biding our time in intimacy for that special time after
marriage when the union brings man and wife together in one flesh. We wait for
that special completer, the spouse-to-be, the love of our lives, until the
wedding night, and then revel in the delicacy and novelty of that time. It’s
special because we waited, and reserved, and abstained, for the right occasion.
Let’s do the same with God’s holy name. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s so
tough, I know… It feels like an impossible mission to take back words we’ve
spoken, or to change them going forward. But Christ has forgiven our sins of
careless speech and irreverent use of his name, and with the power we have
through God, we CAN change our habits, one day at a time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No more
one-sentence-stands with God’s name. No more one-Facebook-status-stands with
the name of our Creator, deliverer, and best and truest friend. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let’s save that holy,
awesome, worthy-above-all-other-names name – GOD – for the right moments. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prayer and
praise, that’s it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let’s make
it special. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let’s show
our God how much he and his identity mean to us. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-45394949734564030522014-10-29T23:27:00.000-07:002014-10-29T23:27:26.769-07:00Line in the Sand<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMrEObdMEaJQxZ4VEHVmWzTIWWIgimG2F9xeXNhDpulLU2feqBjteHkQ607KfMNUqlhxJmkSop_PbdfHyFZzYO3AmrHcFaqEEurvricWcnzbstWav3E9WtDqqv84iPyN7VHjVutIJmk5k/s1600/IMG_20141030_002123.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMrEObdMEaJQxZ4VEHVmWzTIWWIgimG2F9xeXNhDpulLU2feqBjteHkQ607KfMNUqlhxJmkSop_PbdfHyFZzYO3AmrHcFaqEEurvricWcnzbstWav3E9WtDqqv84iPyN7VHjVutIJmk5k/s1600/IMG_20141030_002123.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"It's been ten years strong,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> That's much too long,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> It's time to do something good for my health,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> Time to do something good for myself..."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">("Bug Eyes" by Dredg)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Within the past couple years I've been applying (or trying to) a powerful principle:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> </i><b>"Never leave the scene of a decision without </b></span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">taking an action step in its direction."</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A line has been drawn in the sand of my life. There's no movie-like experience, no surreal epiphany, no trauma that's occurred that's causing this line to be drawn. No, it's just a plain ol' decision. A "for crying out loud, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" decision. A life decision. And I'm letting the world know about it. This way, I'm accountable to you all. I've spoken it into existence, and as of today it becomes a part of the Jeff Ulrich that's publicly known. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In senior year of high school I weighed 225 lbs. At that weight I bench pressed 250 lbs., I could squat 400 lbs., and ran a 4.8 40-yard dash - I was about the 3rd fastest on our varsity football team by my recollection. (The picture above was me at 20, 2 years removed from senior year, but in roughly the same shape)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In these years since, I've gradually become someone, physically, that I certainly shouldn't be at only 31, as a father of two young boys, and as a husband to a beautiful woman. It's time to put to an end this pitiful slide that has seen me ride the excuses of a busy grown-up's life like a rented mule. Tonight, that mule is being taken out back and given the shotgun treatment, cuz it needs to be put out of its misery. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm tired of self-deprecating jokes. I'm tired of using the lines like "Hey, I'm in shape - round is a shape," or "I've got a six-pack under my keg," etc around other out-of-shape guys. I'm tired of being a prisoner to the reality that I let years of raising children, holding down stressful jobs, not always having money for the healthiest foods, or being "too busy" to work out, rob me of being in the kind of fitness I owe to myself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm done with hating what I see in the mirror. I'm done with not wanting my picture taken. I'm done with aches and pains that can be passed off onto other sources but that also have to do with being overweight. I'm done with never having the energy to tackle life's challenges, AND my continually buried ambitions, with the vigor that I want. I'm done with feeling like picking clothes to wear is a choice between evils. I'm done with lying to myself that when my blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol are always just fine at doctor visits that it means I'm "healthy." I'm done with the discontent, the lack of self-confidence, the bitterness, and the sloth...and knowing that it's all my fault. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So here is the line in the sand. It starts here and now, once and for all. This is a mission that is NOT impossible. With my God Almighty behind me, I will not and cannot fail. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My action step is this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Between today and April 26th, 2015 I will be training for a 5K run in Milwaukee. It's called Sweet Home Milwaukee 5K, and its open for registration. Here's the link:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">sweethomemilwaukee.weebly.com</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4pOQS0qUofV3Ad0lFSrzBcQ_LB9VAoQ9e3CjviCLvi0pukFhbZ1ItQZa4PpBPzKg8vcFJN8Xh62-nF2RjtcRlz9OmDN_W2hHiCornsRnZ6jAuB0-THFLWHc3_xuUdHTezQOTcAw3iDbY/s1600/Sweet+Home+Milwaukee+5K.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4pOQS0qUofV3Ad0lFSrzBcQ_LB9VAoQ9e3CjviCLvi0pukFhbZ1ItQZa4PpBPzKg8vcFJN8Xh62-nF2RjtcRlz9OmDN_W2hHiCornsRnZ6jAuB0-THFLWHc3_xuUdHTezQOTcAw3iDbY/s1600/Sweet+Home+Milwaukee+5K.jpg" height="200" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For some of you out there this would be a joke. My own father, for example, runs this distance multiple times every week. It's a part of the habits he's maintained all his life. That is not my story though. For me, it'll mean a revolution of fitness in MY life. It'll mean pushing through plantar fasciitis and low back pain whenever I walk for more than a half mile. It'll mean getting my knees used to the feel of jogging, and getting my lungs used to running for long periods of time. It'll mean getting used to running 3.2 miles (5K) often enough that, come 4-25-15, I'll be able to PUSH myself to clock a great time on Race Day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This will be a huge, personal victory that I've been needing to go get for myself for a long time. And the intention is, it'll be a springboard to a consistently healthier future than what I've allowed myself in the past out of cowardice. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">By the way, I'm officially inviting anyone who reads this to join me that day, no matter where you are, to come out to Milwaukee and run the lakefront and enjoy the push. I can only imagine how cool it would be for me to culminate this long winter of training by seeing friends from everywhere gather - if you could - to support me and also do yourself the favor of making the run. Maybe some of you need to do something like this for YOURself too. A couple of you will be getting calls of personal request to run this with me, since I'll really hope for accountability partners in this journey. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am simultaneously filled with a jaw-clenched determination...and fear. I have so long to go....but I must. I've tried to start before and quit....but I can't this time. I've lived with a lot of lies about how important fitness is.....but those lies must be replaced with a new truth. I'm going to get weary, and feel like I don't have the support to make it...but I owe this to myself, to my kids, to my wife, and to everyone else in my life who'll gain from having a healthier Jeff around. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a battle that's a long time coming. I'm putting on my mental armor and bracing for the fight with myself. I need you all to help me though, too. I would appreciate all the prayers and encouragement you're all willing to dish out. Thank you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Right now a stern Bible passage that I've chosen to not apply more closely in my life is very much on my mind:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies." </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I will do this for my own sake. Yep. And I will do this to ensure I'm around and healthy for my family's sake. Indeed. But most of all..........I will do this to honor my God. I will do this to make a thanksgiving sacrifice that shows my Savior that I appreciate from deep down in my ferocious, courageous, capable male heart that he saved me and punched my ticket for heaven, and gave me this body to be the vessel for the good works he drew out for me from eternity past. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now....It's time for me to start kicking my own butt. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Giddyup. </span></div>
Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-32587537814446398802014-10-04T14:35:00.001-07:002014-10-04T14:35:04.338-07:00More Than Holding Doors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ph8gqCTdLv1DEAStdBqNyshz0ZJgJIjjGbH2NUqAjUZW0m6OYLATExNuIsYEiSQGP923bjgG0BDq_84FpEn8RJZT4suLnzLGjQAj7LMHKXz6EDiVNrO5OAoT9TQ-O2jQUsyPgIQTLeg/s1600/Chauvinist+FB+Poster+How+to+Train+Your+Wife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ph8gqCTdLv1DEAStdBqNyshz0ZJgJIjjGbH2NUqAjUZW0m6OYLATExNuIsYEiSQGP923bjgG0BDq_84FpEn8RJZT4suLnzLGjQAj7LMHKXz6EDiVNrO5OAoT9TQ-O2jQUsyPgIQTLeg/s1600/Chauvinist+FB+Poster+How+to+Train+Your+Wife.jpg" height="400" width="283" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now I'm just guessing that whoever made this up (I haven't researched it enough to know if it's a meme - whatever that is, a poster, a book cover, or what...and I don't care enough to), as well as my friend who posted it on Facebook today, is just doing it all in good fun. But it made me stop to think about the chauvinism it represents in light of the fact that this still is an issue at large in our society. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was reminded of that fact again recently within my own church circles when a woman who regularly attends our church spoke of her continued hesitation to fully join the church in membership because of her discomfort with the practice of asking women members not to vote in church assemblies. In her defense, her life's circumstances have given her little reason to feel like men have always been a solid example of leadership and sacrifice, so the idea of "submitting" to their authority - in church matters or otherwise - is hard to stomach. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The mention of this word "submit" is always a can-of-worms-opener, and often results in some diatribe about how women need to just learn better to understand the true denotation of the word ("My dear sister in the Lord, if you read this in the original Greek text, you find that this word really means....blah blah blah..."). At least that's happened in my experience, and I've probably even been the one to try and do the educating on it myself, what with my background in pastoral studies. But that's not what I'm going to divulge here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The way I see it, women wouldn't have to go through any special Bible class and get a full dissertation on what Christian submission among women/wives should truly look like, if only they had a predominant presence of examples of men living in <i>their </i>true roles all around them - - especially in the church and in God-fearing homes, where it should abound. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And so, switching gears, what is this true role of men?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNA-15JcDb-1SQhnONguge6obuKYqJir2sCi39jGHwv6BMmDibf8phkvecSlDOMgIVxQ5NUkoRJIX3FQEzRihyphenhyphenxzpV-A6Vl0-qqBmYmJNt3RdzvfeBtxB_2B7IerbdByayBGkh7eudYAI/s1600/Sacrifice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNA-15JcDb-1SQhnONguge6obuKYqJir2sCi39jGHwv6BMmDibf8phkvecSlDOMgIVxQ5NUkoRJIX3FQEzRihyphenhyphenxzpV-A6Vl0-qqBmYmJNt3RdzvfeBtxB_2B7IerbdByayBGkh7eudYAI/s1600/Sacrifice.jpg" height="188" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That's it: SACRIFICE.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All of the debate and discussion about men's and women's roles or the gender differences - especially within church circles - always seems to end up revolving around the wife's submission that Christ had St. Paul write about and instruct on in the Epistles of the Bible. Why is this? Why is one half of the equation so lopsidedly spoken of?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Probably because men aren't stepping up. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's not hard for me to make that statement and say it boldly and simply, because I'm a member of the guilty party, and I've observed men's behavior all my life. When the summation of the behavioral tendencies of men is viewed through the lens of the Word of God, which exposes sin for what it is, and also provides direction for how we're to live instead, we can see this plain as day. Men aren't sacrificing enough. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If men begin to overwhelmingly give women everywhere the evidence of their love and devotion through true sacrifice, in everyday life, women's hearts will begin to find the reason to soften enough to positively view submitting - in God's way - and have no issue with it anymore. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I won't post it here - you can look it up yourself and let the words speak to you for a moment by yourself - but Ephesians 5:21-33 paints a picture that puts quite the onus on the men. Everything that God set up in the church, in society, and in the home, is really meant to be a model or reflection of God's relationship with mankind. The summary of that relationship, of course, is the ever-popular John 3:16:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This passage is about a love of sacrifice. God's love for fallen man was so fierce that he made the heart-wrenching decision to commission his son, Jesus, to come down to Earth where he could live in our place, and ultimately die in sacrifice on the cross, to make atonement for all sins of everyone of all time. This made it possible for us to have a heavenly eternal destiny at God's side when life ends, rather than suffer separation from the God who loves us because of our horrible sins. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This, friends, THIS is what men are supposed to model. This is about more than holding doors. This is about more than remembering anniversaries, birthdays, and flowers and chocolates on Valentine's. It's about more than poetry, candle-lit dinners, naming stars after her, buying jewelry, and so on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For those of us who've had a Wedding Day, in that moment when vows were read/recited, and the words came from smiling mouths as our eyes were locked and we stood in front of God and witnesses, talking about steadfastness in sickness and health, sturdiness in poverty and wealth, fidelity at all times, and unconditional love, didn't a part of us valiantly recall those times in adolescence or dating when we thought about loving someone (perhaps her) so much that we'd die for her?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Enough about dying for the girl. That's one moment of courage. In fact, for most red-blooded decent men, that's an almost instinctive thing that we have ingrained into us, by a God who designed us to be protectors, and by a society that has always lauded machismo and valor. That - the dying for her....that's nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Women will embrace their role that God made for them - i.e. to submit by following our lead, letting us speak for them in important matters, letting us be the main teachers of God's Word to our household, etc. as soon as they start to see that men are LIVING - really living - for their wives. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But why do we stink at this so much, guys? I think of myself and what I've done to fail at being the man and husband and leader that my wife has always needed and deserved, and it makes me feel like a hypocrite for even typing this. I think of how easy it was to try and sweep her off her feet, woo her and win her heart, serve her and be thoughtful for her, when our relationship was young. But we settle in for the long haul after a while. We become comfortable with an arrangement. We fool ourselves into thinking it was all about persuading her into a contract, or selling her on the product of us and our love, and then, once the ink on the paper is dry - why bother? That's what our sinful hearts begin to believe later on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But when we're numbly going along, acting that way, showing little sacrificial love to our women, we are in essence forgetting Christ's sacrifice for us. I so quickly and so often forget the raging vibrancy of the love that compelled Jesus to do everything he did, say everything he said, live every day as he did, and allow himself to be killed in crucifixion by hateful enemies, so that I could go free. If only I wouldn't forget... Cuz when I remember this model, my joy and thankfulness bursts into a flame of passionate and courageous desire to live for my wife and lay down whatever of mine must be lain down, so that she can be loved. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Respect is something to be earned, it's not based on titles. No woman reading this should ever believe the lie that she should respect and submit herself to a man - namely her husband - because HE says so. Yes, God asks you to, and that's a directive worth obeying. But as far as men are concerned, the respect of women should be earned through our leading by example in the Lord's way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">More to the point of the woman connected with my church: Guys, we can do wonders to inspire the women that God asks to follow us in church applications if we employ this same Christian chivalry and sacrifice within our church interactions. God has handed down the huge responsibility to lead and navigate our churches, and homes, through the perilous seas of life and the mission of serving others with our life's work. Let's make the load of submission as light as a feather by laying ourselves down for the ladies, just as Christ did in his unfathomable love for those he bought back from sin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To my own wife, if you read this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm deeply sorry for a history of entitlement with you, for lack of true loyalty, for conditions in my love, for being easier to be around only when things are going well, and for dropping the ball on leading with vigor in our home and in society. Forgive me, sweetheart, for losing my God-based identity and being selfish. But you somehow have consistently held a high standard for yourself in living within God's role for you, serving in our home, guiding and nurturing our children, and respecting me and my flawed attempts to lead. I WOULD die for you, dear...I only want to do better to live sacrificially for you every day. Thank you from the depths of my heart, for your shining example to all women, and for your gracious submission to me as I try to die for you every day. With God's help and strength, becoming the man of God that you deserve - a sacrificing leader - is a mission that's definitely possible!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">God bless you all....</span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-23393140913886054552014-08-14T12:36:00.000-07:002014-08-14T12:36:12.663-07:00Good Things & God Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently an amusing, yet spiritually profound, thing happened in a brief text conversation between my wife and I. My wife was telling me about the outlook of her day and some obstacles she had to face. Being at work myself, I had no time to make a phone call and speak verbal reassurance and encouragement to her. So my thumbs of fury flew across the screen and off into cyber space went a text of quick encouragement including the line, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>"...Hope you can get a lot of God things done today."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Naturally, when I looked at my last entry a few seconds later, I noticed the apparent typo. See, I had used the "swype" texting method - I know, I'm so highly evolved, technologically, please hold your applause - and because I so often have to correct the auto-default word choice of "good" by swapping it with "God," this time my phone must've thought "God" was what I wanted in the sentence, not "good."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My instantaneous reaction was to think, in that brief glance down at my phone and my apparent typo, "Ach, that's not what I meant to type." Then I paused for a moment and read it again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next, what I typed to my wife was something along the lines of,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>"...meant to say "good" not "God"...but that's even better. :) "</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I was reminded of in that moment is that we should always be most concerned with getting "God things" done each day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>"God things" are better than just "good things," and in fact, when we're striving to do "God things," we'll get plenty of the right things done. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't remember exactly, but I suppose at that moment the subject of the text conversation between my wife and I probably centered around the usual tasks of everyday living. You know, the cleaning around the house that gets neglected...The things she needed to get on top of as an on-site apartment manager for the rental property where we live...Groceries or errands...The bills...Box after mundane, routine, annoyingly urgent box of our life's daily checklist. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We all worry about these things, don't we? We all get sucked into the craze of fulfilling each day's urgent checklist. But do we make sure it's the <i>important </i>things, and not necessarily the <i>urgent, </i>that are given our attention, and the full effort of our heart and will every day?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Remember: "Urgent" usually just means there's an element of promptness about the thing - and this is often an element that's twisted in our minds because of distraction (example: an email notification buzzing on your smartphone tells you to urgently look at it and respond). But "important" means that the effects of achieving that thing are of lasting significance. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a struggle to prioritize properly, especially when the Christian's values and priorities are a vastly different set of things from what most others live by, or live "under the thumb of."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because of our new status as forgiven, saved children of the one true God, we get to live in an awesome state of freedom that we can't always feel or detect through our earthly lenses, but that - nonetheless - exists in spiritual reality. <b>This means we are free to focus our lives each day on the things that matter to God, more than focusing on the day-to-day grind and all the peripheral checklist boxes. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not to say that we should neglect all other regular duties. Being responsible with everything that's on our plate shows thankfulness and faithfulness to God that he is proud of when we exhibit it. But the point is,<b> it's far better to have a moment of quality investment into the lives of our children, teaching them something, speaking the word of Jesus into their lives, and bestowing principles that root their foundation, than it is to have a squeaky clean kitchen at all times. </b>And lots of other things like that -- you fill in your own blanks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, as long as the things we accomplish each day center on our family, furthering our relationships and our love of, and devotion to, our God, in ways that will leave lasting impressions and growth in each other, THEN we've done the right "good things." THEN we have plenty of reason to exhale in satisfaction as our head hits the pillow for the night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>"These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. </b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates."</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>Deuteronomy 6:6-9</b></i></span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-70137987768070522542014-08-13T12:17:00.000-07:002014-08-13T12:17:06.344-07:00It Can Happen Again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbuH_gN0p5MwjeMiGL06PvMy3jlmk3pgGgBP7ykLyzG5_nzV_SxnJLQLBqd4-2b_wU5iP_3JmwfutYhvuJXrdt9sKaOr3ALorht3e8hCDjF4ZYvlUdzuJqCFPaoiWEuJy6XtneByxsitI/s1600/Arabic+nun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbuH_gN0p5MwjeMiGL06PvMy3jlmk3pgGgBP7ykLyzG5_nzV_SxnJLQLBqd4-2b_wU5iP_3JmwfutYhvuJXrdt9sKaOr3ALorht3e8hCDjF4ZYvlUdzuJqCFPaoiWEuJy6XtneByxsitI/s1600/Arabic+nun.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe you're not as spiritually weak as I can be. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe your prayer life is a vibrant, churning machine that never sees a break between shifts, and the prayers ascending to heaven are as beautiful and powerful and fervent as the smoke signals of a marooned sailor, rising from a deserted island, imploring the heavens to acknowledge and respond. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But I'd wager we all could stand to be reminded of something that's direly important right now. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>We need to pray - hard - for a conversion. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>We need to pray - hard - for some more "Sauls" to be made into "Pauls."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Linda Buxa, author, presenter, and writer who contributes blogs to the website for Time of Grace out of Milwaukee, recently pointed out:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"> "In Acts 8, after Stephen was stoned to death, 'on that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. . . . But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.' "</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sounds eerily similar to what the whole world is watching transpire in Iraq in recent weeks, doesn't it? The Islamic group ISIS, a group of Muslim extremists, is ravaging their lands with what journalists are calling a genocide of Christians. I'm betting you all know all about this plotline. Many of you probably know some of the details even better than I. Many of you probably also have come to familiarity with the picture above, of the Arabic <i>nun</i>, their letter "N," which has been written upon the homes of the Christians (over there, "Nazarenes") who are to be victimized by this horrifying onslaught of forcible conversion. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As is so often the case when gut-wrenching, horrible crimes against humanity are taking place around the globe - or in this case, crimes against people who truly are fellow believers to us American Christians - don't we find ourselves almost numb to it? Part of it, I think, is that element of deplorable desensitization that Americans in this day and age are all subject to. Unless you've lived abroad for a significant amount of time, or have done so recently enough for the experience to be fresh in your mind and heart, you've got little frame of reference to understand and focus on someone else's sufferings or overall standard of life. This, however, isn't my point. After all, if we could snap our fingers and make it happen, I'm sure many of us who haven't had the experience (like me) would be teleported over to some place that's "third world" and either passively witness and take it all in, or even pitch in actively with acts of service. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The other piece of why we're numb to what's happening to Christians over in that land, I believe, <b>is that we tend to forget the power we have, as Christians, to at least DO what we CAN DO. </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Since social media creates a spreading wildfire effect with any prevalent ideas or comments to current events (whether it's this story, or the one that seems to be neck-and-neck with it, the sudden passing of actor/comedian Robin Williams), it's not that there's been a shortage of solid ideas for how we can respond to this genocide in Iraq.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well-meaning folks have offered generally a 3-pronged approach to what we, who stand at a great distance and observe it as if it were "Schindler's List," can actually do: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>1) PRAY</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>2) GIVE - to some organization actively involved, on the ground, with aid in Iraq</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>3) SPREAD AWARENESS - using social media, talking about it in public, etc.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Points #2 and #3 on this list are both just fine, in my opinion. I think whatever implementation one can achieve of those parts is a great contribution. CERTAINLY far better than just sighing, shaking the head, saying something as calloused and cliche as "What a messed up world we're in..." and moving on in the news feed or going back to whatever task is at hand. Back to life as usual. Back to comfort.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What I say we can all do, is focus on #1. <u>PRAY</u>. Pray like the dickens. And pray for something specific. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What's my specific idea? For God to give strength and courage of faith's conviction to those being persecuted? For our military to have the opportunity to intervene and somehow, for crying out loud, just rescue the children at least...so no more innocent little ones are ripped from their family's arms and beheaded? For there to be more caring people worldwide giving of their personal wealth to finance the aid being deployed by charitable organizations over in that land, to give some relief and show compassion? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes, a resounding YES, to all of these. But here's what I'm proposing:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>PRAY FOR SOME MORE "SAULS" TO BE CONVERTED INTO "PAULS."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Like we said above, as documented in Acts 8, something like this has happened before, and the Bible itself spoke of it. It's happened many times throughout history, because Satan has been continually trying to fight the tide of salvation that has always washed across the earth, bringing people of all tribes and nations to the Christian, saving faith. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And I believe what happened in Acts 9 can happen again. Saul, who was "breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples," was headed toward Damascus and was confronted by Jesus himself, which left Saul blinded by the light of God's glory, and after he was cared for medically God reinstated him back into the public, and he had a new heart, a new mission, and a new name - Paul. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I don't know if God would seek to operate in exactly the same theatrical fashion, making Jesus himself appear, riding a bright and shining war horse, and convert all of ISIS by knocking them to their knees in terror and then pleading with them to stop persecuting his true believers...But I know he could. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And whether the Lord would do it that way, or by means of regular mortals, maybe even the men and women and children they're carrying out these horrifying acts against, someone testifying to them at the right moment and creating a ripple effect of more subtle, yet overwhelming change within that organization, the point is: Why not??</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />I've thought it myself, and I've heard it or seen it posted online from plenty of people. "If only we could just drop a bomb on all those devils." Well, have Americans used deadly force to quell horrible acts and warfare in the past? Yeah, absolutely. But just because we'd all agree that it was a good thing America helped in ending Hitler's horrible scheme in Europe, consequently bringing Hitler himself to an earthly end, doesn't mean that Christians in 1945 shouldn't have been praying for his salvation too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God may have any number of ways He could plan to use this passage in history to accomplish His grand design for mankind and for the spread of the gospel. I'm just proposing that we pray that even the evil men who are responsible for terrible crimes against these Nazarenes in Iraq be made the object of a worthy prayer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>God did it before, with Saul of Tarsus in the first century A.D., and it can happen again. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But is the problem that we don't want it to happen to these ISIS malefactors? Do we want to see earthly judgment served and equally violent retribution poured out on them in wrath? Maybe... Or is it because we don't believe this could happen again?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you're anything like me, sometimes you have to shake yourself out of that weird mindset that something we read about in Biblical history was insulated from the rest of "real" world history, or from what happens in these days, in current times. Why? Why do we believe that God was different then, for all of those thousands of years, with all of those millions and millions of other real life people - believers or otherwise? It's kind of the Sunday-school-lesson effect, where everything from those pages of ancient Scripture made into coloring books with Bible passages and crafts assigned to them, is diminished from the real life we all live right now, and right here (or right there - i.e. Iraq, where the blood of Christians is moistening the soil as we speak).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>God cannot be put in a box.</b> He cannot be limited or characterized by what we humans think of Him based on our understanding from our cultural context or upbringing and brand of faith. God is a God of possibility, a God without limits, and a God who has always wanted His people to cry out with one unified voice over the things that impact this world most, pleading with Him for His will to be done in the ways we believe HE CAN. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What if God turned the hearts of many - <b>or even just some, or EVEN JUST A FEW</b> - of the ISIS radicals? What if that helped to stem the tide of violence and hatred and bloodshed? What if that led to other Muslims, whether extremists or not, being persuaded to faith in the one true God? What if THAT happened because millions of other Christians, American or otherwise, took the time to think on it, get down on their knees at their bedsides, and prayed hard, asking God to make it so? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If that could happen - and we must believe it could - wouldn't it remind us all, and show the whole world, what power we wield in the form of prayer? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Wouldn't it remind us all, and show the whole world, what a powerful and merciful God we believe in?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Brothers and sisters, anyone, everyone who believes...Let's PRAY. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Let's pray hard, let's pray specifically....Let's mean it....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>God Almighty, if it's your will, turn those evil "Sauls" into new "Pauls."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>"The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." - James 5:16b</b></i></span></div>
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Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1640155592364993317.post-80907661926395649732014-07-28T21:44:00.002-07:002014-07-28T21:44:36.974-07:00Kingdom Math<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKR1gb4cUMthaBdeyNu_IoUEVUS5DZ0mt3wszgEaabZcnXF-IbmEGMkeT_PlSv28ei6LiPrRj3Hr4ogd0gKcjo6g2MPa1kOltuTKMnn0rg9dJWpzxncYOhNjb7MxCwk7rQPUS-_4mJ0rQ/s1600/divided-people.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKR1gb4cUMthaBdeyNu_IoUEVUS5DZ0mt3wszgEaabZcnXF-IbmEGMkeT_PlSv28ei6LiPrRj3Hr4ogd0gKcjo6g2MPa1kOltuTKMnn0rg9dJWpzxncYOhNjb7MxCwk7rQPUS-_4mJ0rQ/s1600/divided-people.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm guilty of it too. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm guilty of this wretched, wretched math effect. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll admit it now, to start it all off, so no one dare say I'm just ranting and railing against others, while thinking myself impervious.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've actually spent months and months working my way up to writing this one, because that part of me that hates the idea of looking like a hypocrite is holding me back. But no more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has to end, folks. It just has to be put to an end. Taken out. Abolished. Done in. Taken out back behind the shed, shot, buried and forgotten. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What does?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This horrible, disgusting, maniacal, DISTRACTING math. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll call it "Kingdom Math." And when it's the DIVISION kind of Kingdom Math we're talking about, it creates all sorts of distraction. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kingdom Math is whenever someone or something is added, subtracted, multiplied, or divided within the confines of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God has been defined by many as existing wherever the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being proclaimed, and where believers in Christ are found together. I'm focusing on the people part of this definition. When you and me, fellow believer, are found hanging out together, the Kingdom is there with us. When 50, 500, or 5,000 of us are together in worship inside a building, singing God's praises, hearing the truth of the Word of God, it's <i>definitely </i>there too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are my examples of the Math of the Kingdom:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Addition</b>: A baptism. A child or adult is brought into the family of believers through this awe-inspiring sacrament involving the element of water and the presence of the Word of God. After a baptism, the Kingdom's tally has just *DING!* gone up by one! Another example: Someone gains tactful and friendly influence in another person's life, uses great people skills to find the right ways to speak difficult truths to them when the time is right, and, through the boldness of their witness when the other person's heart is ready to be receptive to them, the Holy Spirit moves in that person and leads him or her to see Jesus as their Savior. *DING!* Up goes the tally!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Subtraction: </b>This one, while not the focus of my article today, is actually the worst of the math types. Example: A child grows up in a hateful home where parents who claim to "believe in God" abuse their child verbally and neglect to show her love in the most critical, formative times. This child becomes an adolescent and, even though she attends church a handful of times each year and goes through the motions of a Confirmation class in a stale, stuffy church congregation, as soon as she is on her own years later, there is no room for God in her heart. The tiny flickering flame of faith in a God that was misunderstood because of horrendous misrepresentation is now snuffed out. A tally has been erased from the number of those who are bound for heaven. *funeral bell sounds*</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Multiplication: </b>Back to the happy stuff. An example would be: A child who has never really heard much about Jesus (except when His name is used in vain around home or on the TV) ends up at a Vacation Bible School in town because his parents want to use it as kid-free time for them to do drugs. After a few days of their son coming home carefree, happy, and carrying a curious twinkle in his eye as he talks about his crayon pictures of Jesus and the kind people caring for him at VBS, the parents decide to get to know the nice folks running it. After a few weeks of thinking, they reflect on their talks with the nice folks at St. XYZ Church who impacted their child, and decide to attend a service. They're surprised at how inviting the casual environment is, almost as if the people organizing the service want it to be for outsiders, not "church people." They feel their hearts stir a little as the pastor delivers a message of hope, and they begin wondering if Jesus loves them like their little boy believes He does. Months later, after more worship services are under their belt, they ask the Pastor to pray with them, and their hearts are converted to the Lord and they become believers in the one true God, Jesus Christ. The changes this new faith sparks are incredible and fire off like a chain reaction. Soon other family members are attending church. The effect of one happy little boy coming back from a church evangelism function with the name of Jesus on his little lips turns into an exponential wildfire of conversion in a family, as many begin to follow Christ because of the ripple effect of the impact. This is when the *DING!* begins to sound like a slot machine hitting a jackpot. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But then there's another Kingdom Math type. The last. The one I hate almost more than subtraction, because it's performed by Christians themselves when it never should. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Division: </b> This one can occur in many grievous forms. It occurs when one Christian criticizes another for how the other's church chooses to conduct worship, when really it's just a matter of opinion as to whether an organ or a rock 'n roll style praise band is better music for church (and by the way, when God's people were partying in the streets with raucous music involving lyres and tambourines and trumpets, as they celebrated war victories He had given them through King David, which type of present day worship does that seem closer to? I'm just saying...). It occurs when the Lutherans look down their noses at the Assemblies of God folks because they assume they can speak in tongues in worship, and when Assemblies of God folks mock the Lutherans for their stubborn traditions and overly-conservative (in their minds) theology on fellowship practices. It occurs in so many settings, and the list goes on. Satan loves this list, and in a moment I'll tell you why. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another occurrence of this sad type of Kingdom Math is one that I absolutely cannot stand. I said it before and I'll say it again: I'm guilty of it. I look back in my past and can recall times when I fell prey to the arrogance that causes this. I pray I never do it again so long as I live, and I have fought like everything to outgrow it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's the example to which I'm referring: One Christian (we'll call him Joe) shares an opinion or view of something that matters to him. Whether on social media, in public, in a classroom, at fellowship hour after church on Sunday, at a picnic or softball game, or at the bar....setting doesn't matter. This expression from Joe might be an idea about how God can bless a certain vocational choice that Joe has been seeking peace about in his life, or maybe it's that Joe expressed lingering sorrow for a loss he suffered (perhaps the death of a loved one). Along comes another Christian (we'll call him Lance) who proceeds to tell Joe a thing or two about how dumb his view or emotion is. In fact, it's not just out of place or misguided, it's sinful. With the way Lance comes across, so matter-of-fact, so point-blank, and so blunt, all Joe can hear is condemnation. He's immediately turned off to whatever Lance has to say, and he's confused as to where Lance perceived there to be an invitation for the admonition in the first place. The two cannot resolve the ensuing dispute because Joe is too hurt by Lance's judgmental position, and Lance is too proud to recognize he's needlessly taken an unexpected withdrawal out of his relationship to Joe, and they part ways and a rift opens between them. Over time, depending on other factors, that rift may form into a cavernous abyss that neither can manage to cross, and it hurts them both for years, perhaps even causing one of them to question their faith. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have to ask the question:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Why do we sometimes think being a Christian - being a bearer of God's infallible Word of timeless truth, and someone familiar with God's Law - entitles us to be a jerk?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why does this happen? Because pride is easy, and people skills require work. Dealing with each other in all things in Jesus' way is a LABOR of love. Human nature is fallen, and our spiritual laziness leads us to hurt each other out of sheer lack of desire to take the harder road through interactions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pride is also ambitious. Within each of us hides a hideous monster called the <i>opinio legis</i>, which is Latin for the "opinion of the law," or, for our purposes, the good ol' self righteousness. When a Christian sees something in his brother that he cannot agree with, whether it's an emotion, an attitude, an idea about something, or whatever, he can take two paths: 1) Make an effort to see where his brother may be coming from, elect the patience and gracious heart of Jesus that doesn't opt to first throw stones at offenders, and keep his mouth shut unless asked, or 2) Insert himself somewhere with no tact whatsoever, shaming the other person, capturing an opportunity to "preach the law" as Jesus did simply because he's been told somewhere that the law is for those in error, and committing arson to the relationship. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kingdom Math, Division style, takes place because Lance cannot help but want to feel superior to Joe. He has an upper hand of greater understanding of an issue, or wants Joe to be held to the same standard he feels he's been held to before, and can't stand the idea of Joe "getting away with" his folly. So, in the face of all Lance knows in his heart about the mercy and forbearance Jesus showed to the ungrateful 9 other lepers he healed, the Pharisees, his family members who doubted he was the Son of God, Zacchaeus the cheater, the thief on the cross, and many more, Lance opts for wielding the Law weapon like a bull in a China shop just because it's available for use. He passes it off as being ok because of any number of reasons (it's his personality to "tell it like it is," or God doesn't want us to convey tolerance of something by not calling it out to someone's face the second we see it), and makes no effort to retract or smooth things over when Joe's offense blows up in his face. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While these various divisions are taking place, the Great Distraction unfolds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I mentioned it earlier. Remember? </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"...</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">when it's the DIVISION kind of Kingdom Math we're talking about, it creates all sorts of distraction."</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Satan is God's enemy, right? Satan and God are at war for the souls of mankind. (At least that's the way it feels, as we humans watch good triumph one moment, and evil prevail in our world the next. Fortunately, the Scriptures show us the image of the once crucified and dead Christ, rising from his grave to defeat sin and death, thus defeating Satan...Until Judgment Day, Satan merely gets to <i>think </i>he's winning sometimes)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So if Satan, who deep down knows he's already beaten by God, wants to have any victories at all, what is his best chance? He can't take away mankind's salvation. That was bought and paid for by Jesus on the cross, once and for all time, never to be revoked. Salvation stands waiting for all to accept it as a free gift. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The only thing Satan can take away is....FOCUS. The world's focus, that is. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When Lance pulls that prideful stunt with Joe, what the world sees is two bickering, petty Christians. They see the egotist, Lance, being a judgmental hypocrite, they'll call him, who can't cut Joe any slack. They'll see Joe fighting back to defend himself, and that's a scuffle that won't end in two seconds. Meanwhile, as the world watches this silly little Christian altercation - this abhorrent Kingdom Math of division, they forget....about....JESUS. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brothers and sisters, if there was any argument that trumps all others, as to why we need to err on the side of avoiding division like a zombie apocalypse, it's this: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>WE NEED TO LET THE WORLD HAVE EVERY CHANCE TO FOCUS ON JESUS. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When unbelievers' attention is taken away from their Savior, the one who loves them dearly and who died to make them His children and heirs of heaven, EVERYONE loses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The fighting Christians being divided lose.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The whole of Christianity, who wants the world's attention on Jesus, loses.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The world itself, full of spiritually starving, thirsting, dying people loses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Folks, this is what's at stake. Let's be honest here. Is there any room for judgment? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a time and place, as outlined in God's word, for speaking the Law of Scriptures to our brother or sister in the faith. But those occasions are not only few and far between, but more often than not way more good will be accomplished by further winning over the fellow Christian to heaven's cause by uplifting, encouraging interactions, than would be accomplished by a "Lance's" version of fire and brimstone, thrown carelessly into the middle of a situation where it wasn't warranted. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Enough of the power trips and selfish pride, brothers and sisters. Let's ensure together that the only Kingdom Math being computed in this fallen world is Addition and Multiplication. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is Jesus' way? Love. Mercy. Forgiveness. Quiet acceptance of one's brother or sister in spite of their sin or mistakes or off-base opinions. Grace...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's end the distraction. Let's keep the quibbling down, and let the world focus on seeing Jesus, their loving Savior and true friend, in center stage instead of us. He is worthy of every bit of attention He can get. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jeff Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382584924974590921noreply@blogger.com0