Some Thoughts on Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for?

It's the question going around this week as everyone is gearing up for the holiday.

I heard a topic being discussed on talk radio this morning that has got me to thinking about this truth: 

...In your book were written, everyone of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:16 

I am thankful for the life God has given me. Not just that I am alive and still breathing, but think of all the forethought and attention God had to invest in your life. He chose to place you in your family, in the country and city you were born, in the era of history. Nothing about these things can we choose, for better or for worse.

My life, your life, is no accident. God numbered our days, He wrote them out in detail before we were even formed. Think of all the blessings you have today that you wouldn’t have if you were born 100 years ago, or 1,000. What would life be like if you were born on the other side of the world?

For me, this Thanksgiving is about thinking on how big God is, how good and gracious He is. I want to consider how dependent I really am on Him each and every day and praise Him for His faithfulness.  I was encouraged to evaluate how I give thanks by this quote from C.S. Lewis.

"Gratitude exclaims, very properly, 'How good of God to give me this.' Adoration says, "what must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations (flashes of light) are like this!" One's mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun." C.S. Lewis

I desire my thanksgiving to be full of gratitude and adoration for God.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"I Couldn't Help Myself"

“Why did you do that?”

“I don’t know! I couldn’t help myself!”

Have you ever had this exchange with someone? Either being asked by your parents or a teacher on why you just did something stupid. Or maybe you asked “why” and this was their response.

It was a typical day in kindergarten and we were walking back into the class room at Highland Elementary School. Ahead of me was a girl in the class who realized her shoe was untied. She immediately did the straight leg bend at the waste to tire her shoe. When a “brilliant” idea popped into my mind, and I immediately kicked her in the butt! That’s when she fell down and lay there sprawled out on the floor.

That’s when the guilt began. But of course, instead of saying “I’m sorry” and helping her up, I laughed and teased. And I got in trouble. My teacher asked why I would do such a thing. “I don’t know, I couldn’t help it,” I replied.

Seemed like a good answer to my six-year-old self. It was a stupid thing to do. What seemed super funny and harmless in my mind, was hurtful and mean and led to unpleasant consequences. I remember getting punished at school, but most of all I remember the look on her face and the guilt I felt. Stupid is stupid. In that moment I was lacking something very important: self-control.

Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.

Proverbs 25:28

If you spend any time in the book of Proverbs, you’ll see that King Solomon was writing advice on how to avoid being stupid. He writes his wisdom prose to help us develop a self-controlled and disciplined life (Proverbs 1:1-7). I believe the book of Proverbs was very instrumental to me as I matured from that silly 6-year old’s mischievous ideas, to understanding how to stop and think through my actions. As a teenager, I spent a lot of time reading through and praying through Proverbs. There are 31 chapters, so I would read 1 chapter a day for every day of the months with 31 days in them.

When we turn on the news today we will see evidence of self-control lacking in people’s lives. The lack of self-control turns a peaceful protest into a riotous mob. We have seen this several times this past week in response to the election results. It takes self-control to avoid these types of situations.

I just read an article today of a “Christian Mom blogger” who has divorced her husband for a woman. It takes self-control to remain faithful to your vows and to deal with sinful thoughts and feelings in a righteous way.

Examples are everywhere of people responding to their feelings. “Don’t tell me I’m wrong!” “God just wants me to be happy!” “If it makes me feel good it can’t be that bad, right?” People lack discretion, the lack self-control.

Self-control is hard. It’s having power over yourself, your desires, your actions and your feelings. It can seem almost impossible at times depending on the situation. But there is great news for Christians: self-control is not entirely up to us! Paul labels self-control as a Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians5:22-23). This means that self-control is an evidence that we love Jesus and that the Holy Spirit is living in us.

If you are finding that you are having a hard time not gossiping, love Jesus more. If you are finding it hard to avoid saying hurtful things, love Jesus more. If you are having a hard time avoiding sinful websites, love Jesus more. You see, it’s about loving Jesus. The more we love Jesus the more the Holy Spirit will help us control our lives. That means you can have control of your anxiety, fear, lust, anger, greed, etc., but loving God with all your heart!

Self-control takes practice and time. There is a behavioral aspect to it. The more stupid you do and the harsher the consequences you face, you may learn to avoid those bad behaviors later. But it is more than behavior modification, it is heart change.

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age…” Titus 2:11-12

When we trust Jesus, love Jesus and repent of our sinfulness, He gives us the power to say no to sin. That is a huge promise and a much needed one.

All you have to do is open up Facebook, watch the News, or even walk down the street. You will see so many whose lives lack self-discipline. Ask God to open your eyes to it and the path it leads. There is a reason God lists this as a Fruit of the Spirit, a self-discipline life sets you a part from the world and brings glory to God.

In what area of your life are you lacking self-discipline?

Are You Ready for the Elections?

Are you as relieved as I am that we only have one more week of this crazy election cycle? On the other hand, after the adds, banners, signs and commercials go away, we still have to deal with the consequences of the election. How are you processing the choices ahead? How do you perceive the vote? If you are a parent, how do your children see you respond to this season?

The media, both left and right, have based their platforms of fear. Unfortunately, many Christian leaders have written pieces in support of one of many candidates that uses fear based manipulative speech to try and persuade people to their view point. Many people are frantic and anxious about the results. Some have even said they are leaving the country if they don’t get their way.

Now let me ask you, is that the kind of response that should typify the Christian’s perspective?

I say a hearty “NO” to that! That is not what we see in the Bible.

If we were to consider the time in which the New Testament was written and think about the emperors that came into power during that time (Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, and Nero), we should find it odd that the NT is not riddled with anxious fear of human government. If you think our candidates are bad, read about Nero for a minute. And that doesn’t even compare to the many political changes seen in the Old Testament.

Instead, we see commandment after commandment to trust God and honor human government. I would love to spend more time unpacking the NT perspective, but I find the story of Daniel particularly helpful in gaining a proper view of human government, especially in this election season.

The Background

Babylon had arisen to be the dominate world power and king Nebuchadnezzar was conquering nations. As he moved across the land, defeating all whom he opposed, he would take the best and brightest of each nation back to Babylon. There he would educate them in the universities of Babylon and indoctrinate them into the Babylonian lifestyle.

Daniel and his three friends Hanniniah, Azariah and Misheal were taken from Jerusalem and taken to Babylon. These boys were probably all in their early teen years.

Think about it. Their world was torn from them. Everything they knew was flipped upside down. They were forced to have new names, speak a new language and study new disciplines in order to try and force them to be someone else.

When we think of this, our political system doesn’t seem too bad.

Daniel’s Promise – Daniel 1:8

Daniel doesn’t panic under this new regime. His first course of action is to decide what he must do to stay faithful to his faith in God. He identifies a law of God and makes his stand not to eat the king’s meat or to defile himself before God. Even though refusing the meal could have cost him his life, he took a stand.

Courage is contagious. Daniel took a stand and his three friends joined him. And God rewarded them for it. Not only did God spare their life, but blessed their bodies and mind. The king saw their potential and promoted them to join his wise men.

Daniel’s Plight – Daniel 2:1-12

Even though Daniel has found himself in a good position, things continue to go from bad to worse. Not only is he in a foreign land under a pagan ruler, but that ruler had a dream and wants an interpretation from his wise men. In order not to be fooled, Nebuchadnezzar refuses to tell the dream to the wise men. They must reveal the dream and the interpretation to him or all the wise men in the kingdom will be killed.

The Babylonian wise men tell the king what he is asking is impossible for no human could do that. The king ordered all the wise men to be put to death, when Daniel finds out about it. We don’t see Daniel and his friends anxious or defeated, no they have a better strategy.

Daniel’s Prayer – Daniel 2:13-19

After asking the king for more time, Daniel gathered his friends and sought the Lord in prayer. They didn’t plot a way of escape. They didn’t give up in despair. They got on their knees and asked God to reveal the kings dream.

Their prayer was for mercy from God to spare the lives of Daniel and his friends, but also to spare the lives of the Babylonian wise men. These Babylonians despised the four Jewish men. Yet Daniel sought their good.

Daniel’s Praise – Daniel 2:19-23

God was responded to his faithful servants and revealed the dream. Daniel and his friends immediately broke out in a worship service. They praised God who is in control of all things. In his praise, Daniel reveals the heart attitude of the believer. This is a good passage to check your heart against during the elections. This is the passage I go to for my confidence in God when change is before me.

When it comes to Climate Change, God controls the times and the seasons.

When it comes to Presidential Elections, God raises up kings and removes kings.

He is the one who can give wisdom and knowledge to leaders.

He knows the hidden things and what’s coming next

Darkness cannot overcome Him for the Light dwells with Him.

He is the God who answers prayer.

We believe that God is the Author and Giver of Life, why do we doubt Him in elections? Can we learn to have a simple and deep faith like Daniel?

Yes, we can. Focus your eyes first on Christ and what God is doing and He will give you a clearer view of our current circumstance.

Daniel’s Promotion – 2:47-49

We don’t have time to go into the dream and it’s interpretation, but I’d encourage you to read it. Daniel delivers the news to the king. True to his word, the king promotes Daniel, but I don’t think the promotion is what made Daniel’s day.

“Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” – King Nebuchadnezzar

Wow!! Here we hear a pagan king, one who often ascribed himself as a god, give praise to the one true God!

When we have the proper perspective of life. When we realize that we have died to the sinful flesh and have been made alive in Christ, we have nothing to fear. We do not have to worry about these elections. We do not have to get caught up in fear and manipulation. We don’t have to post angry responses to the opposing viewpoints. No, we carry ourselves as Daniel did. We decide what we must do to stay faithful to our God and we seek Him and His glory above all else.

Jesus said it this way, “let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven!”