Intentional Encouragement

I was reading from a devotional book by Chuck Swindoll this morning as he mused about the importance of the "lesser" gifts.  You know; those ones that people don't often see up front, but that folks quietly carry on without fanfare and without much notoriety. He wrote a paragraph for a summary that was more about the nature of the church in general than about spiritual gifts specifically.  Although he wrote it over 20 years ago, it's got me thinking this morning. "Marbles or grapes, which will it be?  Every congregation has a choice.  You can choose to be a bag of marbles...independent, hard, loud, unmarked and unaffected by others.  Or you can be a bag of grapes...fragrant, soft, blending, mingling, flowing into one another's lives.  Marbles are made to be counted and kept.  Grapes are made to be bruised and used.  Marbles scar and clank.  Grapes yield and cling." I know some marbles.  I hope I'm not one of them...

     Well, it's the Sunday after Christmas and our church has canceled its services because of a snow storm.  I thought I'd share a couple of thoughts with you that I was going to talk about this morning.      Our Christmas was great, and we very much enjoyed each other's generosity as well as that of many of our friends and extended family.  Gift giving is fun as we have the opportunity to share things with each other and watch their reaction while they open the gift.  Most of the time, a simple "thank you" will suffice for what we receive.  People give to us for the joy of giving and because they love us.  They expect no thanks, they just want to express themselves to us.  Other times, people are so generous that it takes us by surprise.  Did you ever receive a gift from someone and your immediate reaction was something along the lines of "I don't know what to say?"      We have talked often throughout this season about God's gift to us in th

     “… [Jesus] did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing…”   (Philippians 2:6b-7a, ESV)      I want to challenge you to remember something this week as you move toward Christmas Day.   When Jesus came here to earth, there was no advantage in it for Him.      Jesus is God in every respect: power…authority…wisdom…eternality…everything about Him is God.  There is no one else like the Lord Jesus.   He was fully God and fully man.   It is beyond my finite ability to understand.      With all of that being true, think about the magnitude of what He did in coming to earth.   According to Philippians chapter 2, Jesus veiled his majesty as God and came to earth taking on the nature of humanity.   He didn’t stop being God, but He did choose not to exercise His rights and the prerogatives of deity in many cases.   Even further than  that, He headed straight to the cross from the moment He arrived on planet earth.   He eventually endured the death of th

            There was a lot about Mary's situation that would have been hard to take in.   She was pregnant but unmarried.   Further, she hadn’t done anything wrong to get into that situation.   Even more, who would believe that?             While every young Jewish girl held the faint hope in her heart that she might be privileged to become the mother of the Messiah, they didn’t plan their lives around it.   Mary wouldn’t have either.   She had plans, but they likely didn’t include this.   Not this way; n ot now; not before she and Joseph were married.             It came unexpectedly and put her in very unfamiliar circumstances.   Whatever you might imagine the birthing process to be in the first century, it would not likely include a dirty cave that was carved out to hold animals.   The crib wouldn’t be a feeding trough.   The smells would certainly not be all baby powder and Johnson's lotion.   No assistance; no clean towels; not even a bed to lie on.   Everything was diffe

            I have been meditating on Paul’s description in Philippians 2:5-8 of what happened at Christmas.   I’ll quote it for you (from the ESV) so you don’t have to go look it up.   “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.   And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”   We call this the incarnation.   Jesus took on humanity; he became flesh; became one of us.             I am astonished at the extent to which Christ went to bring the message of God’s truth into the world.   Jesus is eternally God and the essence of who he was didn’t change when he came to earth.   He veiled and limited the exercise his divine essence, setting aside his “rights” as God and choosing to come here to be “God with us.”      

           I was reading some thoughts by Chuck Swindoll in my devotional time the other day and was reminded of this prayer that Joseph Bayly penned back in 1969.  I thought you might enjoy it's challenge too. “Lord of reality, make me real, not plastic, synthetic—pretend—phony; an actor playing out his part—hypocrite. I don’t want to keep a prayer list, but to pray; nor to agonize to find your will, but to obey what I already know; to argue theories of inspiration, but to submit to your Word. I don’t want to think another needs me, but I need him else I’m not complete.   I don’t want to tell others how to do it, but to do it; to have to always be right, but to admit when I’m wrong. I don’t want to be a census taker, but an obstetrician; nor an involved person—a professional, but a friend.   I don’t want to be insensitive, but to hurt where other people hurt; nor to say I know how you feel, but to say God knows, and I’ll try if you’ll be patient with me, and meanwhile, I’ll be q

I have been enjoying some much needed vacation time this week and focusing my attention on some important reasons that I have to be thankful.   Part of my time has been invested in catching up on some reading.   I’ve finished one book that I had been working away at and will probably finish another today.   I read something in one of them today that really has me thinking about the process of my Christian life. We often think about the goal of our Christian life as conformity to the image of Jesus and eventually a home in Heaven.   Those are both true and are important for us to remember because they are what await us at the end of the journey.   But what about the journey itself?   Do we view the journey as part of the excitement in being a Christ-follower?   Let me quote Wayne Jacobsen who writes of a friend who is a wood worker who “loves to work with wood and to make decorations for his home,” and who had a “light dawn” for him “when he noticed how differently he and his wife view

I've been thinking today about a phrase I used occasionally when I helped to coach middle and Jr. High school basketball a few years ago.  "The best offense is a good defense."  When I was going through school, I couldn't handle the ball very well, so I learned to play pretty good defense.  My logic was that if we can keep the other team from scoring; we won't need to worry about scoring too much to beat them.  A couple of good zone defensive strategies; and good understanding of a man-to-man defense; some good conditioning to keep up and the rest will take care of itself.  No need for a lengthy playbook with all those different plays intended to dazzle the opponents and run up the score. Well; shame on me.  First of all; that a misquote.  You can google it.  Several people are credited with the phrase, including prize fighter Jack Dempsey.  But it really goes like this: "The best defense is a good offense."  Go ahead and re-read that.  The difference

OK, I need to reflect a little on the wave of changes to our political landscape in the last 24 hours.  First of all, will there be that much change?  We shift back and forth, expecting one group or another to accomplish things that are desperately needed in our country.  When they don't accomplish what they said they would, or what we think they should have (in a short enough time), we replace them.  It is really the heart of our political process.  We get to decide who is in charge and who we will entrust our well-being as a nation to. Secondly, it is interesting to me that the number of people from the various camps of voters shifts from time to time.  One or two demographic groups standing up and being counted can turn the tide of an election.  But what often to seems happen?  The groups of people who are content with the way things are tend to trust "their" chosen leaders to continue to do the job.  The groups who disagree with the prevailing policies, etc. seem

            A couple of years ago I read an article by Frazier Moore, a national columnist for the Associated Press.   There were some observations in his article that got me thinking.   His specific focus was on the nature of the television shows that we watch, but I wonder how much broader the impact of his thoughts really is.             “We crave fear” said Mr. Moore.   Even with the grisly nature of some of today’s most popular shows, “what we fear isn’t getting more, but not getting enough.”   When he referred to TV as a desensitizing agent, something in me said ‘amen.’   He continued; “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, as we all know.   But we retreat into it anyway; into palatable, entertaining fear; our cheap substitute for feeling at peace .”             God doesn’t want us to live in fear.   He offers us peace (John 14:27 ).   Even in the face of tragedy, we can have peace.   When we are uncertain, we can have peace.   When we are seeking a job, we can have peac