The Humbly Thankful Cure

There is a sickness of sin and selfishness that kills. It destroys. It does its murderous work in so many ways. It vanquishes personal inner peace and joy. It wipes out hope in God. It tortures marriages and families. It constructs an evil wall between people and the very source of life, God in Christ. 

On the other hand, when anyone comes to a place where they find themselves in awe of God, and thankful to Him, all the above and every other horrific spiritual illness is cured. Giving thanks to God is "the will God in Christ Jesus for you."

My heart is breaking for the one who has never had the healing experience of genuine thanksgiving. They are hurting so much, and are blind as to why. "Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."(2 Timothy 3:1–4 ESV)

This is a description of our day. Such misery. This morning, I heard the news of how a man murderously drove his car into a Christmas parade that included a group of grandmothers and children. Forty were wounded. Five were killed. This was someone who was "heartless." On some scale, this happens daily in towns and homes all over the place. At the heart of this self-loving abusive sickness is the heart that is "ungrateful." 

The cure? 

1. Recognize God. We are not an accident. We were created. Life is not meaningless. God has a purpose for our lives. "Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his...Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!" (Psalm 100:3–4 ESV)

2. Realize that every good thing that can be known and experienced is a gift from the Lord. "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:16–17 ESV)

3. Accept by faith, and always remember, all that Christ has done for you in His death and resurrection. There is so much of the New Testament that could be shared here. Jesus in the past, "slain from the foundation of the world." The cross, and the resurrection. "The promise of our awesome future because of Christ and with Christ! Read the Bible and thank the Lord for all He has given you out of sheer love and grace. "It (made right with God) will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:24–25 ESV) "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16 ESV)

4. Have a forceful talk with yourself. David told himself to bless the Lord. He told himself to not forget any of the Lord's blessings. How we talk to ourselves has a hugh impact on our thankfulness. We must not tell ourselves lies, "Nobody expects me to be totally consumed with God, to love God more than anything. God understands my competing passions." We must instead demand of ourselves to be completely thankful. No hypocrisy. The Lord deserves "all that is within me" to bless his holy name. "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." (Psalm 103:1-2 ESV)

5. Depend on Jesus to give you the ability to be thankful. It's impossible for us to give  the kind of thanksgiving the Lord desires, with all humility, all the time, life-changingly. So we need to look to Jesus to cause us be thankful. "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:17 ESV) Yes, and only, "through him." This isn't something we can do through our own abilities. Only through Jesus and therefore, for His glory. 

"Father, you deserve all my praise and thanksgiving. The next breath I'm about to take is a gift from you. Every good and perfect thing in life is because of you. And giving thanks to you cures every spiritual battle I fight. You resist the proud. You give grace and power to the humble. Cause me to humble myself and cause me to to trust you to empower me to be thankful. Through the power of Jesus. For His glory." 

Richie Rhea

LIFE

LIFE in all caps! 

Life has been in the news lately. It should be. I'm glad. Because life matters. You matter!

We are tremendously interested in Mars. We have spent several billion dollars to take a look. Some say that we need Mars as a place to escape earth. (Because an average temp of minus 81 degrees along with 96% carbon dioxide with only about 0.1% oxygen sounds so inviting. I guess.)

One huge interest in Mars has to do with the question of life. Is there life on Mars? NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover has taken dozens of core samples from what is believed to be the bottom of an ancient Martian lakebed. 

There is great hope that ancient fossilized life might be discovered. Several tubes of samples from Mars will be returned to Earth to be examined. Perhaps evidence of ancient life will be found. 

What exactly will be found? I don't know. But I know this. The surface of Mars is not teaming with life. Not one plant. Not one animal. The surface appears to be completely barren, even sterile. I think it's hard for us to imagine almost 56 million square miles of a landmass that is exceedingly more sterile than the most sterile surgical suite on earth. On our earth home, life is everywhere. I recently read an article about sea life that was discovered on a boulder beneath an Antarctic ice shelf! 

(Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267737-life-found-beneath-antarctic-ice-sheet-shouldnt-be-there/#ixzz6nQL0hQBo)

The NASA scientists and engineers are so excited. You can hear in their voices. The big question will finally be answered in 10 years with future missions returning the samples to earth to be studied in laboratories around the Earth. "Are we alone?" "Has there ever been any kind of life on Mars?"

Let me say what we all know, life is miraculous. How does life happen? Is it possible for something that is not alive to spontaneously become alive? And then begin to reproduce? It is a huge question. 

It is clear to me that LIFE doesn't just happen. Lifeless elements don't transform into life. If there is evidence for the existence of even a single cell of life that may have existed in the distant past on Mars I will be equally amazed.

Life has also been in the news because of the pandemic. In the past twelve months, over 500,000 Americans have died. Human beings. I could write for a very long time about those two words. But let me just say that over half a million people were alive and now they are dead. I am not talking about single-cell life. I'm talking about an estimated 30 trillion cells of amazingly wonderful complexity in each.

I hope that we value human life more than possible ancient astrobiological life. It is exceedingly important that we must value life, especially, persons if we want to thrive. 

Every once in a while someone will say of those who have died as a result of Covid 19, "well, most already had some kind of health issue already." I guess they are saying, if someone would most likely die in the next few years then it's really not as big a deal if they died a little sooner of Covid. 

With one day to live or one decade, or more, human life is precious, infinitely more valuable than possible biosignatures from a distant barren planet. To discount human life is dangerous. Horribly and fatally dangerous. 

I was watching a NASA report about the Perseverance mission and someone wrote, "people... imagine the impact on society and religions, philosophies after ancient traces of life is discovered... Interesting times." 

I hope I'm wrong, but I can't help but wonder if this comment, along with many others that have been made, suggests a hope that for once and for all, if biosignatures are discovered on Mars, we can conclude that life happens easily. It not only just happened on Earth, it happens anywhere where elements and environments that support life are found. And. If life just happens spontaneously, then God is not needed. God doesn't exist. We are all just a result of natural biological processes that are common throughout the universe. 

Even though, all the right elements for life are present on Mars doesn't mean there has ever been life on Mars. I don't know what will eventually be concluded, but I know that life does not spontaneously arise. Not anywhere. Life is miraculous. The last thing anyone needs to hear these days is that life is no big deal. 

Devaluing life is suicidal. As the Psalmist wisely concluded, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." That kind of life value is needed for life on Earth to survive. 

Many of our children are getting the opposite message. And it's deadly. It is no wonder that such heinous and previously unthinkable murderous crimes have taken place over the past years. It is no wonder that suicide continues to be a huge problem. 

Listen to the person kindly serving at a suicide hotline as they share with the distressed individual who is considering ending their own life, "you matter! You are important. Your life is valuable."

That is an awesome massage! But it needs to be believed and shared and celebrated not just at the end, on a suicide hotline. It needs to be shared with every single human being throughout their lifetime. 

In speaking about how we use the words that roll off our tongues the half-brother of Jesus wrote, "With it, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." (James 3:9–10 ESV)

After a generation full of abortions at a rate the same or greater than this present pandemic, many have come to the wrong conclusion. The truth we need to return to, which can save our culture from self-destruction, is that people are made in the likeness of God. Our value comes from our creator. All people are created equal.  

Don't get me wrong. I would love to be one of the ones chosen to be on the next Space X, or NASA trip to Mars, or the moon for that matter. But, as exciting as such a journey would be, along with all kinds of awesome discoveries, I honestly would rather spend the evening with Rhonda. She is wonderful, "fearfully and wonderfully made." After 42 years she is more wonderful to me than ever. 

Truly valuing one another is what makes life possible. Loving one another is what makes life a joy. 

Psalm 51:10
 Create in me a clean heart, O God...

What a great prayer to pray. A clean heart is so needed. When the heart is clean, thoughts are unpolluted, love is pure, and conscience is clear. All that cleanness produces relationships that last. The best thing about a clean heart is that it causes eyes to see God. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matt 5)

You know what I mean! We are not talking about the muscle that beats in a chest or corneas for vision. We are talking about our lives being connected to Christ in awesome life-giving ways. We are talking about closeness to source of life and love.

The saddest thing in the world is that few pray this simple prayer. We tend to not see God as creator. We most naturally don't see our hearts has being dirty and God as the only One who can create a clean one for us. We love to think of ourselves as creative. And basically good at heart. Certainly we can have creative ideas. And we can do some pretty loving things. But the truth is...there is a clean heart that is so awesome and so fantastically wonderful that only God can create it. We can't. But he can - and he does - because he wants to - "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 36:26)

Dirty, guilty, unloved, horribly disappointed? Tried to fix the problem, only to make it worse? David can identify. He was the one who prayed this prayer after carrying out his crazy plans which he thought would thrill his heart.

Clean hearts don't evolve over time through will power. They are created. By God, through Christ.

When you are my life - I love my life

When you are my life - I love my life
          Dying with you - I live

When you are my joy - I have real joy
          Even in suffering - I rejoice

         

When we are connected to Jesus as the Lord God of our lives, the terrible is swallowed by the very best. Let me share some places in scripture that encourage and strengthen us in this experience.  

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (ESV)

2 Corinthians 4:8–10
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (ESV)

Revelation 2:9
"I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich)..." (ESV)

Revelation 2:8
"The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life." (ESV)

Philippians 4:4
(says the apostle in chains) Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (ESV)

The Exile Feeling

Do you ever feel like you are somehow an exile? It is the feeling that you don't fit here. Leadership gurus tell us that when you feel like that in the work environment it might be a sign that it is time to move on. Or it might be the symptom of burnout which means it's time to get some rest.

Peter wrote a letter to some exiles to help them with the struggle of not fitting in and maybe even to help them avoid burnout. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion..." What follows in his not-so-simple greeting was thick wonderful truth that can't help to cause us to feel hugely prepared for just about anything.

1 Peter 1:1–2
[1] Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, [2] according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 

"Elect exiles." What does that mean? The church is described in many ways throughout scripture. A body. A flock. A family. Here Peter teaches us the church is bunch of elect exiles. Elect because the church is made up of those who have been chosen. The church is God's chosen people. The word elect is supposed to make the church feel loved because if there is anything that a person chosen of God knows, it is this - they were chosen on the basis of God's love and mercy and not according to what they deserve. The word exile reminds the believer in Christ that this world is not their homeland. The church is waiting for a future home. The people of God are exiles. On one hand the Bible teaches that the Lord has given us "all thing to enjoy." (1 Timothy 6:17) But the scripture also reminds us that we are to put our "hope in God" and not wealth.

1 Timothy 6:17
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 

Why not put our hope in riches? Because we are exiles. Enjoy everything but don't get too attached to stuff! We have a much better possession to come. All of God in involved. The Father who loved us way back before we were even a thought in anyone's mind. ("according to the foreknowledge of God the Father") The Spirit of God who now is making us good - holyfying us! ("in the sanctification of the Spirit") And Jesus who causes us to trust and obey Him because of his loving sacrifice. 

If you feel like an exile maybe it's because that is exactly what you are. But don't leave until it is time. Don't get burned-out and bogged down with the stresses of life. Hope in God, the Father, Spirit, and Son. You are loved, planned for, empowered and blessed with the brightest future. Here is the very next thing Peter wrote. Read it and be filled with a hope that is alive and eternal. 

1 Peter 1:3–5
[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, [5] who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (ESV)


May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 

Titanium

"I'm bulletproof nothing to lose...You shoot me down but I won't fall, I am titanium."

I recently listened to "Titanium." a hit song. Finally. It has been out for several years. It is still big!  It moved me. I liked it! 

There is a desire within us to be solid. Invincible. Like Titanium. There are so many corrosive influences all around. They shoot at us. They hurt. They can destroy. They come in a variety of penetrating ways. It might come from a bully or brother. It might be the abuse of a loved one or a literal bullet from a hate-filled crazed off-balance lune. So we want to be strong don't we! We want to reflect the arrows. We want to put hurtful lies in their place. We want to stand strong and last. Forever. Super invincible. Too powerful to be defeated. Too strong to be overcome. 

But how? 

I have been looking closely at the words of Peter. His name means Titanium. Well. Actually it means "rock." Pretty much the same thing in their minds back then. When the bullets started flying Peter was anything but. He caved. In the face of opposition he denied even knowing Jesus the night before the crucifixion. After a love-filled conversation with Jesus several days later - the resurrected Jesus - Peter became Titanium. He stood before Jerusalem. Thousands. And was so convincing that thousands at ground zero, where the resurrection took place, made Jesus their rock. 

Here is what Peter wrote. "Love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls." (1 Peter 1:22–24)

There is a powerful seed that causes a kind of rebirth. The seed is imperishable! Titanium-like!  So the rebirth it produces turns a person into someone who is imperishable. Invincible. Titanium. This seed of God changes a person from withering to overcomer. Peter went on to write, "The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.
And this word is the good news that was preached to you." (1 Peter 1:24–25)

The good new! Earlier in this chapter Peter tells what this powerful, imperishable, seed is that turned him and can turn us into titanium. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."  (1 Peter 1:3–5)

The invincible Jesus is the key to our new titanium life. Let's look to Him. 

Public Safety

Moving forward toward public safety is on our minds. How do we get to a place where our children are reasonably safe in public?

The line between crazy violent behavior and civility is pretty thin. It doesn't take as much as we might think to push some over the line into murderous behavior.

We push more and more people to the edge by exulting faulty attitudes and beliefs. (Belief leads to action. Actions are generated by belief.) Our hearts have grown hard toward the value of human life. The causes are varied. Killing - from pretend to the pre-born - has become a way of life. "Will to power," since according to atheistic Nietzsche, there is nothing else. But "will to power" minus love/truth, plus a gun, equals a bloodbath.

This last killing nightmare occurred on Valentine's day. Of all days. The "shedding of innocent blood" is such a hate-filled, hard-hearted action. Have we encouraged a culture that laughs at love and values bitter viciousness?

We need a powerful supernatural intervention that draws us toward God through Christ. Our hardened hearts need to be tenderized. We need the love of God to be poured into our hearts. Let's ask the Father of us all to compel us and our neighbors, with His love, to come to Him.