Tag Archives: Matthew

An introduction into the psychology of the cross

Posted on March 19, 2013 by | Comments Off on An introduction into the psychology of the cross

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Its obvious to the world that Christians are getting ready to celebrate Easter – the time where Christians celebrate and remember the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  On television, we see the annual parade of Christian and Easter centered shows, the never-ending rows of Easter baskets and candy at the local Wal-mart, and the never-ending barrage of the critics of Easter who correctly point out that Easter was celebrated long before the death of Christ.  It is important to realize that in their attempt to shatter what they consider the myth of Jesus, they actually miss the simple message of the Cross; this should come as no surprise as the apostle Paul wrote, But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness (I Corinthians 1:23).

For many, celebrating Easter means that family gathers around the dinner table, egg hunts, and a sunrise Easter service.  Lip service is made to what Easter is with little evidence of the actual meaning of the cross evident in their lives.  During a world civilization class one afternoon about six years ago, I was asked a question by a student that really got me thinking.  She asked “why are some people so devoted to a religion that offers them no hope, no security, and yet will devote their entire life and being to it?”  I do not remember the answer I gave her, but I do remember considering the opposite question: “why are some people unwilling to be totally devoted to the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ who offers a hope, unconditional forgiveness, and an eternal security?”  Its because we fail to understand the very nature of the cross.

Christianity is not merely a belief in God – as too often many of us believe it to be.  We have been raised and educated in a society where we have been told to leave our faith at home or in the walls of our church.  We have been told that we do have the “right” to worship, but the privilege of worshiping and honoring God has been removed through the guise of political correctness.  If we are to really see the spiritual growth and fulfillment that we long to see in our lives, we must allow ourselves to become consumed in the meaning of the cross.  After we have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior we are renewed, or as the apostle Paul wrote, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (II Corinthians 5:17).

In my own life, although I had fully accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, I tried to retain all that I had been taught from the world before.  I believed the lies of this world that I had to keep my faith hidden except when around other Christians and only in the confines of church or church related activities.  I was afraid to take opportunities to tell others about the love of Jesus Christ because of not wanting to be offensive.  What I did not and would not understand for nearly two decades is that I was doing the very thing that Christ had warned us against: No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).

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Not according to our own understanding…

Posted on March 14, 2013 by | Comments Off on Not according to our own understanding…

EasterCross (Custom)Yesterday, I had a conversation with a young gentleman about what I thought of the newly elected pope. Not being a Catholic, I quickly informed the young man that the pope is the head of the Catholic church, and although a Christian myself, any pope does not have any influence on the way I exercise my faith.  The young man, obviously surprised by my lack of regard for the pope, began to bemoan that this new pope, Francis I, was going to set the church back at least a hundred years.

As I pressed him for his proof, he began to recite the same claims against this pope that the American news media has already begun to highlight:  he is anti-abortion, rejects homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle, a strong defender and promoter of the traditional family, and believes that Catholics must become more church-centered rather than allowing their faith to become part of the periphery – of their lives.   After listening to his rants for about ten minutes, I had a verse pop into my mind that I shared with the young man: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD (Isaiah 55:8).

Although this young man had claimed to be a Catholic, if one observed his lifestyle as I have had the ability to do since he has been a student of mine in three classes, it’s hard to see where he takes his faith seriously.  Unfortunately for him and millions of others in the United States, they have a tendency to approach God and faith as any other aspect of life and do so with their own understanding.  This is where the most serious mistakes of all happens as we are warned by God through the psalmist David, Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding (Psalms 3:5).  Our understanding, our sense of justice, our sense of right and wrong are not based in absolute right and wrong, but on our own fleshly concepts.

Within our nation and since the end of the nineteenth century, there was an idea promoted that only if Americans could be separated from their antiquated religious fundamentalism then society could eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and even the need by some to resort to crime itself.  These people, who called themselves Progressives, began to promote the removal of any mention or influence of God from our nation’s schools, courthouses, and government.  They believed that by relegating God to being simply a God contained within the church, they would actually facilitate an intellectual awakening and the improvement of the human condition within the nation.  Now, in 2013, we have seen the results of their efforts – society has not gotten better; we are witnessing our society’s breakdown happen at lightening speed.

As both secular and contemporary religious leaders scramble to find solutions to the escalating problems in society, many are leaving out a crucial point of the solution:  it’s about obeying God’s precepts and not trying to remake God or his precepts according to our own understanding. In every aspect of the Bible, we see how man has substituted his intellectual understanding rather than to yield to God’s guidance.  When this is pointed out one hears the same old arguments: if we followed the Bible, we’d have no science, if we followed the Bible, infertile couples could not have children, if we follow the Bible, we’d be oppressing others, if we follow the Bible, or my favorite – we’d still be living in tents or caves.  Statements and observations like this show the world’s ignorance when it comes to God.  After all, these are just simply a repackaging of the old question, Yea, hath God said… (Genesis 3:1).

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Understanding the gift of “today”

Posted on January 15, 2013 by | Comments Off on Understanding the gift of “today”

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Instead of making new year’s resolutions this year, I decided to take things day by day.  I know what needs to be done around the house, for my family, at the community college where I teach, the printing ministry that my wife and I have the enjoyment of operating, and my personal needs such as exercise, diet, personal devotion, Bible reading, prayer time, and practicing.  It actually requires me to prioritize my time and to weigh the things that are the most important that I must accomplish each day.  Now since we are in the  third week of January, I have noticed that I am getting more done when I am concentrated on what needs to be done today instead of worrying about the long term goal or what needs to be done by Friday.

This morning, as I was doing my personal Bible reading, I came across this scripture in Proverbs: Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth (Proverbs 27:1) which then led me to one of Christ’s teachings on that same topic: Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Matthew 6:34). Instead of keeping my focus on today, oftentimes in my past I have focused on the future and willingly sacrificed too much of the present.  Instead of enjoying the time with my children, with my family and friends, I chose to use all the time I had preparing for a future that may or may not have turned out to be the way I wanted it to.

This past Thursday, as I was returning home from an interview in Kansas City, Missouri, I needed to take a break from driving to stretch my legs and to refresh my mind.  I decided to stop at a tourist-trap shop named Ozarkland near Kingdom City, Missouri.  As I walked around the store full of the typical items normally found at such shops, I found a wooden sign that reads “Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery.  But today is a gift, that is why we call it the present.”  Normally, I do not buy house signs but this one was different.  I honestly stood there for what seemed ten minutes looking at the sign and letting its simple message sink in.  Tomorrow is the past; I cannot change what happened in it. As a Christian, all I can do is to seek forgiveness for those whom I have wronged, to forgive those who may have wronged me, and to seek forgiveness from God when I have fallen beyond temptation and have chosen to sink into sin.  That’s all that I can do about yesterday and no amount of worrying or post-day analysis can change what has happened.

By fully accepting each day as a gift from God, we begin to see how important each day is and the people that fill our days.  It is a gift from God that I get to spend time with my two-year old daughter.  It is a gift from God when I get to attend church and enjoy the worship and fellowship with God and the other Christians that attend my church.  It is a gift from God when I have the chance to share my love of history with my students in the classes I teach.  When we begin to see the day and the things which are in it as time that is a gift from God we appreciate them more, waste less time, and are drawn to make every moment count. We begin to truly appreciate when our spouses, our children, coworkers, friends, and other family members want to share their time with us. It also makes us more careful in our interactions with others and with God; it creates a strong desire within us to avoid things that create discord between ourselves and those we care about.

It also causes us to prioritize what we decide to achieve each day; too many times in the past I had adopted the old attitude of if I cannot get it done today there is always tomorrow.  Instead of doing what needed to be done, I picked and chose those things I wanted to do, piddled with things that didn’t really matter in the big scheme of things, or was just a poor steward of my time.  Not only are we not promised tomorrow, but tomorrow has its own agenda and its own list of things that need to be done.  Just as the sign said – tomorrow is a mystery indeed!  We have no idea what tomorrow may hold and what could consume our time and keep us from getting everything we had planned to do.

I am not saying that we have to be productive every minute of the day; we do need our daily down time.  What I have learned is that we need to make sure that when we do take that down time we have actually earned it.  There’s nothing worse than running out of day before you run out of things to do – especially when unwise management of our time has left us with things that needed to be done and the things we did get done were the small items on the list that really didn’t matter. We allowed small things to take time away that we could be spending with our family, friends, and even our daily personal devotions with God.  When we really value the gift of today and accept the reality that we are not promised anything but this moment, we really begin to see what is truly important in our lives and what is simply filler.  In other words, we need to live each day as if it were our last.

As I was unpacking the car from the overnight trip to and from Kansas City, I shared the sign with my wife; she also agreed that we need to hang it where we can see it every day.  We’ve decided that the perfect spot for it is in our dining area where it will be visible to all who are sitting at our dining room table.  It’s a simple message that’s worth learning, memorizing, sharing, or maybe even just writing on a sticky-note and sticking it inside your Bible:  Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, that is why we call it the present.

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Posted in Christian Living, Our relationship with ourselves

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