tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88751968577125613182024-03-05T20:31:50.751-08:00Patrick's BlogThe things God says to me when I am listening.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-50749828814719467272020-07-04T19:32:00.000-07:002020-07-04T19:32:02.168-07:00Racism in America 4: The Moral RightIn this post, I will discuss the upheaval in America in response to the continuing occurrences of police brutality against black people. What I am going to say may not necessarily sit well with either side of the argument. But it needs to be said. I pray you will listen with an open mind, and that instead of becoming naturally defensive, you will allow this to be an opportunity for introspection and learning.<div><br /></div><div>Within one day of the tragic killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, most all of America was ready to tear down the walls of racism which have refused to be broken for centuries.</div><div><br /></div><div>Within one week of Floyd's death, people actually started tearing down literal walls, as well as doors and windows. They looted. They burned businesses. They began attacking police officers. One person said, "You had the whole of America on your side, but when the riots started, you lost us."</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a problem. It is a problem on both sides of the issue. On one side, the fact the looting started. On the other side, the fact that they lost us.</div><div><br /></div><div>Because, you see, we cannot correct a wrong by committing another wrong. It just creates a further place of wrong which doesn't solve anything.</div><div><br /></div><div>And because, you see, we cannot let positive change die because of the acts of some people. We also need to look at the reason those people are responding that way.</div><div><br /></div><div>I will begin with the second issue. As I live on the conservative side of the fence, I hear more about how bad the looters are and how stupid these riots have become than anyone really talking about the original problem. This is a natural outcome of bad behavior, that people focus more on the bad behavior than the cause. Unlike some people, I still listen to some of the media from the liberal side of the fence as well, and try to keep an open mind, so that maybe I can behold the true scope of the problem.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the really smart people on Facebook (who like usual I cannot remember and I apologize) pointed out what you do when a child acts out. Many people, when a child is throwing a tantrum, seek to stop the child from screaming and/or punish them for their inappropriate behavior. I agree that we should not reward bad behavior from children, and that we should teach them that there are consequences for such actions.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, I have spent several years as a counselor at a camp for abused and neglected children in the foster care system, as well as eleven years as a leader in children's and youth ministries at my church. One of the things we are taught early on is that these "tantrums" are rarely the problem but are a response to another situation. When a baby is tired, he may cry. If the baby is hungry, he may cry. If a baby wants to be held by Mommy, he may also cry. You can throw the baby a rattle to appease him for the moment, but that doesn't satisfy his needs of sleep, food or comfort. It is only when his needs are met that he will be truly satisfied.</div><div><br /></div><div>Children who have been abused or neglected can act in a similar fashion. We spent a week with these kids, and we would see the full range of actions, the good and the bad. The bad behavior looked very different at different times and between different kids. Sometimes the child would run away, sometimes they would fight, sometimes they would refuse to listen to their counselor. There were even more extreme cases of "bad behavior," and in all of these cases, we wanted to help the kids learn that this was inappropriate and would not be tolerated.</div><div><br /></div><div>But we also wanted to help see the true cause of this behavior. We understood that these kids came to camp from all different places and all different experiences, including many negative influences and abusive situations. The behaviors we would see were almost always negative reactions to these other problems. They were never "bad kids;" they were kids behaving badly because of something bad happening to them, or because they were in a situation they didn't understand. In many cases, the children behaved this way because it was the only way they knew how to react.</div><div><br /></div><div>As counselors and teachers, it was our opportunity to help the kids understand that they were safe, loved and cared for first. We needed to build that trust with them. We needed them to see that even in these moments of inappropriate reactions to these problems, we weren't going to send them away or write them off as "bad kids" or "worthless." Then, we could help them open up about what was causing these behaviors, and teach them how to deal with that problem themselves or learn how to find the help they needed. To change the behavior, we needed to fix the problems causing the behavior. And that all started by building trust.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>In the case of the rioters, many have demonstrated "bad behavior." Some of those people are rioting and looting because of personal issues way outside of the scope of this fight against racism and police brutality.</div><div><br /></div><div>But many of these rioters are reacting to the true problem, in some ways the only way they can. Think about this for a second: If you have been treated poorly by the police system for hundreds of years, can you take your anger out directly on the police system? No! You would get shot or pepper sprayed very quickly. Instead, these people are taking their anger out on the next thing they can find, for example, the nearby Target. It might just happen to be there, or it might symbolize the system which has been hurting them for so long.</div><div><br /></div><div>Do you agree with this? You don't have to. It is not about agreeing with them; it is about trying to understand the true cause of why they are doing what they are doing. We can keep punishing bad behavior and think we have done enough, but it will keep coming. Instead, we can seek to intentionally work to fix the problem which is actually the root behind this behavior. Not only will we lessen the chances that the behavior will continue, but we will also build that much-needed trust that has been lacking in our society for as long as the problems have lasted.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Now, to the other side of the problem.</i> We need to help understand these root causes of this behavior. But we can never view the behavior as anything but bad.</div><div><br /></div><div>Although the evils of racism and police brutality exist in our society, and must be defeated at all costs, the moral code we use as a lens to view these societal problems can't change when we view the rioters' bad behavior. Right is right and wrong is wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>Most people have a moral code. They use it to determine what is good and bad. To each person, it is designed based on experience and the teaching of those who have been primary sources of influence. In the case of the kids at camp, we help the kids learn what is "good" and "bad" behavior to help them develop that moral code or modify it if it has been compromised.</div><div><br /></div><div>The thing about moral codes is that to each person, it is the truth. We may be able to budge on some things, but in general, we hold our moral code to be the final say on all things.</div><div><br /></div><div>For us Christians, our moral code is mainly determined by what the Bible says. Most Christians, like myself, view the Bible as the inspired Word of God, without error and not to be argued with. We may be able to change our stances on things that are not directly mentioned in the Bible or are things we can't confidently say what God's view of it is based on what is written. (We still seek to know God's will in all things.) But what is written in the Bible is the set standard and cannot be changed.</div><div><br /></div><div>People of other religions usually hold the same confidence in their moral code. Other people who don't have a set doctrine still tend to have a clear understanding of their own view of right and wrong. We may differ on certain things, and we should be able to appreciate that everyone's view is slightly different. Still, in these situations, to each of us, our standard is right and the other standards are wrong. And we should be okay with that.</div><div><br /></div><div>I believe God has put a basic morality in all people, however. We all seem to understand that murder is wrong. It is bad for the victim, it is bad for the murderer, and it is bad for society in general. But it goes beyond a societal benefit analysis. Murder, to put it simply, is wrong. Anyone who tolerates it is wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>Most people view stealing and damaging personal property as wrong, too. It directly causes harm to someone else, usually someone who is an innocent party in the problem. So when we see rioters burning down businesses which people have worked their lives to build, that's hard to swallow. It's not something most of us can consider an "appropriate reaction" to a societal wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>Many of the people who are decrying the riots hold to the Christian worldview, and therefore take the Bible as being the ultimate determiner of right and wrong. In Ephesians 4:26, Paul says, "In your anger, do not sin." A lot of people don't understand that anger is in itself not a sin; it is actually a feeling. Whether the cause of the feeling is justified is beside the point; when a person is angry, they are experiencing a legitimate feeling which is in itself neither right nor wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>But as with any feeling, it is what action that follows which determines whether it becomes a sin. If my friend ate my candy bar, I may feel anger against him. If I bite my tongue, give myself time to cool off, forgive him, and let it go, I have not sinned. If I sock him in the face, I have obviously sinned.</div><div><br /></div><div>We can take the time with open minds to understand the causes of this anger that the rioters may be feeling. If you are scared every time you see a cop that you might be shot for no reason, and no one is doing anything about it, wouldn't you feel angry? I would say for the most part, the anger these people are facing is more than justified.</div><div><br /></div><div>But it is your actions that speak the loudest. There were many protests during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's. Which protest was probably most influential? The March on Washington, D.C. Why? It is because they walked in solidarity, loudly proclaiming their message, which was a message of unity and the desire for change. Dr. King stood up at the end and gave his "I Have A Dream" speech, which is considered one of the most important speeches in American history. It was rooted in the true moral right, and the actions of the 250,000 protesters backed up that message. Racism and segregation should be destroyed because it is the <i>right thing to do.</i> And how can anyone accept the message if the actions that come with it aren't right themselves?</div><div><br /></div><div>And we should never condone evil behavior, no matter how justified the cause. Those of us who hold to the truths of right and wrong should decry racism and denounce the riots in the same breath, because both are wrong. There are many, many protesters peacefully gathering whose message is being sadly diluted by the indecent and stupid actions of a small minority. And this is very, very unfortunate.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet, if we are going to stand up against the wrongs contained in this rioting, we must make sure we are also standing against all other things God calls wrong. It cannot be based on our convenience or whether our political party speaks for or against it or not at all. If we believe our moral code to be right, we need to hold to it firmly and be the best example of what "good" looks like so that the world can see the light of that goodness. It will both make the world a better place and point the world to the truth of a God who sets both the standards of justice and love, the only One who has the power to meet all our needs and protect those who have been wronged. He is that true Light of goodness, and if we want to see the change we seek, we better reflect His light in everything we do.</div><div><br /></div><div>So we decry and denounce the riots.</div><div><br /></div><div>We decry and denounce the racism.</div><div><br /></div><div>We decry and denounce the police brutality.</div><div><br /></div><div>And we pray that the Light of Truth will shine brightly from our lives. That is only way we can truly see lasting peace in this land.</div>Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-35679238086088746562020-06-25T22:19:00.001-07:002020-06-25T22:19:21.511-07:00Racism in America 3: What Are We Fighting For?This may have been the longest month in American history.<div><br /></div><div>It has been exactly one month since George Floyd was tragically murdered in Minneapolis. It seems like the upheaval it has caused has lasted much longer than that.</div><div><br /></div><div>The upheaval has been necessary. We have lived in a nation still riddled with small veins of racism and prejudice. Little actions can do nothing to create the change necessary to correct these problems.</div><div><br /></div><div>We must ask, however, what are we fighting for? What is the goal of all of this?</div><div><br /></div><div>When COVID-19 hit in March, we were told that we would not be able to congregate, we may not be able to go to work, our sporting events have been cancelled, and our kids will need to be educated at the kitchen table. We knew it would be difficult and anything but desirable, but the vast majority of us understood why it had to be done: for the safety of our families and communities.</div><div><br /></div><div>The <i>Why</i> was clear: prevent COVID-19 deaths. The logic said, and still says, that by decreasing the contact between people, we are decreasing the spread of the virus. And since many people are particularly vulnerable due to preexisting medical conditions, we had extra motivation to work for the benefit of those we love.</div><div><br /></div><div>As time has gone by, we have had to question this logic within ourselves. New research and understanding of the virus has erased certain misconceptions, and has added new considerations. Almost all people who have been under varying levels of quarantine are at their wits' end (me included) and are ready to go the park, the beach, the theater, and just about anywhere but the trash dump and the waste processing plant. We are ready to be free!</div><div><br /></div><div>But my grandma lives in a retirement home. She is in her mid-nineties, and while relatively healthy, she is very vulnerable to the virus. If I ever need motivation to wear a mask or stay at home, I need only think of her. My conveniences can be put aside if the safety of those I love is at stake.</div><div><br /></div><div>Through all of this, the goal has remained the same: get to the point where the virus can be eliminated somehow, either by an act of God or by a vaccine. That is the only safe and lasting way to defeat COVID-19 and return to the normal life we now miss.</div><div><br /></div><div>How does this relate to racism? Some people see the upheaval in America, whether the riots, the bickering, or the incessant talk on the news, as the virus. To them, someday, all of these hindrances will go away and life can return to normal.</div><div><br /></div><div>But therein lies the problem. We don't want things to return to "normal." And it is not because we like the upheaval. You see, the true virus is the racism, and America has been infected with it for many, many years.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>If that is the case, it changes the goal. Instead of everything returning to the way it has always been, we need to move America to a place it has never been. Remember, according to the United States Declaration of Independence, "all men are created equal." At the current time, we certainly believe that all people, both men <i>and </i>women, are created equal, and throughout our history, that has always been held as the spirit of the statement. We also recognize that for all of history until recently, men were viewed as superior, and even though our country has had a revolution away from this thinking, these male-centered concepts still exist in our society. We hope that as racism is eliminated, sexism can be as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>But race is not mentioned in the Declaration's statement. The word "all" means, well, all. The logic was that no one is born superior than another, particularly of royal blood. Everyone is and should be a free individual with the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." So why did so many white American men view black American men as not equal?</div><div><br /></div><div>The only way to accept a person as not being equal is to not view them as a person. How could a person "own" another person? If they viewed that person as an inferior being, and not a true human. White men viewed black men as inferior, and in many cases, they felt they were "doing them a favor" by keeping them as slaves.</div><div><br /></div><div>The same logic applied to how white people could take the land of the Native Americans. If you viewed yourself as not just superior but of a different and better species, then anything can arguably be rightfully yours.</div><div><br /></div><div>Remember, Hitler also advocated the superiority of the German race. This is how he got a whole nation of generally well-meaning people to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed against the Jews and the other non-superior people.</div><div><br /></div><div>When slavery was ended in America after the Civil War, America had to come to terms with the fact that the black people were now considered as actually equal. Many didn't like this, but we can't just slap the racism label on this dislike and call it a day. We need to understand what fueled this dislike.</div><div><br /></div><div>As the American South was primarily agricultural, the slaves provided the manpower needed to produce the crops which made up the plantations' livelihoods. When slavery ended, that basically free manpower went away. Also, the workforce grew dramatically, taking away jobs which would have gone to the white man before. If any southern former slave-owners saw the black people as inferior before, this next stage just compounded their hatred from an economic standpoint.</div><div><br /></div><div>(A very good perspective on this is the novel <i>Alex Cross's Trial</i> written by James Patterson & Richard DiLallo, which paints an interesting picture of the deep south after the Civil War from a northerner's point of view. A word of warning, if it were a movie, it would be considered R-rated.)</div><div><br /></div><div>This is where the error began. So we righted the wrongs of slavery by freeing the slaves, right? Well, it should have gone that way. But no one stopped to look at the effects of racism in a post-slavery America. Instead, they let this hatred and distrust of blacks continue, which resulted in what would become segregation. Because although the slaves were free, in the minds of most whites, the black people were still not their equal.</div><div><br /></div><div>There have been many black people who have had hatred against white people. We believe that hatred against another person is wrong no matter what the cause. But we must better understand why these black people have felt this hatred and distrust; they had been, and in some cases still are, treated as unequal. If slavery was a horrible evil, segregation was just downright ridiculous. It showed that the evils of slavery never went away, they just took on a new look. We can see what caused the blacks' hatred against the whites: they were treated unfairly to the utmost. We cannot accept, however, what caused the whites' hatred against the blacks: they weren't there to tend their fields and provide free labor so the whites could live the lavish lifestyle they once had. Logic dictates that this racism should have died out by the third generation. But with no introspection and no acknowledgement of past sins, the hatred is allowed to continue unhampered, in many cases for no real reason whatsoever.</div><div><br /></div><div>So we ask the original question again: What are we fighting for? We are fighting to kill this evil of slavery once and for all. We are tired of this illogical hatred continuing to be perpetuated through our cultures and through our systems. That change must be intentional, and it must be done by the people who have been silent up until now. The only reason this virus of racism is still alive in America is because <i>we refuse to kill it.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>A few months ago, President Trump was talking about how if you don't test for the coronavirus, you won't have any cases. The media, as usual, took the statement way out of context, as though he meant that we can benefit if we pretend the virus doesn't exist. What he really was saying was that America has "more cases" because we have tested more people. If we didn't test, we wouldn't know how much the virus has spread. But instead of playing dumb and living in blissful ignorance, we test and test so we know what we are really fighting against.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>And that is what we need to do with racism. Instead of sweeping it under the rug and pretending that racism doesn't exist in America (which people actually believe), we need to acknowledge our past sins and rectify them once and for all. We need to show with our words and actions that black lives do matter, that black lives are just as valuable as white lives (and native lives, and Asian lives, and Latinx lives, and every other person who calls themselves American, and every other person after that). We are fighting for the justice that God desires us to seek, to stop hiding behind our pride and admit that we, the greatest nation on Earth, have sinned. When we understand the true <i>Why</i> behind the upheaval, we can see why it isn't an inconvenience, but is in fact long overdue.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>(Next up, we'll talk about riots. Stay tuned, and keep your minds open. Trust me, you will <i>all</i> need them.)</div>Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-25453552868363040442020-06-24T19:23:00.000-07:002020-06-24T19:23:41.437-07:00Racism in America 2: PrivilegeLately, I've been studying the geographic design of my local community. I dig into the public archives about the plats, surveys, and historical maps pertaining to my town. It feels like a type of forensic archaeology. It's exciting! Once I've learned about an area, I take a walk through the area to see it for myself.<div><br /></div><div>Ahmaud Arbery was a man who liked to stay fit by going jogging. As most of you know, he was murdered by two white men who thought he "looked suspicious."</div><div><br /></div><div>I was strolling through a neighborhood, legally on the public sidewalks and roadways of course, wondering if anybody might think I looked suspicious. I know I just look like any person taking a walk (which I actually am). That's when the realization hit me; it left me enlightened and disgusted.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't look suspicious, because I am white. If I were black, somebody might call the cops.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the first time in my life, I actually understood the reality of what is called "privilege": I am exempt from something, or am not likely to be thought of as something, because of a characteristic of myself. In this case, because I am white.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously, it is not my fault that I am white, nor am I ashamed of being white. It is simply the results of genetics which dictate how much melanin my skin contains. Likewise, it is also no one's fault that they are black, nor is it anything to be ashamed of. But for some reason, they are not afforded the same benefits as I am in some situations.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are white and wear a hoodie, people may think you don't want your hair wet. If you are black and wear a hoodie, people may think you might steal something.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are white and are homeless, people may think you are down on your luck. If you are black and are homeless, people may think you didn't try hard enough, or weren't smart enough.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are white, people might expect you to speak proper English. If you are black, people might be surprised if you speak proper English.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are white and own a gun, people may think you are trying to protect your family or your property. If you are black and own a gun, people may think you could be a liability to the safety of the community.</div><div><br /></div><div>All of these are absurd logic. Yet, our society has perpetuated these ideas, sometimes passed down inadvertently from generation to generation. Most of us would never say we thought these things. But the reason I used these examples is because I hear people infer them all the time, not blatantly hating the black person, but showing echoes of the prejudices of the past which fail to die.</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe we white people have thought one of these once in awhile. Hopefully, we have caught ourselves and tried to re-think the situation. But a thought here and a thought there, mixed with the other feelings of the other people around us, snowballs along until the black community is trapped by the grapevines of our unintentional, unconscious, and unnoticed prejudiced thoughts which never seem to go away.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, some have said that a human's natural tendency is to distrust something that looks different than they do. Maybe there's some validity to that from a scientific perspective, but I doubt that it is true in reality. Think about this: Have you ever seen a racist baby? You put a white baby with a black baby, what will happen? The children will barely notice that they are different. Obviously they see that their skin is a different color, but they don't see themselves as "different." To them, they are both babies.</div><div><br /></div><div>The point is that racist tendencies are taught more than they are natural. I believe that the amount of racism has declined every generation. Yet, 155 years after slavery ended and 55 years after formalized segregation ended, we still have these racist tendencies permeating our society.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why is this? Why didn't the problem get fixed so many years ago? Because though the law changed, the hearts didn't change with it. Pride causes people to be unwilling to look inside themselves and see whether their hearts are living with the virtues they profess. And real change can't happen until the problems are acknowledged.</div><div><br /></div><div>I wanted to write this post right up front because I recognized that this lack of introspection is a root cause of this racism pandemic that has lasted for as long as this earth has existed. So many of us have always thought that we truly love all people, which we probably do, but there may be those programmed thoughts and tendencies still in our minds, which we may not realize are there until we look. I know I didn't use to consciously analyze these things in myself. Over the last several years, I have been more intentional about looking for these tendencies in myself and knocking them down, and since Ahmaud was killed on his jog, it's been on the forefront of my mind.</div><div><br /></div><div>So my encouragement is this: If you have thought these things, you don't need to wallow in shame about it. Instead, acknowledge it to yourself, and then be intentional about not letting yourself fall into that trap again. Remember, the brain is a computer. It can be programmed, and it can also be reprogrammed.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you haven't thought about this before, then now is the time to start. And this spreads way beyond just racist thoughts. Maybe you are dealing with pride, selfishness, lust, or any of those common human issues. It's okay to acknowledge it, as we all struggle with such things. That is part of our human condition.</div><div><br /></div><div>But there is a God who created all people (of all races) with the original intention of us being perfect. We chose to fall from that perfection, but He wants to bring us back to that. We just have to acknowledge our failings to Him, and ask Him to change our hearts. He will be faithful to help reprogram our minds as only He can do. The key is we need to both admit our need for it, and let Him do the work.</div><div><br /></div><div>So when you see someone of a different skin color tomorrow, look into their eyes and try to imagine how they see the world. Try to imagine the things they might have to fight against in order to have what you haven't had to fight for. In your mind, extend them the same privileges you've been given, since they are a person made in the image of God, as you are.</div><div><br /></div><div>And just remember: by sharing that privilege with others, no one is taking it away from you. It's just being given to all people equally, as it should have always been.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-79379335229097346402020-06-09T20:57:00.000-07:002020-06-09T20:57:10.038-07:00Racism in America 1: Admit ItRacism exists in America. It's a fact.<div><br /></div><div>We have all seen the tragedy of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, and have heard of the several other prominent deaths of black people by citizens or police officers in the last few months. One person (I cannot remember who and I apologize) said so clearly: "Racism has always existed; now people are filming it."</div><div><br /></div><div>I have been one of those conservative people who has never denied the existence of racism in America. But even I didn't really stop to consider how widespread the problem has been.<br /><br /></div><div>What we are seeing is two different types of racism. The first is what we consider blatant racism. This is the individuals who are not afraid to tell a person of color that they do not like them simply because they are of a different color. They have submitted to the idea that Caucasian people are "superior" to people of color, for one reason or another. I cannot for the life of me figure out how anyone can think this way.</div><div><br /></div><div>But obviously, they had to think this way to send ships over to Africa to take people from their land and enslave them. I have never been more disgusted writing a sentence in my life than the last one. We know that they wanted to use the blacks to improve the productivity of their plantations, but that doesn't make a person mentally go to the extent of thinking of a person as less-than-human.</div><div><br /></div><div>This attitude probably stems from the nationalistic ideas of old. Many of us think of America as the superior country in the world, but not because its people are better, but because of what our country stands for and how successful we've been at fighting for freedom and in some cases saving the world from evils. (Our nation's propensity for war is the subject of another blog post someday.) On the other hand, the old way of thinking has always been that the person's country was superior because <i>they were superior.</i> This is why there have been so many wars for so many thousands of years: it wasn't until America when a country was built around people of all types being considered as equal, regardless of race.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, at least that's what the formal documents said. Slavery of blacks was rampant in the south, Catholics were considered the scum of the earth, and the nation was formed directly over the top of indigenous peoples' lands, using the logic that it only made sense, since the people groups were all pagans, primitive, and not organized as one nation. And although the grammar of the day used "men" to mean people in general, the heart behind that grammar choice had always been rooted in the chauvinistic ideas that men were superior to women and therefore were not, in fact, equal.</div><div><br /></div><div>So from the start you have a nation with the right ideas, but no actual application of those ideas. Nobody sat themselves down and asked, "Are we living like these words we are declaring?"</div><div><br /></div><div>And that leads us to the second type of racism I mentioned earlier. There is a sort of subtle racism that people have carried throughout these ages, most of which goes unnoticed. People who are not overtly "racist" can have thoughts, actions, or tendencies which contain varying levels of racism in them. Some of this is what is being called systematic racism, the idea that the system is inherently racist and we are all just perpetuating it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Is it really that extreme? I can't give you a true answer. And the reason is because, for so many years, many of us would not stop to talk about racism, or stop to look inside ourselves to see if there is anything in ourselves which could be perpetuating this.</div><div><br /></div><div>This series of blog posts will deal with this issue of racism, with the intention of each of us looking inside ourselves to see if we are unintentionally furthering this racism. Many of you will discover that you are living a life free of being overtly racist. But you may notice nuances or details which are slanted toward you as being a certain race. This is what people refer to as "privilege," and I believe the first step to deconstructing these edifices in our world is admitting that privilege exists. This is what the second post will cover.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first thing that needs to happen, however, is for each of us to admit that maybe racism <i>is</i> a bigger deal in America than we think it is. Since many of us believe that we are not racist, and believe that America stands for equality for everyone (with its clearly stated rights and all), we've never taken the time to really stop and analyze ourselves and our life structure. What looks really good in our own eyes may look very different in the eyes of someone who is in a different position. The ability to look at things from a different perspective than our own is something that does not come naturally. It is a choice. And once we change that perspective and see that things may not be as hunky-dunky as we think they are, only then will real change finally happen.</div><div><br /></div><div>So please, read these posts with an open mind and an open heart.</div><div><br /></div><div>To black people, I will repeat the often said statement that I truly mean: I cannot understand what you are going through, but I will listen and I will try to understand as best as I can.</div><div><br /></div><div>To white people, I ask that you lower your pride. Admitting we might have a problem is not destructive but is in fact constructive. We better ourselves, our society, and most importantly, we lift others up to that same place which we have never truly deserved, and should have always shared with those of a different color.</div><div><br /></div><div>And to all other people who do not fit in one of these two categories, you may share in some of both of these positions. None of us are perfect, and none of us are without hardship. But with this intentional effort to try to kill racism in America once and for all, we may pull ourselves closer to the letter of our Pledge of Allegiance: a nation "with liberty and justice <i>for all</i>."</div>Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-18399188550583107362018-07-22T22:46:00.000-07:002018-07-22T22:46:59.423-07:0077-8B Does God Need Me?<i>Inspired by the song "Control (Somehow You Want Me)" by Tenth Avenue North from their album Followers. </i><i>Available at <a href="https://youtu.be/VrDuZaR2vt8">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/control-somehow-you-want-me/1130475730?i=1130476177">iTunes</a> & <a href="http://a.co/8DMrJpd">Am<span id="goog_353352122"></span><span id="goog_353352123"></span>azon</a>.</i><br />
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We all want to be needed. We feel valuable if someone needs our presence for some reason. Sometimes it's because we have a specific skill that will help them accomplish something. Or sometimes it's just because they need a friend with them at that moment.<br />
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Jesus gave a parable called the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30. It tells about three slaves who were loaned "talents" by their master. When the master returned from a long journey, he was pleased with the first two slaves who invested the talents and reaped a harvest. But he was disappointed with the slave who feared the master enough to just bury it in the ground and give it back to him with nothing additional earned.<br />
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Often, this passage is taught as an example of how God has given us various talents or skills, and we are called to use them for the glory of God and to not waste the opportunity. This is a great application of this scripture, and pretty much sums up the point Jesus was trying to make.<br />
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But the word "talent" doesn't actually mean "talent" in the standard English definition. A talent was actually a sum of money, equivalent to about fifteen years wages for the common laborer. It is only so convenient that the English translation comes out to be the same word used for some skill we have.<br />
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Regardless of how the word is to be specifically interpreted, it still makes the same point, that God has given us certain qualities that He wants us to use and to grow to reap a harvest. If we don't take the risk and step out to use the gifts God has given us, whether money or skills, we have failed in the whole point of having those gifts. As Jesus says in Luke 12:48, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded."<br />
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But teachers tend to emphasize this story to specifically apply to the word "talent" in the English meaning solely, because it appeals to peoples' desire to be needed. People don't want to be just a face in the crowd; they want to stand out and be noticed for something, which usually ends up being a talent or skill.<br />
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If you can ride a unicycle, that is what you can be known for. Or if you play the banjo really well, there's a spot for you in some praise band somewhere. In my case, I like to memorize ridiculous things like the names of every stop in the TriMet bus system or the ages of every plane in the Alaska Airlines fleet. Because, you see, few people have done these before and it makes me unique to do these things.<br />
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And while uniqueness in an non-prideful sense is valuable, too often it becomes part of our spiritual identity. As enjoyable as it is to be known by people, it's only so valuable until you're not needed anymore or that skill goes out of style. Like, imagine if I moved away from Portland: would knowing all the TriMet bus stops matter anymore? Of course not. So I need to remember that my spiritual identity can use these skills for good works, but it <i>is not defined by </i>these skills. My spiritual identity can only be defined by God Himself, the One who created me and has a plan for my life.<br />
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But does God really need me?<br />
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Simple answer, no.<br />
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Wait, what? Doesn't that devalue myself by saying that? No, not at all. Because, you see, God doesn't value me because of what I can do or how well I can do it.<br />
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My mom has always said that God doesn't need my talents or skills. He doesn't need my money, He doesn't need my time. He's God! He has everything. If I don't do it, He can find someone who will.<br />
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That's not to say we should pass up the callings on our lives or forego the opportunities that have been placed before us. But we have to remember that we need God, not the other way around. He desires to use our talents for His glory, but He doesn't really need them.<br />
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And, as the song states, this is incredibly freeing. Why? Because that means there is no pressure to measure up. Christianity is not a religion in which we succeed or fail depending on how well we hit the requirements of being a Christian, how many people we lead to Christ, or whether we make it to church at least three-quarters of the Sundays each year.<br />
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God doesn't need us. We should never think so highly of ourselves that we think God couldn't accomplish something without our help. This life isn't about us, and God doesn't owe us anything because of our works.<br />
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Yet in spite of our relative unimportance, <i>God wants us</i>.<br />
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In fact, He wants us so much that he overcame the greatest obstacle possible to have us. He paid the penalty we deserved with His own life.<br />
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And therefore, our value is now worth the life of God's Son. What a pendulum shift. We went from worthless to infinitely valuable.<br />
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But it's not a value that is at all defined by our abilities. It is defined by the great love of our Father. He wants us because He loves us, not because of our talents.<br />
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What this means is that we are valuable whether we succeed or fail. If we do well, we are loved. If we absolutely blow it, we are still loved. And if we absolutely keep blowing it, we are STILL loved. God's love is such that He isn't critiquing us on success or failure; He overcame our failures so that we could have the rewards of success forever.<br />
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So should we view the Parable of the Talents any differently? No, because He has given us talents and skills and even money that He wants us to use for His glory. It is by our service, generosity and love that we demonstrate our relationship with God, and if we aren't doing these things, as the book of James teaches, we need to question whether we are really living in that relationship.<br />
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But know that the source of your salvation is entirely Jesus. He wanted you before you were born, and nothing you can ever do will change that. Win or lose, your value to Him is beyond anything you can imagine. Rest in the peace that comes from knowing that you don't have to live up to some standard to be wanted; <i>you already are!</i><br />
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Lord, thank you for wanting me. Even though I have failed the course so often, You still desire me and want to be in relationship with me. Thank you for overcoming the barriers that kept me from You so that I can spend eternity with You. Use me for Your glory and help me to reap a great harvest for Your kingdom, but let me find rest in the fact that You don't need me, but somehow You want me.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-24727229055451047022018-07-20T21:42:00.000-07:002018-07-20T21:42:01.377-07:0077-8A Who's In Charge?<i>Inspired by the song "Control (Somehow You Want Me)" by Tenth Avenue North from their album Followers. </i><i>Available at <a href="https://youtu.be/VrDuZaR2vt8">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/control-somehow-you-want-me/1130475730?i=1130476177">iTunes</a> & <a href="http://a.co/8DMrJpd">Amazon</a>.</i><br />
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Are you a control freak like me?<br />
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When I was younger, my mother always told me that I was born to be a leader! I really didn't feel like a leader at the time, but when I started college, I found myself leading my project groups more often than not.<br />
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My strategy always went something like this: class started, we formed our groups, and I would take the initiative to take down everybody's cell numbers and email addresses. Then, I would email the group the contact information. I didn't say anything about wanting to be in charge at the time, but I would work with the group to organize our first meeting within the first week. At our meeting, we would then discuss who would be the "point person," as we would call it. Whether they were the real authority or not, it was always good to have a person who would help coordinate all the schedules, deadlines, and receipt of everybody's parts of the project.<br />
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The idea of the initial contact sheet was twofold: (1) to make sure everybody got the necessary information, and (2) to put my best foot forward. Sometimes, someone else who was louder and more authoritative in general would step up to be the leader, which I fully supported. If I didn't need to be the leader, that was fine by me. I really didn't need the added stress. But if nobody stepped up, or that specific person who would step up would likely not fulfill the necessary obligations, I would assert myself as the leader.<br />
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At that point, nobody would complain. They would do their parts, I would do my part, I would combine the papers, I would assemble the PowerPoint, and we would get an A. It was like clockwork.<br />
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Why did I want to be the leader? Because I learned in one of my earliest classes that if I let just anybody lead the group, there would be chaos.<br />
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My father has very high standards. Too high, to be honest. But his attitude has influenced me to believe that there is usually one best way to do something, and it falls on us to try to find that best way. When I had that early class, there were three leaders, no accountability, and way too much bickering. People weren't showing up to meetings. They weren't keeping up with the expectations of the group. And when we tried to email them, all we received back was electronic crickets.<br />
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What drove me crazy about this was that I was helpless to do anything about it other than my own work. However, I did try to remedy the problem by reaching out personally to the missing people, taking them aside, and helping them understand what we were expecting of them, what they needed to do to catch up, and how they could show everybody else that they really meant it when they said they cared about the success of the project. In the end, we had a successful project, if not significantly hodgepodge.<br />
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And I decided that day that I would never ever let a group flounder that far. If I needed to be the leader, I would be the leader.<br />
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Why did this matter to me? Because the success of the group directly affected my success at college. If we didn't do well, I wouldn't do well. Not everyone was under the pressure to get all A's, but when your parents are footing the entire bill and you make the mistake of getting all A's the first time around, you gotta keep it up as long as you can. So I wanted to be in a position where I had control over our destiny. If we did well, I did my job. If we didn't do well, then it was no one's fault but my own.<br />
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I feel no shame in having had this attitude. I knew that I didn't come across as demanding or egotistical. I cared as much about everybody else getting the A as I did about me getting it. Often, this was the best grade some of the students would get that term, and if I could help them be better off, then that made me feel like the effort was that much more worth it.<br />
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But I realize that I try to manage life the same way. I want to be in charge.<br />
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Do you feel this way, too? Do you worry when you don't know what the future holds? Instead of praying, do you try to get your hands on anything that might help the situation? We end up being busybodies trying to manage our own lives, when God has told us to do something better: give up our control.<br />
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I remember every sleepless night I had in college: the two overnight take-home finals for macroeconomics, and every single night before final grades were posted. As Portland State required all grades in at a certain time, they were guaranteed to be there on the website at 8am that day. And I would lay there, worrying, stressing, having nightmares about what would happen. What was so dumb was that I was worrying not about failing the class; I was worrying about, heaven forbid, getting a B+. Because that would be <i>so</i> terrible!<br />
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I forgot to put my trust in the Lord. Trusting the Lord is not just something we say or choose to do when we are at the altar. It is what we do when we know the grades are going to be posted and we don't know what we will find out. It is what we do when we learn that the same car rental was booked 6 different times due to a web glitch and we are going to have to call the billing department in the morning about getting 5 of them cancelled with no penalty (which is exactly what I have to do tomorrow). It is about going to the doctor because we have a pain in a place and have no idea what it could be.<br />
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Jesus calls us to follow Him. That means letting go of our need for being in control of everything. He is more than capable of taking care of our every need. He is wiser than we could ever be, and He can see further down the road than we could even guess.<br />
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He has given us the ability to do our part. I did my part in my schoolwork; the rest was up to Him. And I did see literal miracles that helped me get those ridiculous A's and A-'s every single term of my college career. So, after all that, why do I doubt Him at all?<br />
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My hope is that we can lay down our plans and our dreams and follow what God has, to trust Him along the way and to not worry about what is outside our control. It is so freeing knowing that I don't have get everything right, that I have a leader who I can rely on to guide me to the greatest of all success.<br />
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Lord, thank you for being capable of anything and willing to use your power to help us in our time of need. Give us energy to do our part, and to be satisfied with the effort we put in. And help us to leave the rest to Your capable hands. Help us to feel the freedom that comes from taking our hands off of our problems and giving You control.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-5771063714686576492018-07-16T12:00:00.000-07:002018-07-16T12:00:07.851-07:0077-7 Happiness or Joy?<i>Inspired by the song "No One Can Steal Our Joy" by Tenth Avenue North from their album Followers. </i><i>Available at <a href="https://youtu.be/7XwqEiWmRSE">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/no-one-can-steal-our-joy/1130475730?i=1130476175">iTunes</a> & <a href="http://a.co/1TB9vP4">Amazon</a>.</i><br />
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"God wants me to be happy."<br />
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A lot of Christians say this or believe this, and it sounds really good. But is it a true statement?<br />
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I would argue, yes, it is true, but a little misleading. And there is something certainly more valuable.<br />
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Happiness is, simply put, the state of being happy. We all know how it feels to be happy, but we also know how quickly we change from being happy to being any other emotion other than happy. If there's anything we as humans can possibly agree on, it's that everybody would rather be happy than any other emotion. Where we differ is in the things that make us happy. That's where people get in trouble.<br />
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You see, there are a lot of things that make me happy. Planes, buses, bunnies, corgis and coffee all make me happy. I like reading books. I like writing a story and seeing it come out exactly as I hoped it would. Pad See Ewe (a Thai dish), Olive Garden's Braised Beef & Tortelloni, and, lately, the basic crispy chicken sandwich at Wendy's all make me really happy.<br />
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What makes me more happy is playing on the worship team at church and watching people dive into experiencing God's presence. Or hearing one of my kids that I have mentored for years tell of the great things God is doing in his or her life. These things make me the happiest of all.<br />
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But the sad fact is that there are negative things that make me happy. If they didn't, I wouldn't be tempted to engage in them. Usually, this happiness is very short-lived, as I feel regret and sorrow and a loss of self-worth after making these mistakes. Yet, somehow, they entice me because they tell me that I will be happy if I do them. And every time they let me down.<br />
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I come to the realization that happiness is more of a primal emotion than a part of being godly. Everybody wants to be happy, but we obviously are not all the time. When we aren't happy, we get very selfish and wish to be happy. We complain because we are not happy. And we strive to do whatever it takes to get back to that state of happiness, even if it's not God's way of getting there.<br />
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So given all of this information, does God want me to be happy?<br />
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We were made by God to live in His glory and perfection. We failed, and therefore sin and pain are in the world. So, in my opinion, given the facts of how we were created, we were intended to experience nothing but happiness. But happiness is circumstantial; once sin entered the world, the ebbs and flows of life take away the certainty of my happiness.<br />
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Happiness does not equal holiness, and unhappiness does not equal sin. Jesus demonstrated this when He wept over Lazarus's death. Isaiah 53:3 (NASB) calls Jesus "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." Obviously, when Jesus died on the cross, He wasn't happy. When Peter denied Him, He wasn't happy. When he turned the tables in the temple, He wasn't happy. But that doesn't mean happiness is undesirable; it just means that happiness is not all we should be willing to feel.<br />
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If you look as happiness as an absence of any negative emotion, then you could say that heaven will be a place where we experience eternal happiness. And I know God's heart breaks for those whose hearts are breaking. Therefore, I can state that I believe, yes, God wants me to be happy. This is the same kind of thing as that verse that says that God wants all people to be saved. He desires this for us, but as we live on this earth, there is no guarantee of happiness. God might want us to feel another emotion if it brings Him glory and benefits us or others. He also lets a lot of things be, since He is sovereign and wiser than anyone else, and he has given us all free will to make our own choices.<br />
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So if happiness is not what we are supposed to focus on, what is the thing we should seek?<br />
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That is something called <i>joy</i>. No, joy and happiness are not the same thing, not even close. Joy isn't being bubbly, giggly, or giddy. It is a state of being satisfied with who God is and what He has promised. It is something that is extremely difficult to define because it often goes against logic.<br />
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I know what joy is because I have watched people who are in the darkest place have it and demonstrate it. I have watched people lose loved ones and still be filled with joy. I have watched people without direction and unsure where God is leading them still be filled with joy, I have watched people who have lost everything still be filled with joy. Millions of Christians around the world are literally on the verge of death and their joy is the only thing that gets them by. Joy is powerful and hard to believe sometimes, but when you see people experience it who you think logically shouldn't, you know that true joy is real.<br />
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The world thinks it knows what joy is. They are thrilled when they win the lottery, marry an attractive spouse, buy a beautiful house or close a super business deal. What they are feeling is not joy; it is extreme happiness. Taxes come, spouses get sick, houses burn and businesses collapse, and their happiness goes with it.<br />
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But those who put their confidence in the Lord will find something that this world can never have. When we rely on God for all our needs, we find that He is powerful enough to protect and provide, to show us love we couldn't imagine, and to do the impossible. He also gives us the hope of eternal life, that there is something greater after this life that will make the struggles of this life quickly forgotten.<br />
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Then, when the Holy Spirit fills the Christian, they will feel that buzz of joy that radiates through all situations. It doesn't matter if you are sick or healthy, rich or poor, scared or strong, sad or happy, you can take the joy of the Lord as your strength. It comes from God and can't be stolen by anything.<br />
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Maybe you feel like you have lost your joy. Maybe sorrow, loss, depression, addiction, or any other negative aspect of life has put a damper on your joy. I'm not saying those things are going to go away, but when you cry out to God and remember all He has done for you and all He has given, you will be reminded of who He is and how much reason you have to rejoice. Sometimes it might take a conscious decision to resurrect the joy you seem to have lost, but as long as your reliance on God is present the joy of the Lord should be too. Rejoice in the Lord! He is enough to give joy enough to live forever.<br />
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So should you seek happiness? Sure, if it is in God's will. Wanting to be happy is not wrong, and those good happy moments of life are worth remembering forever. But you should instead consciously seek joy, which is so much greater and doesn't care about your circumstances. Joy will stay with you forever and will give you peace even in the midst of the unhappiest of experiences.<br />
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Lord, thank You for loving us. Thank You for giving us so many reasons to experience happiness in Your will. But thank You that You have given such a greater gift. Help us to always feel the joy You give even in the most painful of times. Help others to be able to see the truth of who You are through the joy we have. And let us always put our trust in You in everything, so that we can rest in the confidence that no one can steal our joy.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-58647608547194942892018-07-15T12:00:00.000-07:002018-07-15T12:00:08.028-07:0077-6 Behind The Bird<i>Inspired by the song "Sparrow (Under Heaven's Eyes)" by Tenth Avenue North from their album Followers. Available at <a href="ps://youtu.be/dUqHosDk65g" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="tps://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sparrow-under-heavens-eyes/1130475730?i=1130476080" target="_blank">iTunes</a> & <a href="http://a.co/bYxWqLv" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</i><br />
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One day at work, I was running the shop while Dad was out of the office. I was on the phone with someone not incredibly important when my good friend and co-worker Jake called to me: "Patrick, come here!"<br />
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I first thought, well, I'm on the phone. So I decided to finish the phone call. But Jake came to the door of the office and made it clear that I should come now. So I hung up the phone and followed him out of the office to the shop floor.<br />
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He stopped, turned, and pointed up to the top of a set of shelves. I asked him, "Where am I looking?"<br />
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He replied, "Up there, behind the bird."<br />
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I quickly understood our situation.<br />
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Now, occasionally, we get a bird fly into the shop through the large overhead door. Our protocol is to close all the interior doors and turn the lights off so that he is encouraged to leave the way he came in. We don't want to come back in the morning and find a dead bird laying around somewhere. And after a bit of coaxing, they usually figure it out and leave.<br />
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This one didn't seem to get the message. First, we made loud noises. He didn't fly. Then we got up on a ladder and tapped the panel next to him. He still didn't fly. Then Jake got a glove and reached to pick the bird up gently. He made no attempt to evade capture.<br />
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So, he held the bird as we tried to figure out what to do. Obviously, this little bird wasn't doing very well if he was just letting us handle him like that. We look at him as he panted. He was clearly overheated. So, using our best bird skills (which weren't much), we filled a container lid with cool water, took him outside, and set him in the shallow pool near a bush. He sat compliantly, making no effort to leave. Jake took a leaf and dribbled some of the water on the bird to cool him off. He seemed to be in good spirits, but still didn't fly away.<br />
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We went back to work, having done all we could. Occasionally, we looked out at the bird. He still sat there, looking around, fully alive but not flying. Finally, Jake pointed out that the bird was no longer there. Unless some other bird picked him off (which didn't seem likely), he must have regained the strength to fly away.<br />
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That was the day that we became heroes to a little bird. It felt great, knowing we did our best.<br />
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It also felt ironic, considering I was studying the Tenth Avenue North song about sparrows.<br />
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We know that God loves all people, and has forgiven all who call on His name in faith. He has made a way so that we can access holiness without restriction or fear of exclusion.<br />
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But often we – I – feel like I've fallen too far that I don't qualify for that hope anymore. As a Christian, it is easy to believe that God loves everybody. But it is often hard to believe that God loves me. I know the mistakes I have made; rather, I know the mistakes I <i>make</i>. I am fully conscious of my position toward God when I am doing exactly what I desire not to do. I try to strive for that accessible holiness and then still find myself giving into the temptations of the world.<br />
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I look through my eyes and so clearly see what a failure I really am. And any encouragement of the Word, mentors or learned doctrine doesn't do anything to change the fact that I have done what I have done.<br />
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The truth is that we need to change the lens through which we are looking.<br />
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When God sees us, He sees us through the blood of Jesus. He sees us as holy because Jesus' blood becomes the lens that changes how God sees us. We are no longer doomed sinners; we are righteous, not because of our actions, but because of Jesus'. This is why salvation is by grace through faith: it's not by our works, it's by the work of salvation that God did through Christ.<br />
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Still, we come back to looking at ourselves and recognizing our failures. No, maybe our sins won't doom us to hell anymore, but they still make us feel worthless. As a human who has done these things, even as a <i>Christian</i> who has done these things, how can God still want to care for me?<br />
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Look at Jesus' words in Matthew 10:29-31:<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.</span><br />
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God cares about birds. And He showed that to me when he let a little one fly into my shop so that we could take care of it. Had we not been there to help it, it wouldn't have been able to fly away. Was that an accident? Absolutely not, especially in the context of this song.<br />
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If God cares about a little sparrow, how much more does He care about me? I am more valuable than a bird, even in my most fallen state. And He died for me so that I don't have to stay there. He has plans and promises for my life, and He will be faithful to forgive all sin and care for me even when I feel unlovable.<br />
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So, if you are still in that hole, take heart. I've been there too, more times than I'd like to admit. We all have. Sin doesn't scare God. He hates it, and hated it so much that He destroyed its power so that it can't defeat us. God has saved us from it and will lead us to the eternal home He's promised.<br />
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And remember, He hasn't saved you from your sin so that you just stay in that sin. Grace is not a license for sin; it is a license for freedom. We don't have to be shacked anymore. We've been given permission to forget our sins completely and move forward into the joys and promises that God has in store for us.<br />
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"I sing because I'm happy; I sing because <b>I'm free</b>."<br />
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Lord, thank you for completely freeing us. You've freed us from the penalty for our sins, from the shame of our past and from the shackles of our present. Let us break away from those snares and use the strength You give to overcome. Thank You for loving us completely, and for caring about us more than birds. Thank You that we are so valuable to You no matter what we ever do. Help us to stop looking at ourselves through our own lens and instead see the value You see through heaven's eyes.<br />
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Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-56911839153119685242018-07-14T12:00:00.000-07:002018-07-14T12:00:16.489-07:0077-5 Needs<i>Inspired by the song "One Thing" by Tenth Avenue North from their album Followers.</i><br />
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Americans are spoiled.<br />
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We have so many material blessings that reality becomes clouded. We forget what are really needs and what are really blessings. These blessings then become needs in our hearts, and we are no longer satisfied. We complain about the disparity between what we have and what the 1% has, and we forget that most of us qualify to be in the 1% of the world.<br />
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Let me give you a personal example. This week, my dad had to add a new shut-off valve on our sprinkler system. This meant shutting the water off for a few hours so that they could accomplish it. I ate my lunch while my mom came home from somewhere. When I was done and she was back, we had the harsh realization that we couldn't wash our hands. Oh, the horror!<br />
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We immediately had a laugh. First world problems, we said. There are people in Africa who have never seen clean water, and we are complaining after not having it for fifteen minutes. Isn't that the way we are?<br />
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And this is a serious problem in our society. People more and more think that they are owed something by the world. No one is satisfied by what they have, and if they get more, they still won't be satisfied.<br />
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It goes deeper, deep into our spiritual selves. Americans have become deadened to the things of God because they have been deadened to the <i>need </i>of God.<br />
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Think about evangelism. Isn't it amazing how one person goes to Africa and preaches and thousands of people come to salvation because of it. Here in America, either people have heard it before, it isn't convenient for them, or it doesn't appease them in the way they desire.<br />
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Why such the difference? Because the people in Africa see their need for God. These people have basically nothing, and when Jesus comes, he satisfies all their spiritual needs and many of their physical ones.<br />
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Americans are so caught up in the flows of living that they don't notice their souls crying out for a savior.<br />
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Also, the capitalist consumer society we live in teaches that through hard work we can provide for all our needs. Or, if you buy into more socialist views, if I can't accomplish it then the government will do it for me. In Africa, the people can barely get by. Most of the basic needs are iffy from day to day.<br />
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In Philippians 4, Paul says, "my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." It's that simple: God will provide for all our needs. It's a matter of believing that and trusting Him.<br />
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The American way of viewing that is skepticism. How can God provide for my needs? Has he seen how complex and unique my situation is? Besides, I'm doing pretty well and can get by if I just work hard enough and keep a positive attitude. And never in this thought process is there the conscious acknowledgement of our deeper needs.<br />
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The Africans hear that Jesus can provide for their needs and they are filled with joy! Their hopes have been answered! Someone has finally come who I can trust to provide for myself and my family, <i>and </i>take me to heaven when I die. The solution to all their needs is clearly Jesus, and He becomes their all and all. Everything pales in comparison once Jesus becomes the center of their life.<br />
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Do you see now why Christianity is spreading like wildfire there but barely noticed anymore here? To them, Jesus is their Savior; to us, Jesus is a religious leader. To them, Jesus is their most valued posession; to us, Jesus is an inconvenience. We nitpick Jesus' teachings to find the parts we find the most 'relevant;' they follow Him as true disciples. Here, people keep their faith to themselves; there, they tell all their friends, and tens of thousands come to Christ.<br />
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And the difference is all because they can see their need, and we apparently cannot.<br />
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Jesus doesn't call Christians to just do good, go to church on Sunday, pray for the meal and vote to repeal abortion. He calls us to <i>follow Him</i>. That means whatever He does, we do. However He speaks, we speak. Whoever He loves, we love unconditionally. This is because He is the center of our attention, our sole source of motivation, inspiration, and strength.<br />
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When Jesus is the most important thing in our life, the other things in this life fade away in comparison. We are no longer shackled to the stresses and concerns that seemed overwhelming before. We believe that God can supply all of our needs; why should we fear?<br />
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And Jesus becomes our most valuable possession. We don't need anything else to be satisfied. That distinction between needs and blessings gets into the proper light. We truly understand that God is the only thing that can satisfy.<br />
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Please don't think I have this all figured out. This isn't easy. But join me in reprogramming our minds so that Jesus is the center of everything we do and everything we think. It will help all of life make a whole lot more sense.<br />
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Lord, thank you that we can trust You to provide for all our needs. Help us to put You at the very center of our entire beings, so that we see our need for You daily. Let us watch the other needs become less and less important as You become the one thing that we need.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-52119714251985066012018-07-13T12:00:00.000-07:002018-07-13T12:00:00.862-07:0077-4 Those Who Have No Hope<i>Inspired by the song "I Have This Hope" by Tenth Avenue North from their album Followers.</i><br />
<i>Available at <a href="https://youtu.be/whaPFecZjnQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/i-have-this-hope/1130475730?i=1130476068" target="_blank">iTunes</a> & <a href="http://a.co/50iY46w" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</i><br />
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I have gone through some tough times in my life. Most of these, I will admit, are usually my fault, but there have been many times when I feel like I'm lowered part of the way into the abyss with very little idea how I will ever get out.<br />
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I know you can relate. It's the way life is. Even the best lived life has its hurdles. Even the life with the fewest hurdles has had enough abyss moments to understand. The nature of living in a world with people not abiding by God's ways is that pain and sadness are inevitable. And the sad part of this is that most often that pain is actually caused by the people nearest to us, many of whom <i>are</i> abiding by God's ways most of the time.<br />
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A lot of the pain is not entirely someone else's fault, or not entirely the fault of our individual actions. Our minds are really great at blowing things way out of proportion, so that the emotional effects of the hurt become more painful than the original hurt by itself.<br />
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For a lot of people, these hurts start to become interwoven until this massive mega-hurt monster rises and threatens to destroy us, and we know that we are too weak to stand against it. Often, the very well-meaning people around us really can't empathize with our situation, or for some reason they don't try to. Or, as often happens, we don't want people to see our weakness, and so we hide it. We end up at church on Sunday morning surrounded by a sea of smiling faces, and that fake smile we try to put on doesn't feel very convincing anymore, especially when compared to everybody else's obviously fake smiles. We feel alone, rejected, and on the road to being lost.<br />
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The pretty little life we think we're living starts to crumble, and we don't have any energy left to pick up the pieces. We feel that there is no way anything can ever get better. Praying doesn't make the problems go away (it seems) and we go to sleep and blame ourselves for causing all the problems, even when it might have started with somebody else.<br />
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And that was just Sunday! And we know what day follows Sunday...<br />
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Is that where you're at right now? If so, I pray that the God of peace will be present in your heart, and that you see that He is still strong enough to defeat your toughest obstacles, even if it doesn't seem possible in the moment.<br />
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Almost four years ago, I wrote a series of blog posts analyzing how a Christian should view suicide. It sparked a backlash of comments stating how depression is a mental condition and that those who take their life because of it should still be able to go to heaven. In all honesty, my brain was left spinning after thinking so hard about it that I stopped blogging for months. Even four years later, I still don't have the answer.<br />
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But what I do know is that I have been to the breaking point. And I haven't broken. No, I'm not saying this to make me look holier than thou. I'm saying this because I discovered something that I have that those who don't know Jesus do not have: <i>hope</i>.<br />
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Hope is this interesting understanding that something better is on the horizon. It's oddly encouraging, because even when everything seems destined to the disposal bin, there's this glimmer of understanding that something is going to happen in the future that will make carrying on worth it.<br />
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In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul instructs the readers how to view the death of loved ones. You see, most people in that time were certain that Jesus would come back in their lifetime. So when their loved ones started dying, they became confused. Would they ever see them again? Would they make it to heaven if they died before Jesus came back? These were questions that seem silly today, since none of us were alive when Jesus walked the earth. Obviously, when we die as believers in Christ, we know that we will spend eternity with Jesus.<br />
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But in their confusion and grief, Paul wrote to comfort and encourage the brethren:<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)</span><br />
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It is completely alright to grieve over the loss of a loved one, to feel sadness when that person is no longer with us. But Paul makes an interesting distinction between how we as Christians should grieve versus how the rest of the world has to grieve. And he gives the reason they have to grieve that way: <i>because they have no hope</i>.<br />
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Our primary hope as Christians is the hope of heaven, of eternal life with Jesus. We don't have to completely understand it or have a firm grasp on what we really are looking forward to for it to make a decisive impact in our own lives.<br />
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Without this hope, the world has no reason to carry on. If this is all there is, and if this sucks, then what good is living anymore? Being purely honest, I don't know how the suicide rate isn't even higher than it is! I know that my hope in Christ has given me a solid and certain reason to carry on when I have reached the bottom of the emotional hole. Without that, I wouldn't know why I should keep trying.<br />
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This hope we have because we have seen the proof of who God is. We know by faith that the Word of God is true, and even if that faith is the size of a mustard seed, it's enough to give us a clear reason to lift up our heads and push through whatever comes our way. This life is <i>not</i> all there is. It simply can't be.<br />
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What's even more encouraging is that Jesus is alive and active in our lives, if we choose Him to be. If we have been pushing Him away for a time, He will still be there with open arms to embrace us when we come back to Him. So heaven is not the only hope we have; we can have heaven here on earth, although in a very incomplete form due to the existence of sin in the world. But since the main ingredient in what makes heaven heaven is Jesus, we really can have more of heaven on earth than we think, since we have Jesus in our hearts. (And feel free to re-read that sentence and accept the fact that I did mean to say the world 'heaven' twice in a row.)<br />
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If you have never felt this hope, come to Jesus. He is waiting for you to call on Him. Romans 10:9 says "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (NASB)" It's so simple and there's nothing you've ever done that will disqualify you from this. Open your heart to Jesus and find a real reason for living.<br />
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If you are a Christian and think you have never felt this hope, you are still living aren't you? Hope isn't this overwhelming feeling of joy; it's the still small voice that whispers that you are valuable and that your life has a reason. Seek the Speaker of the voice, and you will find the hope you thought you didn't have.<br />
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And understand that life is still going to suck. It's the nature of the world you live in. Hope isn't going to make that friend not betray you, that illness not come, or that layoff never happen. It's there <i>for</i> those times to get you through it to the great blessing God has for you in both heaven and on earth.<br />
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Lord, thank you for the hope You give. Thank you for rising from the grave and not staying dead and buried. You showed us and told us that we will rise like You did, into blessing, holiness, and a place where we will see you face to face. Help us to cling to this hope when everything has crumbled around us. And give us the soundness of mind in the hardest times to be able to give the reason we can carry on: we have this hope.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-12874858572147964892018-07-12T12:00:00.000-07:002018-07-12T21:23:00.426-07:0077-3 We Are Cups<i>Inspired by the song "Overflow" by Tenth Avenue North from their album Followers.</i><br />
<i>Available at <a href="https://youtu.be/eD4Q35UGVCM" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/overflow/1130475730?i=1130476062" target="_blank">iTunes </a>& <a href="http://a.co/cy7iRDU" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</i><br />
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It's really hard to imagine how big our God is. Like impossible. He is infinitely greater, stronger, smarter and wiser than any person will ever be. More than anyone who's ever lived combined.<br />
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What's even harder to fathom is that He wants to reveal Himself to us and to live in us.<br />
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In Exodus 34, Moses asks God to show himself so that the people of Israel would know that their God was with them. God was under no obligation to heed this request, of course. Yet, as the compassionate God He is, He announced to Moses that He would in fact show Himself:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” (Exodus 33:19-23)</span><br />
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This account helps us see how powerful God is and how fragile we are in comparison. God is so holy that even looking in His face would cause us to spontaneously die. This is what makes the concept of heaven even more amazing: because of Jesus making us holy, we will be able to see Him face to face for eternity.<br />
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Have you ever been in a corporate worship gathering, or even a personal prayer time, and been so overwhelmed by the presence of the Spirit of God that you couldn't hold it in? Usually this manifests itself as becoming emotional, crying, maybe even shivering. These experiences are different for everyone and, other than the cases of outrageous behavior not becoming of someone in the presence of God, there is nothing wrong with these feelings. They are a part of experiencing the presence of God.<br />
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I have thought long and hard about why we feel this way. In some of those moments, I have tried to bring some sort of rationale to it, and have concluded that it is something more than purely psychological. Something is happening inside our souls that goes beyond what is normal and into the realm of the supernatural.<br />
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This is my conclusion: God is great, much greater than we are. And we are finite, as we are flesh and bones and the individual spirit breathed into by the breath of God at creation. Even in our spiritual sense, we only have the capacity to hold so much.<br />
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When the Spirit of God comes, the spiritual has to manifest itself in the physical, resulting in our physical senses and emotions going into overdrive to process what we are feeling. And as God pours out so much love, grace and holiness, we find ourselves overwhelmed and overjoyed by the power of God in us. We literally overflow with His presence.<br />
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And sadly, so many people stop there. We love those mountaintop experiences, and I would argue that they are crucially important for our spiritual growth and sustenance. But what overflows is more than just what we are supposed to keep for ourselves.<br />
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Pastor Caleb Bryant always puts it this way: We are cups. We are made to be filled up so that we can be poured out. A cup exists for one purpose: to transport liquid from one place to another. If the liquid in the cup stays forever in the cup, then the cup is not serving its intended purpose. It needs to be poured out somewhere so that it can be filled up again.<br />
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What we receive from God is made to be passed along through us to someone else. Yes, God wants to provide for and bless us individually, but He always intended us to be used as conduits to show His love to others. We were made to serve, give, and spread the Gospel to everyone around us.<br />
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And it should come naturally. When we see how mighty our God is and how great is His love, we should be so excited and empowered to share His love to those around us. The great experience we have with God was never meant to be a secret.<br />
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The more we know God and spend time in His presence, the more we should resemble Jesus in everything we do. This means having a passion to reach out to the lost and to spread God's great love to everyone around us. It means loving our enemies and forgiving those who wrong us. It means standing up for injustice and respecting all of God's creation. The possibilities are endless, and they should be, as the God we serve is endless Himself.<br />
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I want to encourage you all to strive to daily fill yourself up with God's presence, and to look for opportunities to pour yourself out by showing God's love to others. You can't change the world without loving other people, and you can't have that love if you don't constantly experience it from God yourself. It starts with filling yourself with everything you need from God on a daily basis, with the intention and willingness to pass it on to those around you. Let God's Spirit transform your heart so that you are living out the purpose you were created for: to worship God and to serve others.<br />
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Lord, thank You for allowing us to experience Your great and mighty presence. Let us always seek to feel the overwhelming joy of the power of Your presence, and let us be used by You to share Your great love to others. Help us never to forget the reasons for our existence: to receive Your love and overflow.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-22163678527277037382018-07-11T12:00:00.000-07:002018-07-12T21:23:10.517-07:0077-2 Humble Submission<i>Inspired by the song "What You Want" by Tenth Avenue North from their album Followers.</i><br />
<i>Available at <a href="https://youtu.be/irMttBUScoo" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/what-you-want/1130475730?i=1130475820" target="_blank">iTunes </a>& <a href="http://a.co/2Ow1T6B" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</i><br />
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Surrender is hard. It means more than giving up something to someone. It means giving up a bit of our feelings of honor and control.</div>
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We Americans live in a society where we have control over our lives and the way we go. This is fantastic, since God made us autonomous and able to exercise our free will. This is what makes humans different than animals and angels: our choices are more than just instinct and programming.</div>
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Jesus brings an even greater level of freedom. Through His sacrifice and resurrection, we are free from the bondage of sin and death. We are free to live for eternity and also free to truly live in this life on earth. The innate hostility between us and God is history, and the shackles of sin have lost their power.</div>
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But the more we read the scriptures, the more we see Jesus want us to surrender to Him. To submit to His authority. To take up our cross and follow Him.</div>
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Doesn't this seem contradictory to the freedom we just discussed?</div>
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Well, your answer should be an obvious 'no,' as the obvious purpose of what Jesus did was to bring us into unhindered relationship with the Father, to allow us to live to the praise of His glory.</div>
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So why does Jesus call us to take up our cross? Why do the epistle writers seem to be stuck on the concept of humble surrender?</div>
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The answer to this is the existence of <i>pride</i>. We are autonomous humans who have the propensity to think we are capable of anything we need to do. And even when Jesus tells us that through Him we can do all things, we tend to forget the "through Him" part in actual practice.</div>
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Pride is putting one's own self higher than someone else. If we are proud when around others, we will inevitably treat others as subordinate in value to ourselves. And this leads to other problems, such as hatred, racism, haughtiness and abuse.</div>
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I am a firm believer in the written word of Thomas Jefferson when he stated that "all men are created equal." God made each man (<i>and</i> woman) with the same inherent value, in the image of God. He likewise provided the same equal opportunity for salvation through the blood of Jesus. But we also share in the same propensity for failure. We were created equal, and we have equally fallen.</div>
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It is easy for me to look at myself when I am doing "well" and think that I am accruing value higher than some other people. When I see the report of a person robbing a bank, I feel highly of myself that I haven't stooped to that level. Or I hear about a person being high on cocaine and I am happy that I am not addicted to any drug (I even take periods of time away from caffeine just to make sure I'm not addicted to that either).</div>
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Then something happens, maybe I clank two valuable parts together at work or I forget my sweater at church again, and my reaction in both mind and words don't live up to the hype I have created for myself. I see very quickly that I am not any better than anyone else in my own self. That even though God is working with me to seriously live a holy life, I am still as prone to failure as anyone else.</div>
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Pride is lying to oneself that one has more value than anyone else, when, in reality, that value has and always will come solely from the hand of God.</div>
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The logic continues that, if all my value comes from the hand of God, shouldn't I submit myself completely to His will?</div>
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The crazy thing about us Christians is how quickly we resort back to depending on ourselves for our successes and joys, not out of necessity but because we simply forget that God is a bit more qualified for doing that than we are. We look at how we can take advantage of the world for blessings instead of letting the Creator of everything have the opportunity to provide blessing greater than anything His creation could feign.</div>
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James 4 talks about how we let pride, sin and love of the world come before surrendering to God. I have always been challenged by verses 7-10, because it encourages me to become less so that God can become more:</div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.</span></div>
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It is the last line that always gets me. Obviously, He's not calling us to depression, but rather recognition of our brokenness. Once we reach the point of clearly seeing our insufficiency, we can truly receive the power and blessing of God, who wants to care for us and supply all our needs. We can't do that if we hold on to that control.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Those people who know they have great spiritual needs are happy, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. (Matt. 5:3 NCV)</span></div>
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If we first recognize that we are inherently incapable of providing all our needs, and we then realize that God is the One who created everything good and wants to provide the best for us now and a kingdom in the future that is filled with all that is good, we will be willing to give up control and let God run the show.</div>
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Humility doesn't mean not having self-confidence, however. If we are created by God and then even more empowered by God, we shouldn't lack in any confidence. But confidence based on our own power is remotely different than confidence based on God's power. Letting pride get in the way of what God wants to do quickly thwarts the great exploits that are destined for us. It first starts with being willing to surrender to a God who is truly capable of providing the best for us.</div>
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Lord, help me to humbly submit myself to You. Help me to see that You know what's best and are capable of providing it. Help me to not trust in my own flawed abilities, but to reach out daily for the power You give. Let my heart surrender my own grasp of control and instead take joy in wanting what You want.</div>
Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-11972216235075669632018-07-10T12:00:00.000-07:002018-07-12T21:23:20.545-07:0077-1 Fear<i>Inspired by the song "Afraid" by Tenth Avenue North from their album Followers.</i><br />
<i>Available at <a href="https://youtu.be/AquQfLHHG1g" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/afraid/1130475730?i=1130475819" target="_blank">iTunes</a> & <a href="http://a.co/6xMCgOd" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</i><br />
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Emotions are strange.<br />
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They kind of exist and they kind of matter, but really they don't, and it always seems that if we make decisions based on our feelings that they will come back to bite us. Therefore, it is easy to try to ignore or cover up our feelings and emotions so that they don't affect us in a negative way.<br />
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But feelings do in fact matter, and they matter to God. God, in all His might, doesn't need to care at all about how we insignificant creatures feel about anything. But he does, and he shows it consistently throughout the Bible. It is how he shows that we aren't just numbers or names on a list, but that He has a personal connection to us that goes beyond casual acquaintance.<br />
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But fear is different than the other emotions. It is negative. It brings anguish to a person's soul. And, in reality, fear is more than just a feeling: it is actually a lack of faith.<br />
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Ah, I know that seems harsh, but sometimes things that are difficult to hear need to be heard nevertheless. Fear is really a type of doubt. I define fear as a momentary lack of trust in God's ability to take care of us in any situation. It is the belief that maybe God isn't big enough or strong enough to handle whatever it is we are presently facing.<br />
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Let's put this into perspective.<br />
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I am a machinist. I take little bits of metal and make them smaller. Sometimes, these bits of metal are significantly larger, and therefore significantly more expensive and more important for the completion of the project. If I mess it up when I load the part into the milling machine, or make a mistake when I write the program that the machine follows,<i> CRASH, BOOM, BANG, </i>and there goes four hundred bucks. As you may imagine, this creates a lot of pressure.<br />
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So when I am what we call "proving out a program," or running it through its paces the first time to make sure everything works right and the part ends up on size, I typically am a nervous wreck. I don't yet have the nerves of steel my dad, who is also my boss, has developed after doing this for 31 years.<br />
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It used to be that I would almost be in tears because I was so afraid of what might happen. I am a realist, and therefore I am acutely aware of all the things that could go wrong. It causes my blood pressure to go up, my hands to get clammy, and I am petrified to press the green button to start the program.<br />
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There are a few reasons why this attitude is ridiculous.<br />
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First, I am a professional; I know what I'm doing. I've been doing this for the better part of ten years and I am extremely well-trained. This is proven by the fact that I rarely <i>ever</i> waste a part, to the order of three or four out of the hundreds of parts I machine each year.<br />
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Second, I remember my mistakes from the past. This does not cause me to doubt myself; it instead causes me to remember exactly the things I need to check for. Are my settings right? Will it call up the right tool offset? Is enough material sticking up past the vise jaws? I know what I am looking for, and therefore I am very unlikely to make a mistake on these details that matter.<br />
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Third, no one will die if I ruin a part, though it may seem like it at the time. Our standards are so high, too high in fact, that we treat a lost part as failure when most shops expect a few losses in the process. I, however, am grounded in reality and know that lost parts means lost money and wasted time, and not the apocalypse! I don't make airplanes or artificial hearts, I make french fry cutters. Though I expect excellence from myself, it's not as big of a deal as it is often made to be.<br />
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And fourth, God is with me.<br />
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This is the fourth item on my list for the sake of dramatic flair and literary intensity, but it all too often becomes the fourth item on my mind in the moment. I forget that God is present and bigger than all of my issues or situations. I forget that He loves and cares for me, and that he goes before me and walks beside me. He is my Father, shepherd, helper and comforter. He can fix anything and is willing to get His hands dirty if that's what He wills to do. If He desires to let things be, than I can trust Him all the more that the inevitable result will be right within the outcome He willfully allows.<br />
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That last point can be hard to accept when it comes to cutting metal into chips. But it is way harder when it means watching someone you love die.<br />
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At my church, we are going through a time of watching two of our most faithful members slowly waste away from their battles with cancer. A few years back, we experienced the same thing with one of our most beloved choir members. These people are and were amazing followers of God. Their fruit was evident. Their witness sure. And the pain they experience is entirely unfair, for them and for us.<br />
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How can their families stay faithful in these times? Because they trust in God. Maybe it's because the battles that they face are so completely outside of their control that they need someone bigger on which to rely. But even in this, I can only imagine the legitimate fear that they are experiencing; the fear of what is happening, the fear of what may be coming, and the fear of what will follow.<br />
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To call fear a lack of faith in these context seems incredibly insensitive. Nevertheless, all fear comes from the momentary lack of trust in God. Sometimes it's a conscious decision, and sometimes it's just the inevitable result of our humanness.<br />
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But there is hope. Oh, there is hope.<br />
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Throughout the scriptures, God speaks to the individuals who we view as heroes of the faith: Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, and so many others. He also speaks to the nation of Israel in much the same way. And what He says brings the greatest of encouragement.<br />
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Here is a tidbit from Isaiah 41:9-10 where God is speaking to the nation of Israel:<br />
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<span class="text Isa-41-9" id="en-NIV-18461" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I took you from the ends of the earth,<br /> from its farthest corners I called you.<br />I said, ‘You are my servant’;<br /> I have chosen you and have not rejected you. <br />So do not fear, for I am with you;<br /> do not be dismayed, for I am your God.<br />I will strengthen you and help you;<br /> I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.</span></span><br />
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Do you hear the condemnation in there because of their lack of faith? NO! Of course not, because God cares about His people. He cares about how they feel. And instead of reprimanding them for their fear, He shows them compassion and simply tells them not to fear.<br />
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And He tells them why: because He is their God.<br />
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He is bigger than any problem we may face. He is faithful to follow through with what He has promised. And He will always be the Rock on which we can find our strength. Because even in the toughest of times, we can put our trust in the fact that God loves us and has given us the hope of heaven that will be realized in our lives no matter what.<br />
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So fear not, because He is your God. And when you do fear, remember that God is not mad at you because of it. He simply invites you to put your trust in Him.<br />
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So Lord, Help us to trust that You are the great God who is higher, stronger, and wiser than any other being who has ever existed. Help us to remember that You love us and want what's best for us, to the point of even dying on a cross for us. Let our trust cast out our fear. Thank you that we don't have to afraid anymore.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-44423941244342970012018-07-09T21:28:00.000-07:002018-07-09T21:28:25.121-07:00IdentityI am a Child of God.<br />
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I don't feel like one right now, but that's who I am.<br />
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Life sucks sometimes. People do dumb things around us, people do dumb things to us. And we do dumb things too. Sometimes really dumb things. We feel insulted, abused, depressed, weak, fragile, like a failure, too weak to carry on.<br />
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But that doesn't affect the fact that we are God's children.<br />
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Adoption is one of the most beautiful things in the whole world. I have seen the beauty of it in so many ways: serving at Royal Family Kids camp, and seeing some of those kiddos getting forever homes; listening to some of my favorite musicians tell of the life-changing power of their own stories of adopting children or being adopted; being with one of my cousin's and his family, as he was adopted by my uncle many years ago and is now as much as Stanley as any other blood-relative.<br />
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The thing people forget about the legality of adoption is that these kids are not half-children. They are, in the eyes of the law, as much a child of the parents as the blood-children. Once you are adopted, <i>you are adopted.</i><br />
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But what is most often forgotten is that God has adopted us in the same way.<br />
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The world will tell us that we are worthless, insignificant creatures who will one day be long forgotten. And even though we know the truth about our salvation being by grace, we can so easily give into this lie that what we do determines our destiny.<br />
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I know I do. I try to rise above and be something, something more than what I can be in my own capacity. I see the brilliant plans God has for me, and I get so excited and joyful because of my God-given potential.<br />
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And then I fall flat on my face. I know that I do not have to surrender to the mistakes or the temptations, but I do. It therefore becomes so easy to submit to the notion that my identity is based in my failures.<br />
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But the truth is that I am not worthless, I am not a failure. I make mistakes, but that doesn't affect my salvation, because it cannot change who I now am: a child of God.<br />
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Do our mistakes have consequences? Absolutely. We can be saved and yet chained to our mistakes in such a way that it derails the realization of some of the callings God has for us. And since the world is watching, our lives should resemble Christ's as much as possible.<br />
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But regardless of this, we are still sinners. We still screw up and we still feel like piles of manure. To some extent, this is unavoidable. And before you yell and scream that since we're Christians we should only strive for holiness, please look at yourself and review how well you've hit the mark. Because even if you are living the holiest you can, you will still find the sludge in the corners that may prove more influential than you think.<br />
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But that is the miracle! That is the hope! God <i>wants </i>us to live perfectly holy lives, but He doesn't <i>expect</i> us to live perfectly holy lives. If we could, we would never need a sacrifice. It is the fact that we are still sinners that created the need for Jesus to die in our place.<br />
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The Bible says that Jesus died "once for all." Do you know what that means? It sounds really crazy, but it means that He has died for all of our sins forever, every sin that ever will be committed by anyone. And all of those sins are all <i>forgiven already</i>. (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+3%3A28-29&version=NASB" target="_blank">Proof</a>)<br />
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But it is in the rejection of who Jesus is and the rejection of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that cannot be forgiven, or put another way, has not been forgiven. Jesus cannot forgive the error that causes a person to not believe.<br />
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So how can that sin be forgiven? By believing and accepting who Jesus is! Then the sin no longer exists in your souls. The unpardonable sin is not a sin that one commits once and dooms them forever; it is living in the state of disbelief. Once belief exists, the disbelief is thereby broken.<br />
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And that leads us to the understanding that all of our sins were known to Jesus when He died on the cross. He took on all the sins that have ever been committed and allowed the Father to pour out the required judgment on Him instead of us (or, He poured the judgment out on Himself, depending on the lens by which you are seeing it).<br />
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So, therefore, our sins are forgiven. But what if it ended there? We would still have no hope. Thankfully, Jesus is alive, and the Father has now adopted us into His family. (Did you know that we should also view Jesus as our brother? Crazy sounding, I know, but it's true. Because we are the children of God.)<br />
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No sin <i>ever</i> can change that. This should bring us the greatest hope of all. God doesn't just think of us positively, or even highly. He loves us and desires us and seeks after us. When we fail, He is there to forgive, cleanse, and show us the way to holiness. He knows we will sin, it doesn't surprise Him. It doesn't cause Him to detest us. Instead, He wants us to live in holiness, and made a way for that through His sacrifice.<br />
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So today, whether you are living in full integrity or feel like you are one mistake away from dissolving into a could of dust, take heart: if you believe in Jesus, you are a fully legitimate child of God. And nothing you can do can change that.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-44902188831868504062018-06-05T22:49:00.000-07:002018-06-05T22:49:03.742-07:00Mercy Is A SongMusic is the most important thing in my life.<br />
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Not buses. Not baseball. Not planes. Music.<br />
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Therefore, it is no surprise that God speaks to me more through music than pretty much anything else in my life (even right up there with His Word, assuming I'm taking the proper care to read it). Every day, there is a different song playing in my mind over and over. My mind is picking it apart, analyzing the orchestration, deciphering the production layers, and finding the tasty bits of lyrics that are like nothing I've ever heard before.<br />
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My process of music study is very complicated. I could write a rule book on it, and I probably will someday, just because it is so interesting. Certain limits of weeks for how long an album is active, what it actually means for an album to be 'active' or an artist to be 'approved,' what is required to move on to another album. And I have kept various iterations of this structure going for almost 14 years now.<br />
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Do I do this because I like making rules for myself? It is true that I like there to be some semblance of structure when I do anything or everything just become chaos. But I do this because I want to get the most out of the music that I can. I want to be blessed by the music as much as I can.<br />
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And that is why I am extremely picky about what music I listen to. I am pretty flexible when it comes to style or genre, but I care most that the music blesses me when I listen to it, instead of tearing me down. I want the music to allow God to speak to me.<br />
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So, obviously, I primarily listen to 'Christian music,' that catch-all sometimes-derisive label for music that talks about Jesus. I see it as 'decent music,' or the kind of music that angels are probably singing. There are different levels of spiritual depth in the lyrics, and there are different levels of musical depth as well. But if it blesses God and blesses me in the listening, then I am satisfied.<br />
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Too many Christians don't listen to Christian music because it doesn't appease them. So, they listen to the music of the world. Yes, there is plenty of decent music in the world, but it is vastly outnumbered by music that is littered with darkness. That is why I am so leery when I hear something new from the secular world: who is the artist, what do the words say, what are hidden meanings, etc. And more importantly, would the angels be listening to it?<br />
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The music I study is so vital to my life. I let it permeate my being. When people are out there opening their souls to all kinds of darkness, I open my soul to God through music and let Him sing to my spirit. I let Him encourage me, direct me, convict me, and reveal the deepest meanings of what I am living. The more I am in tune with God, the more the music revitalizes me; the less I am in tune with God, the music seems to just fade into the normalcy of the day.<br />
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And this is why I am writing this. I want to encourage you by the music I listen to. And what a better way to do this than to teach directly from the very song I am hearing?<br />
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"Mercy Is A Song" is the title of this blog post, not just because it is a cool name, but because it is the title of a song by Matthew West off of one of the more recent albums I've studied, <i>All In</i>. It is a song about how God's mercy sings to our hearts like a song. This is what I feel daily, as I try my best to stay in sync with God's words to me, first through the Bible, and second through song. I am a product of what I put into my soul through the music I hear.<br />
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What I will begin doing regularly is writing short devotionals here based on what God has told me from these songs, starting with song one and working my way through all the songs on the specific album. I won't plagiarize or quote entire songs lyrics (I will include links to listen to the songs on YouTube or buy them on iTunes or Amazon), and few of the devotionals will be reading back to you what you can already hear in the songs. This will be a companion to what the artist is trying to say.<br />
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I want to encourage you through the wisdom of God, and I also want to show you quality Christian music so that you can see why you should include it in your life. The more you listen to it, the more you will see why it should be your primary source of musical entertainment. The songs of the world will clearly pale in comparison to what the music that makes God pleased has to offer.<br />
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And we must remember that these songs were written by humans who are themselves imperfect and are living under God's grace. There are many, MANY amazing people in the industry, but there are also some who have lived or may be living lives that don't please God but are still making music that does please Him. God can use sinners to do amazing things. I know this because He uses me.<br />
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So I invite you to open your ears and open your soul to the songs of the Lord, as He desires to speak truth and encouragement into your life. I hope you see the power of what God continues to do through song.<br />
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"Mercy Is A Song" by Matthew West - <a href="https://youtu.be/fbpNUAZg09w" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mercy-is-a-song/1264904429?i=1264904432" target="_blank">iTunes</a> or <a href="http://a.co/4UTX8wQ" target="_blank">Amazon</a><br />
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(Note: I do not receive any monetary revenue from this blog. I use no ads or sell no products. I do this because I want to write about the things I want to write about without having to worry about copyright restrictions. I myself am a copyright holder, and I therefore understand how important it is that the artists and songwriters receive their due credit and payment for their hard work. I hope that the people who read this blog will be encouraged to not only enjoy the songs but actually buy them from legitimate sources. If anyone has any questions or concerns, please post in the comments.)Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-50473794142877776092018-03-15T20:54:00.000-07:002018-03-15T21:06:06.202-07:00Hello WorldThis world is a conundrum.<br />
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Consider how the world works. You have seven billion people moving about, thinking their own thoughts and seeing the world from their own perspectives.<br />
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A percentage of those people subscribe to a particular way of managing their thoughts and perceptions. These ways, called 'religions', give people a kind of template that they can apply to their worldview so that it makes more sense. Usually, this includes some notion of a deity who defines a certain level of morality, a lens that people can use to interpret what they see and assign it a certain quality.<br />
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But more and more, people aren't subscribing to these 'limiting' positions and instead are taking a relativistic approach. And since the previously mentioned group of people follow their religion to a varying degree of intensity, their perspectives become more relativistic as well.<br />
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Relativism is the 'in' way to think these days. Everything you see and experience is not measured on a predetermined scale but is instead applied to the personal ethic. This ethic is unique to the individual, developed over time by a person's previous experience and knowledge. And since each person's ethic is unique from everyone else, my perspective on things will probably look very different than yours.<br />
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Yet somehow, there is what is considered a universal set of ethics. Don't murder, don't steal, don't rape, etc. Many people believe this to have been caused by the various ancient religions that all based their ethic off of some kind of even more ancient code, or it might have risen over time as people found out that getting along would provide better personal security. And therefore, we have this universal standard that no one seems to want to question.<br />
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But if everyone's personal ethic is unique and different, then why should I follow these universal laws? Why would it be considered virtuous for me to be kind, compassionate, or gentle?<br />
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Let's take a relatively mild example. Say my neighbor has a sheep that is very white and fluffy. It would look really good in my garden next to my bus stop (yes, I hope to eventually have a bus stop in my garden that I hope to also eventually have).<br />
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I ask my neighbor, "May I please have your sheep." He says, "No, you may not." I am now sad because I have no sheep. So I instead go online to Sheeps.com and have a sheep delivered to my doorstep.<br />
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This is how most people in the world would deal with this type of situation, especially in consumer-centric America where pretty much anything is available online (including sheep, though not at the made-up URL I just mentioned; don't surf there, I honestly have no idea what you may find).<br />
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But why do I subscribe to this concept that what is my neighbor's is his property and not available for acquisition? Let's say I don't subscribe to this concept; what would I do? I would probably waltz right over to my neighbors pen, put the sheep on a leash and walk Serta right over to my yard. I now declare this sheep mine.<br />
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But since it is pretty obvious to my neighbor that his sheep is missing and I suddenly have a sheep that looks a lot like his old one, he files a police report. Now Serta is back in his pen and I am in <i><u>the</u> </i>pen.<br />
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"Why did you take the sheep?" asks the judge.<br />
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"Because I like him and I wanted him. He is so fluffy and looks like a cloud," I reply.<br />
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"But the law says that it is wrong to take your neighbor's things without his permission."<br />
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I ponder these things: the rule of law, the relative nature of everything in reality, a new wool sweater, and I reply, "But sir, I don't agree. I believe that if I want something, I can take it."<br />
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The judge doesn't agree and I end up with a fine, a restraining order, and two months of community service.<br />
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So, somehow, even though my relativistic worldview is unique and valuable, still I was trumped by some law system that I didn't vote for. And I still have no sheep.<br />
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Yes, I understand, this is a ridiculous story. But it's not that far-fetched. Our society decries racism, genocide, pedophilia, animal cruelty, and so many other issues that "we all agree are wrong." Do we all agree? Obviously not, because people still do them. And usually, hopefully, they end up paying the penalty.<br />
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Still, it comes down to the fact that someone sometime said that these things should be wrong. We don't all come to this conclusion by ourselves. Even in the past when slavery was common, women were subordinate, and people conquered others for the sake of national pride, we still had this inkling in our souls that these things were wrong. I'm sure people stood up, and I'm sure they got whipped for it because it wasn't in the common interest to change their ways.<br />
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Nevertheless, injustice was seen as just that: unjust.<br />
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Ladies and gentlemen, whether we like it or not, in all of our souls there is a common morality that didn't come because it was taught to us by our parents or our culture. It was placed there when we were crafted by the hands of our Creator. Instead of fighting it, diluting it or writing it off as archaic, we need to dig deep to solve the reason for this common ethic, this general sense of right and wrong that goes way beyond the means of survival.<br />
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But this world is still confused. It thinks that we can have relativity without standards. But all we are left with is anarchy, and the standards we resolve to are the standards we originally started from.<br />
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The Bible exists as a lens so that we can see the world from the proper perspective. We may not like everything it says, but it nevertheless determines morality, not us. Denying this only serves to bring more confusion, when all along we could have had the right perspective.<br />
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I pray that you will see that we all have inside of us the desire for justice and truth. Instead of running from it, humble yourself and submit to the truth of God. I guarantee that you will see that it was what you knew was right all along.<br />
<br />Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-86893002865961103682017-01-15T14:30:00.000-08:002017-01-15T14:30:43.616-08:00Relive Your DayDo you remember what you did every day last year?<br />
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I don't, or at least I didn't think I did.<br />
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My memory is sub-par to say the least. I can remember the name of every bus stop in the TriMet system, but it takes a whole lot of work to even remember what I ate yesterday.<br />
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I keep a journal, in a matter of speaking. Because my hands get cramped when I write with a pen, I instead use this nifty app called "Captain's Log" which allows me to record an audio log entry and automatically sends it to a folder in my Google Drive. It's about as easy as it gets if I want to remember what I did every day.<br />
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This became important when I realized that I wanted to determine exactly when I have finished every Star Trek novel I have read. So far, I have read 42 books since June 2015. Determining when I have read them will help me know the statistics of what my best reading months have been and what I could expect if I decided to be more committed to realistic reading goals.<br />
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So, I printed a list of the books I read and went to work. Often, I could attach a memory, such as a day trip to Mt. St. Helens or a vacation to Atlanta, with each book, helping me to have a basic time structure to work with. Instagram posts of which book I read helped quite a bit as well, as one would expect.<br />
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But this didn't provide enough detail to find when I read every book. So, I accessed my Google Timeline, which keeps track of everywhere my phone goes for every day. Kinda spooky, but also very helpful.<br />
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So I looked at every day for like a year and a half, trying to find when I went to my Butler Starbucks that I spend most reading time at, or when I went to other locations to read. I then cross-referenced my trips with the audio log entries I recorded and was able to get each book down to an accuracy of about one or two weeks. Good enough for what I needed.<br />
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What amazed me, however, was how much of the year I actually remembered. Many days, I went from home to work then back home again. Sundays and Wednesdays I went to church. But at least two or three days a week there was somewhere I went that was unique, and I would say to myself, "I remember that!"<br />
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This really surprised me. I realized how much I really did in a year that seemed relatively uneventful. I was reminded of my successes as well as my failures. I took joy in that days when I did awesome and inspiring things, and felt shame for the days when I recall I was less than perfect.<br />
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I was reminded that every day matters. Everything we do is retained in our minds, whether we can recall it or not. And God sees everything we do.<br />
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Even when it seems that we are doing very little interesting in life, there is always the opportunity for each day to bring blessing and encouragement to us and the people around us. Every day, God's mercies are new and His plans are enduring. When we feel we are stuck in a rut, every day is a opportunity to get out of that rut and seek after the things that God has for us.<br />
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So I was able to determine how much Star Trek reading I accomplished over that 20 month period. But I was also able to see how much happened of even more value, and that is something that makes me even happier.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-56679133557107388612016-12-29T12:00:00.000-08:002016-12-29T12:00:09.828-08:00Okay To Act Like ItThose of you who know me well will probably have no issue with this question: What is my favorite hobby/interest ever?<br />
<br />
Obvious, right?<br />
<br />
It's music!<br />
<br />
Most people around me would say TriMet (Portland's bus system). Yes, that is my most quirky interest that I have spent more time on than any other. But when it all comes down to it, music has always been my first love. Listening to it, playing it, singing it, studying it. I love music.<br />
<br />
The thing I love most about music is how it speaks to me. This is why I love Christian music; the message in the music matters so much to me, so I want to be hearing the best message. The interplay between the lyrics and music creates something in me that nothing else can.<br />
<br />
It is clear to me that God created music, because it is so special and amazing. And it never fails that the song I happen to be hearing has something in it that I needed to hear right then and there. God speaks through music every day.<br />
<br />
One thing I have always wanted to do with this blog is write devotionals based on the songs I am listening to at the time. This is one reason why I don't have ads on my blog page, so that I have no monetary gain from this and can therefore reference copyrighted material, giving full attribution to the author.<br />
<br />
Lyrics are poetry. They are crafted not just to mean something powerful but also so that they are aesthetically pleasing.<br />
<br />
It has been a rough week for me. I, the typical human being, have made some mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes, but I expect good things from myself. So when I don't meet those expectations, I feel pretty low.<br />
<br />
But I am reminded of a song that I have been listening to on the radio, the new single from Hawk Nelson called "Live Like You're Loved." The first line of the chorus says this:<br />
<br />
<i>"So live like you're loved. It's okay to act like you've been set free."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
This is really encouraging. Except that, after making mistakes, I don't feel like I'm free. How can I act like it if I don't feel like I am?<br />
<br />
What I love about this lyric is how blunt and unpoetic it is. In an industry that is based on alliteration and the right blend, here's this lyric that just jumps off the page awkwardly. It's in your face. It sounds more like a guy scolding his friend than a poem.<br />
<br />
But I'm pretty sure they intended it that way.<br />
<br />
Here's the truth you and I need to remember. God's grace has set us free. The blood of Jesus on the cross was more than enough to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and his resurrection is the ultimate victory over death. The gift of God is grace. It is a gift; I don't have to earn it. Nothing I can do will make me more or less worthy for salvation. It is a gift.<br />
<br />
In John 8:36 (NIV), Jesus Himself says, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." We are free, now and forever.<br />
<br />
Sometimes we need a good Gibbs slap to remind us that, even though we may stumble, we are free of the chains we were once in, and free of the eternal judgment for the mistakes we make.<br />
<br />
Therefore, it's okay to act like we're free, even if we don't feel like it. Even if we don't feel worthy of it. It's not about whether we deserve it, <i>it is what we are. We are free.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
So act like it! Don't let sin convince you that you are not good enough for freedom. Walk in confidence, knowing that God loves you and sent His Son to die for you. You are free today, and that will never change.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-20185719848809062016-12-26T23:02:00.001-08:002016-12-26T23:02:26.265-08:00Answer Man<p dir="ltr">Can you think of that one person in your life who seems to know the answer for everything? That one person you can go to (before Wikipedia) who will probably have the answer to your question, whatever it is?</p>
<p dir="ltr">For me, thats my dad. He seems to know something about everything, especially when it is related to engineering or science. He always finds ways to educate himself about these things, and I can trust that he will have the answer, and that it's probably the correct one as well, or close to it.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Think of the movie Elf. What did the publishing company do when they ran out of ideas? They brought in Miles Finch. He was reputed as someone who would certainly have the answer they needed.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Well, in my last post, I wrote about being one of those people who seems to have some sort of answer for everything theological. I know I don't have every answer, but at least I have enough knowledge to be able to offer something of value.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I also have almost a quarter century of experience on this earth. It's not a ton, I know, but I've surely been around the block enough times to have a handle on a lot of things. When life throws me problems, my theological knowledge and my life experience usually proves sufficient for me to know what to do, or at least know what the next step is that I should take.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But what baffles me to no end is that even though I have the answers, I am terrible at using them! Either I fail miserably at my attempt, or I just go the other way completely. There are issues that I have been dealing with for years, and to this day I haven't even started to even address them, even knowing what I should do.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This proves to me two things. First, God gave me a brain that works so I can come up with answers to my questions. Second, I am a fallen human and cannot succeed in my own capability.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I am thankful beyond words that God accepts me as I am, and that I don't have to know all the answers or get everything right all the time. I am also thankful that I can rely on God to have the absolutely correct answers and the faithfulness to never fail me even if I fail Him. And the Holy Spirit can also work with me to help me understand and be able to do what I should to in any given situation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight."</p>
<p dir="ltr">No matter if I have the answers or not, or if I do what I should in response or not, I can rely on God to help me get where I need to go. That is such a great relief.</p>
Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-87460273440495224962016-12-22T23:05:00.000-08:002016-12-22T23:05:22.703-08:00Know-It-AllsSmall group discussions are always a bit uncomfortable for me. No, it's not that I don't like sharing or hearing what other people have to say. I love being a part of deep conversations about God, and I love hearing other peoples' different perspectives or new insight about spiritual things.<br />
<br />
The issue is that, when I was young, my very knowledgeable Christian mother taught me almost everything she knew about the depths of the Bible and theology. I was homeschooled by the same mother during junior high and high school, and have continually engaged in intense discussions about the details of scripture. In other words, I know a lot.<br />
<br />
And I am not the only one. In the larger group discussions I have recently participated in, there is usually at least one other person who is sitting there with hand raised and the facial expression like they are going to explode, because they know the answer and aren't being called on since they answered the last three questions.<br />
<br />
No one will come out and say anything to make fun of the small group theologian. But I still find myself feeling awkward and slightly embarrassed when I have the answer to almost every question, and even more so when my answer sounds so scholarly and confusing that the other people at the table look like I was telling them about quantum physics.<br />
<br />
This shouldn't be. It seems like I should be ever confident and never uncomfortable about having a relatively deep understanding of Scripture.<br />
<br />
The problem is that I don't want to be seen as a know-it-all.<br />
<br />
For all my life, I have been tagged as the "smart one." "Oh, he knows so much!" people will exclaim. "He's so smart!"<br />
<br />
Well, what they didn't see was how dense I really am when I come to using that knowledge. What I have in the ability to retain knowledge I lack in the ability to understand verbal instructions or use intuition to solve problems on the fly. I can go from being the sharpest tack to the dullest in a heartbeat.<br />
<br />
What I found was that people stopped at my smarts and wouldn't look past them to see the reality of who I am. I am a person like everyone else, with my successes and failings, my skills and the areas in which I lack.<br />
<br />
People don't tend to like know-it-alls. They can be intimidated by them, or they just find them annoying or condescending.<br />
<br />
I don't want to be seen as a know-it-all. I want people to see me as a normal person as I really am.<br />
<br />
<i>Except in the areas of the Bible.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I am perfectly okay with having extensive knowledge about God's Word. I teach everybody all the time that we were meant to know God's Word better than any other knowledge we may possess. I use the opportunities when I have the answers to teach the others around me the truths of God and the testimonies of what He has done.<br />
<br />
I may feel uncomfortable at times. But I am never ashamed.<br />
<br />
Consider the selected words of the psalmist in Psalm 119 (NIV):<br />
<br />
97 Oh, how I love your law!<br />
I meditate on it all day long.<br />
98 Your commands are always with me<br />
and make me wiser than my enemies.<br />
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,<br />
for I meditate on your statutes.<br />
100 I have more understanding than the elders,<br />
for I obey your precepts.<br />
<br />
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,<br />
sweeter than honey to my mouth!<br />
104 I gain understanding from your precepts;<br />
therefore I hate every wrong path.<br />
105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,<br />
a light on my path.<br />
<br />
There is nothing sweeter than the knowledge of God. Remember, God's Word isn't just a text; knowing God's word is one in the same with knowing God Himself. We should never tire of wanting to know more about God!<br />
<br />
So, fellow "know-it-alls," speak confidently! Be bold with the words you speak, because you may speaking the words of life to a needing soul.<br />
<br />
And to those who are just learning, keep pursuing God! You will never regret knowing God more. And you will also never run out of things to learn either. God is greater than our minds can ever fathom.<br />
<br />
What a privilege it is to be able to know my Maker and Savior.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-6859748652945252762016-12-20T13:40:00.001-08:002016-12-20T13:40:45.820-08:00WordinessSome people like to talk. I am one of those people.<br />
<br />
If you have conversed with me, you may have found that I tend to dominate the conversation. I have to fight myself to let other people talk. It's not because I'm narcissistic, it's just because I have a lot to say!<br />
<br />
Well, actually I am relatively me-centered, especially in conversation. If I like the topic, I dominate it. If I don't, I can be quite apathetic.<br />
<br />
The better word is 'pathetic,' but I would rather keep my dignity somewhat intact.<br />
<br />
Anyway, since I was the person in college who scoffed at 'minimum word counts' for papers, my blog posts have tended to look my like the Affordable Care Act text than a devotional. I always have a lot to say, and I think deeply on things, which produces even more to say. Therefore, I always feel like I have to pack at least three sermons' work in one post.<br />
<br />
But on the other side of things, I have a short attention span. If anything is too long, I would rather spend my time elsewhere. I get bored easily; if it doesn't get to the point quickly enough, then it's like an absolute struggle to actually get through it. It becomes more of a chore than a joy.<br />
<br />
<i>Then something revolutionary happened</i>. I started a devotional plan on the YouVersion Bible app.<br />
<br />
These are short, to-the-point snippets of gospel truth that can help supplement one's own Bible reading. And they usually come in a bucket of three to ten days' worth of devotions. Suddenly, I realized that this is what I really need to write.<br />
<br />
You see, wordy doesn't always mean better. Sometimes, simplicity and brevity is what matters. It helps emphasize the main point in a way that it actually impacts the reader's life.<br />
<br />
The Bible itself is actually made up of smaller segments grouped into one large book. Jesus told parables, short but powerful stories. Paul wrote letters composed of smaller topical segments that went together to form the whole. In the Book of Proverbs, each verse stands alone. And the list goes on. God understands how the human mind works.<br />
<br />
So I will take up the challenge of decreasing my wordiness. Yes, I like using flowery language. But please allow me the opportunity to share the random knowledge of God's Word with you in simple, easy to digest posts. It's like the $15 bag of M&M's I bought: it isn't hard to eat it when you have small portions every day.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-44472826596103541552015-11-27T23:31:00.002-08:002015-11-27T23:31:39.603-08:00With All Your Strength<i>Judaism has this thing called the "Shema". Ever heard of it? Well, you probably have.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The Shema is a prayer that Jews pray very often. It is simply quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-9:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="text Deut-6-4" id="en-NIV-5091" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;">Hear, O Israel: The <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> our God, the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> is one.</span><span class="text Deut-6-4" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span class="text Deut-6-5" id="en-NIV-5092" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;">Love<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-5092J" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-5092J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> your God with all your heart<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-5092K" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-5092K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> and with all your soul and with all your strength.</span><span class="text Deut-6-6" id="en-NIV-5093" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.</span><span class="text Deut-6-7" id="en-NIV-5094" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-5094N" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-5094N" title="See cross-reference N">N</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span class="text Deut-6-8" id="en-NIV-5095" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;">Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.</span><span class="text Deut-6-9" id="en-NIV-5096" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.</span></span><br />
<br />
Christ quoted the beginning of this and named it the greatest commandment (with loving your neighbor as yourself the second greatest). Although we as Christians aren't bound to follow the Law anymore as the Jews were, we know the God has a Perfect Law that we should strive everyday to follow. Following His commandments is one of the most important ways we can truly love God.<br />
<br />
But I want to take a moment to point out a small but incredibly freeing detail I found in this verse.<br />
<br />
The Gospel books that recount Jesus' quotation of this verse each use different arrangements of the various things we are to love God with. Mark 12:30 features the most well-known combination:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">Love</span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-5092J" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-5092J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">the</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 24px;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">your God with all your heart</span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-5092K" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-5092K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.</span><br />
<br />
There are many ways that we could break the human person down into parts, but the way I always use to analyze myself is the three-fold structure of <i>heart</i>, <i>mind</i>, and <i>body</i>. The heart is the true core of the person, sort of where the person's soul lives. It is what truly determines who a person is, as it is where our true desires rest. I believe that it it here where God looks to determine if a person is truly following Jesus. The mind is the place where thoughts and choices are made, the logical and rational center of the person. It is a part that the Holy Spirit directly influences in helping us make the right decisions in life, but it is still not a redeemed part of the person. The mind becomes "stuck in the middle" between the soul and the flesh, and that can lead to some of the most crucial decisions a moral person can make. The body is, well, the flesh, and the flesh is certainly sinful. God can work in the person to master their body, and He can help the person's body to be "reprogrammed" to be less fleshy and more holy. But it is still the flesh and is prone to its lusts. It can never be truly trusted, and therefore has to be kept in check by the heart and mind and can never be allowed the final say in decisions.<br />
<br />
Did I over-simplify things a little? Maybe, but I think you can see how the framework is fairly applicable to most things in life. The main difference is the change from redeemed (heart) to fallen (body), with the mind somewhere in the middle. Usually two of the three parts are required to make any decision, whether holy or sinful. And it is important to remember that, while redeemed, the heart can still make terribly sinful choices, even if we are saved. Thank the Lord for the mercy and grace He shows.<br />
<br />
So what's my point? Look back at the verse from the Shema:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">Love</span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-5092J" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-5092J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">the</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 24px;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">your God with all your <b>heart</b></span><b><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-5092K" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-5092K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"> </span></b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">and with all your <b>soul </b>and with all your <b>mind </b>and with all your <b>strength</b>.</span><br />
<br />
Notice the presence of the very framework I have just outlined. First we have the heart and the soul, which are closely related. Then we find the mind, which while still prone to failing is something we can consciously control to a rather reasonable extent.<br />
<br />
But where is the body? It is not present. Instead, we find our "strength." Why strength instead of body? It is because God knows our bodies are fallen and sinful. No matter how hard we try, we will never get our bodies to fully comply with the holiness of God until they are raptured and transformed into our perfect heavenly bodies. Until then, all we can do is try really hard. This requires strength.<br />
<br />
God knows where to look when He is determining a person's commitment to Him. He knows that our actions do not necessarily determine our standing before God. Do we need to refrain from sinning from the flesh? Of course. But look at King David, a man who is still well-known for his sinful failings. God was well aware of those failings, and David had to surely suffer the conseqences on this earth from his bad choices. Yet, he is called and respected as a "man after God's own heart." This is because He knew how great God is, and he had a personal connection with God that was because of his great faith and love for his Father.<br />
<br />
Now we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit inside us, things that David didn't have in the same capacity. We are in good hands because God looks at the heart. He clearly states that our actions do reflect the state of our hearts, but He also knows that we are bound to slip up, sometimes even a lot. It is the heart that He uses as his grand determiner of faith, the catalyst for salvation.<br />
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So do all you can to love God with your heart, soul, and mind. And doing that, use as much strength as you can to master that flesh that wants for disaster, knowing that God is pleased with you not because of how much you try, but because you do try because you love Him. Let His love wash over you and free you of the burden that says you have to get it right every time. There is grace and love waiting for you to surrender and receive. Let His overwhelming joy and peace stir in you in such a way that it causes you to give back to God in form of the love He so desires.Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-7102616578888915632015-10-12T21:11:00.002-07:002015-10-12T21:11:42.208-07:00Why Messiah?<i>Merry Christmas! It's October. So why am I sending you Season's Greetings in the wrong season? Because it never is the wrong season.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I am one of those people who rolls his eyes when he hears Jingle Bells in August. I choose the "skip when shuffling" check box on my iTunes for my large collection of Christmas music on my iPods. And lights and decorations don't go up until, well, usually a week before Christmas.<br />
<br />
Am I Ebeneezer Scrooge? Not in the least. I LOVE Christmas. It is most certainly my favorite time of year. I just prefer to keep it in that time of the year, just so that all the splendor and joy of the season stays special and unique, something to look forward to.<br />
<br />
Maybe the trees and wrapping paper can stay in the season, but unfortunately, usually so does the message.<br />
<br />
Every year, around Thanksgiving, radio stations start changing over to Christmas music (because really no one has come up with any good Thanksgiving music), and the malls and stores start heralding in the now quite politically-correct Navidad. And suddenly, the story of Jesus' birth comes back to our memories. Thoughts of Mary and Joseph riding on a camel in the heavy December snow and the joyous, worshipful celebration of the shepherds and the three wise men over the newborn baby bring pleasing thoughts to our mind.<br />
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In reality, the true story of Mary and Joseph arriving to a place that had a manger sometime in late-September gets forgotten the rest of the year. People don't understand the significance of the shepherds who came to see the newborn Christ and the two to twenty Magi who showed up as much as two years later. Growing up in the church and around all things Christmas, it became quite the ritual to celebrate the holiday. I mean, Jesus was born! But obviously, Jesus birth did not save me of my sins. His death and resurrection did, which is why we really should place more emphasis on Easter than Christmas. So why is Christ's birth such a big deal that the Roman Catholic Church turned the observance of the event into the most multi-culturally significant celebration in human history?<br />
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Three reasons. Three really important reasons.<br />
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<li><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 16.8667px;">Coming of Messiah</i> <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">— Jesus was born as a Jew in the Jewish culture. He was born into a people group who had previously been chosen by God as a special people with whom He could abide. Unfortunately, as the books of the Judges, Kings, and Chronicles clearly demonstrate, the nation as a whole turned away from God. His patience was finally worn out after several hundred years, and they were thrown into exile into foreign lands. After God allowed for the people to return to their promised Israel, the people of Israel began to become prominent in that area again, though always under rule of somebody else. Jesus came at a time when there was relative peace in the area, but it was a peace that was forced by Roman control. God had promised through Moses and the prophets that the Coming One, the Messiah, would come and bring freedom to His people. Jesus' coming was that promise fulfilled to the Jews, but since they were so short-sighted, they couldn't see beyond their desire for political freedom to see the true spiritual freedom that Jesus sought to bring. And ironically, it was partially their disappointment in Jesus not overthrowing Roman rule that led to the Crucifixion that brought salvation to the whole world.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i>Other Flocks </i></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">— There is a special significance in the shepherds and the Magi. Shepherds weren't the most well-to-do folks in the Jewish world, but they were actually quite well-respected due to the fact that the sheep they were raising were used for the sacrifices required by the Mosaic Law. But they were still ordinary, random Jewish people. Meanwhile, the Magi weren't kings but were a form of wise men from some foreign land. They came to see a king, but they also seemed to personally know that they were seeing someone more significant to the world than anything they could imagine. But do you see an interesting correlation here? Messiah, the Hebrew word for Christ, was a very Jewish concept. And for most of history, the Law had only been given for the Jews to try to be right with God. But although Jesus came first to the Jews, His ultimate goal was to bring all nations into his fold. The shepherds represented the Jews, while the wise men represented the Gentiles, which basically means every one of us who are not Jews. Both groups were given the sign, and both came to worship before their King. And because of the love and sacrifice of that King, we <i>all</i> have access to God and eternal salvation.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 16.8667px;"><i>With God </i>— Although God had revealed Himself in a way to the Jews before Christ came, it wasn't a complete revelation. God gave the Law to Israel to show them and the world a way of living that, if absolutely kept without fail, could provide a way of salvation. Many ancient people had faith, but there proved to be absolutely no way anyone could possibly keep that standard. And God knew this full well, which is why the Law was given. Different than what people may have told you, it is impossible for anyone to ever humanly attain perfection. Because of our inherent sin, there was no way God could actually allow us in His holy presence because, put quite simply, we would die. So the Tabernacle/Temple was given by God so that He could be with His people, but they couldn't be in His very presence. Jesus came so that we as humans could actually be in His presence, but to an even deeper extent than what it would have been like if the people had been allowed in that Most Holy Place in the Temple where God had previously been.</span></span></li>
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Imagine two friends, a boy and a girl. There's nothing romantic going on between them. They are just friends. And because they are friends, really good friends, there is a strong connection between them. They know each other well, and people are very aware of the fact that they are really good friends. When people think of one of them, they often think of the one being with the other one because of the bond of friendship between them. But because they are friends, there is only so far that this bond can go. And while people think of one as being with the other, they also know that there aren't always going to stay there.</div>
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But if, say, they got married, things would be quite different. That wall that separates their hearts and minds would be broken down. They would be able to experience an intimacy that only exists in a marriage, something that makes any physical relationship even seem to take second place. There is a connection that is stronger than anything on earth. People see them and they don't think of "John" and "Jane" but instead "John and Jane" as though that is one name. He is with her, and it is a different type of "with" than they ever had before.</div>
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Marriage was created by God for multiple reasons, but the main one was to demonstrate the relationship God desires with His people. We Christians are called His children, but we are also called His bride. Jesus came to this world so that God wasn't just known as being "with" His people in that He lived in a room in a Temple. God is now "with" us because of the work of Jesus and the power of His Holy Spirit in us. God actually lives in us now, and when people think of us, it should be the same "God and us" that is considered one word. This is why one of Jesus' other names, Emmanuel, means "<i>God With Us.</i>"</div>
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And this is the most important thing about why Jesus came. Christ coming to this earth signaled the end of the friend-zone between us and God and the beginning of the absolute marriage bliss that will be our eternity.</div>
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So, Christians, rejoice! Because Your God lives in you. There is no separation anymore between us and the Living God. What an amazing and glorious thing we have. Let it cause us the utmost joy as we remember that the most powerful and glorious being that ever was is truly with us. And we will be with Him forever.</div>
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<i>"Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angels' voices! Oh night divine when Christ was born."</i></div>
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Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-16703918910060948482015-09-03T23:19:00.000-07:002015-09-03T23:19:08.577-07:00Terrible Christian<i>I am a terrible Christian.</i><br />
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Most of you will probably shake your heads and laugh at that statement. You probably think that I'm a pretty good guy, so why would I say something like that?<br />
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Well, because I am a terrible Christian. It's the truth.<br />
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Now, many people would view a "good" Christian as someone who goes to church every Sunday, doesn't get drunk or sleep around, and obeys the laws of the land. A person who can put a legitimate smile on their face knowing that they're going a pretty good job of being a person.<br />
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Yep, I meet those requirements to the letter. So, therefore, I must not be as bad of a Christian as I think I am.<br />
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But it matters what the definition of "Christian" actually is.<br />
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Does a Christian go to church? Sure. Pay their taxes? Of course. Avoid raunchy parties? Definitely. But there are many people who <i>aren't </i>Christians who do the latter two things consistently, and some even do the first.<br />
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These things are what a Christian <i>does</i>, not what a Christian <i>is</i>.<br />
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A Christian is, simply, a follower of Christ. Jesus would walk around and find a person, and just straight-up ask them, "Follow Me." Many would begin to literally walk after him; some would eventually go their own way while many still continued to follow. Eventually, Jesus died. Everyone scattered. He rose, and they came back together. Then he went away, and those who were left that chose to continue to follow Him, they were the true Christians.<br />
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Why just these? Faithfulness. Consistency. Commitment. Even at the threat of the sword. They prayed for boldness. They went out and preached the good news. They stayed in their home cities and edified the body of Christ and brought their neighbors into relationship with Jesus. They were known more for whose they were than who they were, and many even died because of it. They followed, and they never stopped.<br />
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Here I am, collecting 675 Star Trek books. I've mastered the TriMet system. I write code programs that cut metal for a living, and then I cut the metal. I have three business degrees. I've done a lot of things. Good things. But do these things point a giant arrow at me, saying "Christian"? No way.<br />
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I don't want to be a person who goes through the motions and is perfectly okay with it. There are a bazillion Christians who do, and that is their life. God loves them dearly and accepts them gladly into His eternal kingdom, but they could have done so much more here, and not waited until heaven to see fruit.<br />
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Read the New Testament. See what the definition of a Christian is. Notice there's never a chapter that has the header, "Characteristics of a Christian." There's chapters on how to pray (Matthew 6), how to do church (Acts 2), how to be an acceptable pastor (Titus 1), and how to be a good husband or wife (Ephesians 5). But those only give us guidelines about specific actions and behaviors. The definitions of Christians were given in the testimonies of the Christians whose stories are told. Mary. Peter. John. James. Another James. Phillip. Barnabas. Timothy. Paul. These people's lives weren't necessarily comfortable, but they didn't complain. They were faithful <i>followers</i> of Christ. They saw miracles happen. They led thousands to salvation. They wrote words that more people have read than any other words ever written. They were Christians.<br />
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And you can be too.<br />
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<i>And I can be too.</i><br />
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All it takes is a little more prayer, and a lot more commitment. A little less fear, a lot less selfishness. And a lot more daily decisions to be who I've been called to be: A Christian. A follower. A child of the One True King.<br />
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So Lord, let me care more about the things You care about than the things I care about. Let me pour more into my relationship with You than on any other effort I do. Then these menial things I care about will become conduits for Your glory and Your love to a world that needs You.<br />
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Because I need You.<br />
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<i>"I don't want to be, I don't want to be a Casual Christian. I don't want to live, I don't want to live a lukewarm life. 'Cause I want to light up the night with Your everlasting light. I don't want to live a Casual Christian life." - DeGarmo & Key</i>Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8875196857712561318.post-55219094338835118972015-04-28T21:34:00.001-07:002015-04-28T21:34:22.664-07:00The Way It Goes<i>I have to be the most inconsistent blogger on the planet.</i><br />
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Why is this? It's because if it's inconvenient for me, then I don't do stuff. It sucks. It's one of my biggest problems.<br />
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But guess what? It happens. It's just the way it goes sometimes. So we pick ourselves up and move in. We can't wallow in the lost and wasted opportunities. All we can do is cast off the past and start over right now, because the past we cannot change, but the future we can make.<br />
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So let's make the future and push through. When the inconsistent times come up, let's make the decision to just start today to make the change.<br />
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To quote band Addison Road, "<i>Every moment is a second chance at starting over.</i>"Patrick Stanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111146020217148887noreply@blogger.com0