How to Hit a Home Run at a Funeral

Julie and I went to a funeral today for a member at church whose father just died. I didn’t expect many of the members would be there because first off… no one knew the old man. But then also because this particular family doesn’t attend very well and on top of that they just don’t mix socially very well so I didn’t figure many of our members would be there and turns out I was right about that.

Anyway on the way there I told Julie that we were hitting a home run today and she said with who? And I said with God. Then she commented that the reason she thought it was important to go was because of the way it made her feel when folks attended her dad’s funeral.

Now I may be saying a little too much here but when Julie’s dad died there weren’t a great many people who attended his funeral and I think she was a little hurt by that but she really appreciated those who did come to offer their condolences. So you can see how important it was for her to attend this funeral for someone she didn’t even know. By the way… she has a great heart.

Anyway I know this about myself… I usually cry at funerals but I didn’t think I would at this one because I only knew one person there... our member But as I went to the front to offer my condolences to the wife and the other kids and their spouses… the tears started flowing (surprise, surprise, surprise) I apologized to them and explained that we knew the son and he attended church with us. When I got to the last person on the row (our member) we both cried and hugged each other.

I’m kind of reminded about that thing that Jesus said about not just inviting your friends to supper because you know they’ll invite you back but how you should invite the folks that no one else is inviting.

That’s kind of like funerals… don’t just attend the funerals for your friends but attend the funerals of those whom you might not know so well. Everyone has feelings don’t they?

Who knows… you might just hit a home run with God or lift the spirits of one who is meek and gentle in spirit.

A Few Odds and Ends

This morning our grandson Nicholas was sitting with us and after the Lord’s Supper I asked Julie for the contribution check. She said she had put it on the pew where I sit (I had been leading singing). We looked and looked and could not find it then as they were passing the collection tray Nicholas put his quarter in and reached in his pocket and put our check in too with a big grin on his face. The little imp.

I have a friend/employee who I have known for almost 40 years. She lost her husband this past year and then told us she needed to quit work because she had some health issues and didn’t want to be always asking for time off. Okay. She lives a very private life I know that. But then I noticed she started selling or giving away a lot of her stuff so I started worrying a little bit. So after she left work I would call her from time to time checking on her and found out she had cancer that would require surgery and radiation. Today between services I decided to call and check on her and she said she would have to go to MD Anderson for five weeks of radiation treatment.

I told her… let me give you some advice. When you go to Houston, attend services at Bellaire Church of Christ, that they are a caring, compassionate group of Christians and that they would help her. She asked me if they would help her find a place to live and I told her that I didn’t know about that but I did know that they could and would offer her emotional support during therapy. She said… I’ve never been through anything like this before and I asked cancer or church? And she said both that she hadn’t been to church since she was a kid. Anyway she said she would attend at Bellaire. If she does and God’s word is planted in her heart she’s going to be amazed… like amazingly amazed and I can’t wait to see it.

Do you ever pray to the Lord and ask him… who am I that you would look over me and care for me and bring such happiness to my life? Who am I and just… who are you?

Managing Anger

“Be angry and sin not…” Psalm 4:4

This text, of course, implies that you can be angry and yet not sin. We know that to be true because Jesus got angry from time to time and yet as our perfect example did not sin.

So how do we sin when we’re angry? Obviously by some physical manifestation of our anger that can range from screaming, bad language, casting insults, etc. But it can also be as subtle as angry body language. Maybe not ever expressing an angry word but throwing something or slamming a door or beating yourself on the head.

There is something else that happens when we are angry that may not technically be a sin but is at least unhealthy.

Today I got angry and I doubt that those around me even knew it but I was angry and seething internally. I was scheduled to go the gym and I pulled up and parked in the gym parking lot but didn’t really want to go in. I just wanted to go home and be angry and vent to my wife.

But I told myself… let’s close our eyes and take 10 deep breaths and only think about breathing. Afterwards I went into the gym and had a nice workout and was happy as a lark and decided to write this article.

You know in the Veterinary world when we have a behavior problem with a dog sometimes distraction is the key. For instance if Fido is constantly licking his feet and you can’t get him to stop just take him outside and throw the ball to him and play fetch until he is so exhausted he just wants to come in and take a nap. Voila!

You can also distract yourself with breathing, exercise, prayer, Bible study, or chasing a ball (lol)

You can be angry and just like Jesus… not sin and even not waste time being angry. It takes some self control and maybe a little distraction.

Serve God and remember Heaven.

Detestable Sin

“Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (Leviticus 18)

This passage follows a long list of sexual sins that were prohibited by God including… sex with an animal, sex with someone of the same gender, sex with a relative, etc.

These sins are called detestable and so detestable that the land where they lived vomited them out. Of course we know that the vomiting was God empowering the Israelites to kill and run them out of the land. Note that not all sin is called “detestable”

Israel is warned that if they duplicate the sexual sins then the land would also vomit them out too.

It kind of makes you wonder about the good old USA, could the practice of detestable sexual sin in the USA cause the land to “vomit us out”?

Although I don’t know for sure I’m guessing yes. Knowing that we shouldn’t stay silent about “detestable sexual sin”

Learned Reverence (Part 2)

“When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel” (Deuteronomy 17)

In my previous article on “Learned Reverence” we learned that one learns reverence by continual sacrifice. In this text we find that we also learn reverence by continual reading of the Lord’s Word (the Bible).

In other words we can’t just read the Bible one time and smugly think to ourselves… I’ve got the basics of what God wants me to do I don’t really need to waste any more time with reading.

Note in the above text that there are some reasons why we continually read. The first of which is so that we can follow carefully and exactly in what is written and in that carefulness turn not to the “left or right” but follow exactly in the footsteps of Jesus (so to speak). That type of behavior by the way demonstrates a reverence for God.

Believe me humans tend to be forgetful and might hang their faith on a favorite verse or two and neglect the others and develop a spiritual arrogance of spiritual superiority.

For example, I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told (in the air of superiority) that you don’t have to go to church to be saved or that all my dead relatives are in Heaven or that I’ve been saved by grace and I don’t need anything else, etc.

In my personal experience the ones who say such things don’t know their Bibles very well and would do well to heed the instructions given in Deuteronomy 17 and that is exactly why I read my Bible every single day so that I might also not forget and continue to learn to… revere God.

Learned Reverence

“Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always” (Deuteronomy 14)

The Jews were to take 10% of their crops and flocks and eat those things in a feast before God in a place of his choosing. In doing so they would learn to “revere God always”

So it seems it may not be natural or accidental to give God the reverence he deserves… rather reverence is a learned behavior and it is learned by sacrifice... regular sacrifice.

Let me suggest that the first thing we should learn to sacrifice to God is our time. It takes time to assemble with other Christians to worship and It takes time to kneel and pray. It takes time to study God’s word and it takes time to meditate on His teachings. It also takes time to “love our neighbors as ourselves”

So I wonder how much time we should sacrifice to God… 10% like in tithing? If so… what a deal… we have 90% of our time to please ourselves.

Let me suggest something else for your consideration. Do you suppose it could be true that the more you sacrifice the more you come to reverence God? If so then giving up only 10% of whatever would not lead to very deep reverence would it?

Here’s the thing… when God gave up his son for us he purchased and owns us.. lock, stock and barrel and when we believed in him and were baptized into the blood of his son we recognized and accepted that fact.

Learn to revere God by matching His 100% sacrifice (Jesus Christ) with your own total sacrifice. After all the only ones who will live with God in eternity are those who have forsaken all to revere Him.

Choose Love and God Will Choose You

I might have a great singing voice and be able to sing all the different parts of a song and might be the best song leader at church but if I don’t have love… I might as well be a coyote howling at the moon.

I might know my Bible backwards and forwards and be on the right side of all the major and minor doctrinal issues and might could preach like Peter on the Day of Pentecost but if I don’t have love… I might as well be whistling in the wind.

I might attend every service the church offers and sit on the front row and be the first one to arrive and the last one to leave but if I don’t have love… I might as well be a dog chasing his tail always coming close but never quite able to catch it.

I might be generous to a fault and give a dollar or two to every beggar standing on a street corner but if I don’t have love… I might as well be a hog dressed in a white dress wearing a pearl necklace around my neck.

Love loves the unlovable. Love can absorb insults and mistreatment and ugliness and take those things and turn them into a smile and well wishes.

Choose love and God will choose you.