Life lessons from … Wayne’s World?

This weekend I caught bits of Wayne’s World and Wayne’s World 2. It’s been so long since I’ve seen these that I really didn’t recall the story line. Anyway, in the second one, Wayne is transported several times to a desert where he receives guidance from Jim Morrison.

One of the last scenes in the movie has Wayne and Jim discussing the meaning of what transpired. For some reason, I was struck by Jim’s perspective. Here’s the exchange.

Wayne: Jim, why was I supposed to put on this concert?
Jim: Because you had to learn that it doesn’t matter what you do, Cassandra loves you for who you are and that, being an adult means facing responsibility yet still taking the time to have fun.
Wayne: Right, its like coming home on Friday night and doing your homework right away so that your Saturday night is free to just party.
Jim: No I like the way I said it better.
Wayne: OK.

How true. “…being an adult means facing responsibility yet still taking the time to have fun.”

I’ve been feeling the load lately of “responsibility” and though I certainly don’t shy away from working hard, I tend to forget the last part of Jim’s advice, taking the time to have fun.

It’s amazing how God uses such inconsequential events (like a scene from Wayne’s World 2) to remind us of quite important matters like balance, margin and rose sniffing.

My King

Interview with Satan

I was cleaning out some videos and ran across this one I had downloaded from YouTube. It’s pretty good.

Christmas Advent

In a Christmas sermon given December 2, 1928, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, who look forward to something greater to come. For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in the child in the manger. God comes. The Lord Jesus comes. Christmas comes. Christians rejoice!”

Ways to reduce stress

In these hectic, and increasingly tense and uncertain times, it’s important to reduce the stress in our lives. I received this list in an email this morning and thought it very relevant to us all.

An Angel says, ‘Never borrow from the future. If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn’t happen, you have worried in vain. Even if it does happen, you have to worry twice.’

1. Pray

2. Go to bed on time.

3. Get up on time so you can start the day unrushed.

4. Say No to projects that won’t fit into your time schedule, or that will compromise your mental health.

5. Delegate tasks to capable others.

6. Simplify and unclutter your life.

7. Less is more. (Although one is often not enough, two are often too many.)

8. Allow extra time to do things and to get to places.

9. Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don’t lump the hard things all together.

10. Take one day at a time.

11. Separate worries from concerns . If a situation is a concern, find out what God would have you do and let go of the anxiety . If you can’t do anything about a situation, forget it.

12. Live within your budget; don’t use credit cards for ordinary purchases.

13. Have backups; an extra car key in your wallet, an extra house key buried in the garden, extra stamps, etc.

14. K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut). This single piece of advice can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.

15. Do something for the Kid in You everyday.

16. Carry a Bible with you to read while waiting in line.

17. Get enough rest.

18. Eat right.

19 Get organized so everything has its place.

20. Listen to a tape while driving that can help improve your quality of life.

21. Write down thoughts and inspirations.

22. Every day, find time to be alone.

23. Having problems? Talk to God on the spot. Try to nip small problems in the bud. Don’t wait until it’s time to go to bed to try and pray.

24. Make friends with Godly people.

25. Keep a folder of favorite scriptures on hand.

26. Remember that the shortest bridge between despair and hope is often a good ‘Thank you Jesus.’

27. Laugh.

28. Laugh some more!

29. Take your work seriously, but not yourself at all.

30. Develop a forgiving attitude (most people are doing the best they can).

31. Be kind to unkind people (they probably need it the most).

32. Sit on your ego.

33 Talk less; listen more.

34. Slow down.

35. Remind yourself that you are not the general manager of the universe.

36 . Every night before bed, think of one thing you’re grateful for that you’ve never been grateful for before. GOD HAS A WAY OF TURNING THINGS AROUND FOR YOU.
‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’
(Romans 8:31)

The Invisible Mom

I received this from someone in an email. I’m not certain of the author. Enjoy

Not only does this apply to mothers, but to those laboring in God’s service in those “invisible” places as well. Invisible Mother…..

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’

Obviously not; no one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I’m invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this ? Can you tie this? Can you open this??

Some days I’m not a pair of hands; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer, ‘What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude – but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going, she’s going, she’s gone!?

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England . Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’ It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription: ‘To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’

In the days ahead I would read – no, devour – the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals – we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it. And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees.

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, no cupcake you’ve baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, ‘You’re gonna love it there.’

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Great Job, MOM!

The Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you. This is beautiful and makes a ton of sense.. To all the wonderful mothers out there.

Time for some good music

Click to Listen to Songs

Angel Band The [My] latest sun is sinking fast, my race is nearly run My strongest trials now are past, my triumph is begun O come Angel Band, come & around me stand O bear me away on your snowy wings [snow white] to my immortal home O bear me away on your snowy wings [snow white] to my immortal home O bear my longing heart to Him who bled & died for me Whose blood now cleanses from all sin & gives me victory

Keep on the Sunny Side There’s a dark & a troubled side of life There’s a bright, there’s a sunny side, too Tho’ we meet with the darkness and strife The sunny side we also may view Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side, Keep on the sunny side of life It will help us ev’ry day, it will brighten all the way If we’ll keep on the sunny side of life The storm and its fury broke today, Crushing hopes that we cherish so dear; Clouds and storms will, in time, pass away The sun again will shine bright and clear.

The stuff of movies

Riding in today, I was listening to Boortz talk about July 4th now being “dependence” day. It is a shame, but many in our nation have indeed forgotten, or chosen to neglect, this part of our history and heritage.

Several years ago I read David McCullough’s biography of John Adams. His life is the stuff of movies. As a nation and as individuals in pursuit of our dreams, we owe a great deal to this man and his contemporaries. I don’t want to recount all he did, but I do want to highlight one particular relationship – that between Adams and Jefferson.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were very close. Adams, a devout Christian, was strong-headed and opinionated. He was a bull. Jefferson was an intellectual who tinkered with just about every aspect of science and agriculture of his day. He was an inventor too. As a teenager I visited his home in Monticello and I can’t recall the number, but he had numerous inventions in his home. He kept meticulous notes on the weather, his expenses and all sorts of other things. He was a Deist and though he held many of the same Judeo-Christian views as Adams, was not particularly committed to the Christian faith.

These two men became close friends and then through a series of events, grew apart to the point of becoming bitter political rivals.

What is striking about this relationship is how they came back together toward the end of their lives. They would exchange letters and to the best of my recollection, reconciled before they died. Now here’s the real Hollywood moment. They both died on July 4th, 1826 within hours of each other.

To me that is very poignant. Here you have two founding fathers who, one could make the case, were the primary catalysts for our independence. One was deeply religious; the other more “secular” in his world view. Yet they each worked together for this common goal. They each had their flaws, yet their combined intellect and tenacity helped give birth to a nation. And if that were not “American” enough, they both died on July 4th – as if God wanted to commemorate their lives’ work by calling them home together and on Independence Day. I’m telling you…it’s the stuff of movies. But it really happened.

God’s Sovereignty — again

“So the king [Rehoboam] did not listen to the people. The Lord caused this to happen to keep the promise he had made to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah, a prophet from Shiloh.” 1 Kings 12:15 NCV

Backdrop
In 1 Kings 11, we read that Solomon turned his heart from God by worshiping many false gods of his 700 wives. Because of this, God said that he was going to take the kingdom from him. However, for the sake of King David and his faithfulness, God said that he would take the kingdom from his son, Rehoboam. So God raised up Jeroboam to accomplish this.

After Solomon dies and Rehoboam assumes power, he is confronted with a dilemma (1 Kings 12). He consults the elders who had served Solomon, and he consults young men who had grown up with him. The elders give wise counsel and the young men give foolish counsel. Who do you think he listens to? Exactly. The foolish counselors.

So what’s the point?
That’s where we pick up 1 Kings 12:15, “So the king [Rehoboam] did not listen to the people. The Lord caused this to happen to keep the promise he had made to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah, a prophet from Shiloh.“

Here is Rehoboam acting of his own will, but doing so in direct accordance with God’s previously planned word. It demonstrates once again God’s sovereign rule over all things.

Now, I should disclose that, I’m one of those “reformed guys” who have the audacity to believe in the five points of Calvinism. It’s not something I go around pressing on others, but I have very deep convictions about this doctrine based upon my own calling and study of Scripture.

Typically, when I read such obvious examples, I am driven to my knees in awe of such a powerful God. I am thankful that He has called me to salvation and that His plans for me are for good and not for evil to give me a future and a hope (Jer 29:11).

Examples like 1 Kings 12:15 confirm in my heart the need to trust God as He is omnipotent and truly has my best interests at heart. Today, however, I found myself somewhat frightened by it. I felt the same twinge of fatalism that many of my Christian brothers and sisters confess when they are confronted by the truth of a sovereign act from Scripture.

For how can I be sure that I am not a Rehoboam, an Essau (Rom. 10:13), a Pharaoh that is “raised up for this very purpose” (Rom 9:17), or a vessel destined for common use (Rom 10:21)?

It’s a frightening thing to consider Rom 10:18, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires.” Now, I usually don’t put myself in the camp of Job’s family that was destroyed by the collapse of the house around them. But today I asked myself, “Am I condemned to be collateral damage — the price of God’s ultimate plan for salvation?” Wait a minute. Did I just see the sheet rock cracking?

And what about Rehoboam? Could he have chosen to listen to the wise counsel or was his fate sealed?

Understand what I’m saying here
My point isn’t to attempt to unravel a mystery that so many learned theologians have sparred over for centuries. For me it isn’t a crisis of belief. “Facts is facts,” you might say. And Scripture is blatant about it. God chooses to do certain things His way and that’s just the way it is.

There are two things I want to share that God showed me and why I believe I went down that trail this morning. First, it’s easy for Christians to become complacent in their walk — to become overly “familiar” with God and lose that sense of reverential fear. We’re quick to remember that God is Love and quick to forget that our God is a consuming fire. The brief trek into the world of Rehoboam that I experienced this morning was a reminder to me that God is God and I am not. That He indeed does have the right to make some vessels for honor and some for common use. That I may indeed be called upon to play the “pawn” in His great plans. And what of it? I deserve death and Hell. It’s totally by His doing that I’m even in Christ (1 Cor 1:30) and Scripture is clear that God is at work in me to “will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13)

Second, in remembering those things, I need to also remember that whatever the case, it will be the best thing for me. God has sealed my fate. And it is to live in eternity with him through Jesus the Christ. I cannot fare any better than that, though I often miss that point. This world is passing. I cannot be distracted by my frequent desires for it or clouded by thoughts of “success” or even self-preservation. The word contentment comes to mind.

Closing thoughts
In Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, he wrote that in dealing with the doctrine of predestination there are two perspectives that should be avoided: excessive curiosity in what God has not revealed and excessive timidity in teaching what He has revealed.

Admittedly, there are some who would hold the second attitude and “all but require that every mention of predestination be buried; indeed, they teach us to avoid any question of it, as we would a reef.” To those folks, I agree with Calvin and request that we “permit the Christian man to open his mind and ears to every utterance of God directed to him, provided it be with such restrain that when the Lord closes his holy lips, he also shall at once close the way to inquiry.” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III, xxi)

But I want to underscore what Calvin writes of the first attitude, for it provides the perfect capstone for this entry in a much better way than I could. I will quote a large portion of the text and add my own emphasis.

“Human curiosity renders the discussion of predestination, already somewhat difficult in itself, very confusing and even dangerous. No restraints can hold it back from wandering in forbidden bypaths and thrusting upward to the heights. If allowed, it will leave no secret to God that it will not search out and unravel. Since we see so many on all sides rushing into this audacity and impudence, among them certain men not otherwise bad, they should in due season be reminded of the measure of their duty in this regard.

First, then, let them remember that when they inquire into predestination they are penetrating the sacred precincts of divine wisdom. If anyone with carefree assurance breaks into this place, he will not succeed in satisfying his curiosity and he will enter a labyrinth from which he can find no exit. For it is not right for man unrestrainedly to search out things that the Lord has willed to be hidden in himself; nor is it right for him to investigate from eternity that sublimest wisdom, which God would have us revere but not understand in order that through this also he should fill us with wonder. He has set forth by his Word the secrets of his will that he has decided to reveal to us. These he decided to reveal in so far as he foresaw that they would concern and benefit us.

If this thought prevails with us that the Word of the Lord is the sole way that can lead us in our search for all that it is lawful to hold concerning him, and is the sole light to illumine our vision of all that we should see of him, it will readily keep and restrain us from all rashness. For we shall know that the moment we exceed the bounds of the Word, our course is outside the pathway and in darkness, and that there we must repeatedly wander, slip and stumble. Let this, therefore, first of all be before our eyes: to seek any other knowledge of predestination than what the Word of God discloses is not less insane than if one should purpose to walk in a pathless waste or to see in darkness. And let us not be ashamed to be ignorant of something in this matter, wherein there is a certain learned ignorance. Rather, let us willingly refrain from inquiring into a kind of knowledge, the ardent desire for which is both foolish and dangerous, nay, even deadly. But if a wanton curiosity agitates us, we shall always do well to opposed to it this restraining thought: just as too much honey is not good, so for the curious the investigation of the glory is not turned into glory. For there is good reason for us to be deterred from this insolence which can plunge us into ruin. (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III, xxi)

Truth Divorced From Life

A reminder from A.W. Tozer

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. –James 1:22

There is scarcely anything so dull and meaningless as Bible doctrine taught for its own sake. Truth divorced from life is not truth in its Biblical sense, but something else and something less….

No man is better for knowing that God in the beginning created the heaven and the earth. The devil knows that, and so did Ahab a! nd Judas Iscariot. No man is better for knowing that God so loved the world of men that He gave His only begotten Son to die for their redemption. In hell there are millions who know that. Theological truth is useless until it is obeyed. The purpose behind all doctrine is to secure moral action….

Any man with fair speaking gifts can get along with the average congregation if he just “feeds” them and lets them alone. Give them plenty of objective truth and never hint that they are wrong and they will be content.

On the other hand, the man who preaches truth and applies it to the lives of his hearers will feel the nails and the thorns. He will lead a hard life, but a glorious one. May God raise up many such prophets. The church needs them badly.

In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. – Titus 2: 7,8