Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Missing the mark

I watched a movie with my grandkids.  The main message of the movie, as best I could tell, was that we were looking to zing with another person... and that it only happened once... and life would be ruined if we passed our chance up.  It's frustrating what we are teaching our children through movies.  The most destructive is that Cinderella message.  Find the right guy and you will live happily ever after... See, the problem is... that's true.  If you find the right guy you will live happily ever after.  How close is the promise of happy-ever-after to abundant life (John 10:10)?  I just don't think the guy your looking for is human!  Well, completely human. :)

It's a twisted message because deep inside all of us is a yearning to be loved.  We must be loved to survive; that's true.  But, where we send our children to find love is way twisted.  We them to expect to get their deepest needs met by another human being who is just as needy as we are.  That's sad. 

Think of the songs movies teach our children... and believe me they sing them over and over again.  Songs like Cinderella's "So this is Love" Which says, "so this is love, so this is what makes life divine" It is true that love is what makes life Divine that is "God filled".  But what is labeled love is a first brush meeting with a guy she knew for about 4 hours. (8 to no later than midnight right?)  In the movie clip they never move their mouths... so how much did they say in that 4 hours?  And what have we taught our children about love?  It is a feeling of infatuation at best and has nothing to do with how your treat or are treated by another. 

There are so many messages sent to our children that are close but...sad. Think of what we teach about santa clause.  He will come to visit you and give gifts, if and only if you will believe in Him.  How similar is that to John 6:47? " Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me  has everlasting life." 

I think these are all opportunities to explain what is true compared to what is false.  But I wonder, does it sell because we are touching the deepest yearnings of all people?  And how dangerous is it to miss the mark?

Thursday, April 24, 2014

It's amazing!

It always amazes me how we spend so much time trying to figure things out on our own when it's right there... in the word, if we would just listen! I'm thinking of Matthew Fontaine Maury who, after reading Psalms 8:8 which says, "The birds of the sky, the fish of the sea and whatever passes through the paths of the seas." went looking for the "paths of the seas" and eventually plotted ocean currents used as shipping lanes today.  That's amazing isn't it?

What about  Job 26:7 which says, "He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing." I find it amazing, this passage was written long before anyone could have guessed the accuracy of it's content.  In the day that this was written no one would have dreamed how empty that empty space is... or that anything could literally hang in that space on nothing...

Or check out Genesis 10:25 where it says, "To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided;" We have only very recently found that our continents fit together and at some point were "divided" into pieces from a whole.  But... there it is... in black and white.

There are so many examples of where the Bible reveals secrets... if we will only listen.  These examples are amazing! But I wonder what emotional, social, medical and especially spiritual truths  God gives us that we have missed? What more is there to glean from His teaching... His letter of love?


What does it say?  What does HE say? Do you know?  I challenge you, just read one page... open the Bible anywhere and just read one page... and listen.

So after typing that paragraph I decided to practice what I preach and open the Bible and start reading right where it opened.  Here is what it said... lol!

"Yet for many years You had patience with them,
And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets.
Yet they would not listen;
Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands." Nehemiah 9:30 (italics mine)

What good is God's word if we don't listen?  How can we listen if we don't read?  How can we read if we are distracted?  It's a big loop isn't it?  The deal is, He has a message for you, for me.  It's urgent!  How many text messages do you get in a day?  How hard are they to ignore?  As I type this, I got a text message from someone I didn't even know.  She was relaying work information to maybe a co-worker?  Anyway... it was a text... so I read it... lol!

I have to admit that though I just recommended reading a whole page... I found reading a whole page pretty overwhelming... there is so much on every page and I my ears are slow. So I am pondering the half of a page that I read. I wonder why it is hard to just sit and listen.  But when I do... I am amazed!