Valuing People

Society values people by what they have and what they do to get what they have. Christ values us for who we are, and what we do is because of what He does in us. Who is the better teacher? And from Whom are we learning?

What Kind of Fruit Does Your Tongue Bear?!

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.  Proverbs 18:21, NAS

I think this is a pretty familiar verse, particularly its warning that with our tongues we have the power to encourage or discourage, to build up or crush others' spirits. That's a heavy responsibility, and we tend to let our tongues wag pretty freely! The second half of the verse may be less familiar. While we have that power at the time we speak, but our words don't end there. If we use the tongue's power destructively, that power will bite us back! It might be the bitter fruit of crushing our children's spirits that will haunt us in their adult years. Or it might be that our tongues are so uncontrolled that we put down the wrong person, some one who is able to hurt us worse than our words hurt them. On the other hand, if we use the power of our tongue to build up others, God promises that we will eat that fruit as well. I think it safe to say that the fruit of a tongue that blesses will be much sweeter than that of a tongue that crushes!

What Is Your Value

Society values people by what they have and what they do to get  what they have. Christ values us for what we are, and what we do is because of what He does in us.

Gadgeterianism & Me

I'm not a big Gadgeterian. It's a little odd that I'm not, since I live in Silicon Valley and work in the electronics industry, the home and source of gadgets. It's not that I don't have or don't use gadgets. I'm typing this on a Nook Color e-reader/tablet computer.

 

I'm just not that into gadgets. I try to focus on things that will be useful and use what I get (and not use them for the sake of using them). They are things to be used, not things to have! I use them, they don't own me. What I really don't get is people who have to have the latest (whatever). And there certainly are quite a few Silicon Valley companies who stake their future - it's almost their business model - on producing the latest (thing) and persuading people they need that latest (thing). It might seem pretentiously religious to say this, but I do not think this is how God intends for His children to live!

Reasons for Doing Good

"Because it is right," is a good reason for doing right things, but it is not the best reason. "Because I love and fear/respect God and it pleases Him," is the best reason. For Christians it is the right reason.

Compartmenting Scripture

Our home group is starting a study that will focus on the fruit of the Holy Spirit, as spoken of in Galatians 5. It occurred to me that we Christians tend to put spiritual things in neat boxes. Galatians 5 lists The Fruit of the Spirit; 1 Corinthians 12 lists The Gifts of the Spirit; Matthew 5 has The Beatitudes; 1 Corinthians 13 is The Love Chapter.

Certainly, these passages speak of those topics, often very eloquently, but those are not the only places the Bible speak of those topics. By affixing special labels to passages such as these, the risk is that we limit what we learn and understand ... about the kind of character traits the Holy Spirit works in believers ... about the ways in which the Holy Spirit empowers believers for ministry ... about the kind of character God blesses ... about selfless love. God spread teachings and examples of these qualities throughout His word. And we should honor Him by learning from all of His word.

Thinking Beyond “Success”

It dawned on me long ago that “success” means something very different with God than most human societies have viewed it. Consider the people the Bible commends. Job, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob were all quite wealthy. Suh-weeeeet! But, news flash! Their wealth wasn't why God saw them as successes!

But hold on! There's Moses. He started out – his first 40 or so years of life, in fact – as a prince, a member of the royal court in Egypt, the most powerful nation in that part of the world. The next 40 years, Moses was an obscure shepherd living at the edge of a desert, far from any large center of power and civilization. His last 40 years were, to say the least, interesting. The highlights were miraculously defeating the ruler of Egypt, meeting with God “face to face” and constant fellowship with God. But this was in the context of leading, for 40 years, several hundred thousand complaining former slaves from captivity to a Promised Land he would never (Ouch!) enter.

Then there's men like Elijah, Stephen and Paul. Elijah subsisted for some months on food brought to him by ravens, scavenger birds, all the while (and for much of the rest of his life) being hounded by the forces of the king of his nation. For another couple of years Elijah lived (as far as others could see) off the kindness of a widow. Not exactly the modern vision of success!

Stephen, well, he got stoned … not with recreational chemicals, but with large rocks … to death. I wonder how many university students have that as their life's ambition! Paul, well, he did travel much of his known world – not in first-class accommodations, though. But in the process he got stoned almost to death (or did die and God resurrected him), got whipped by sadistic Roman jailers, spent a couple years in jails and prisons (which were very far from sanitary places!), and ended up having his head chopped off. Short of being nourishment for cannibals, this is about as far from virtually any culture's ideals of success as one could get!

I've probably dragged this out more than necessary – brevity isn't my spiritual gift – but clearly, God's vision of success for His people is far from any culture's norms! At the principle level, His vision is easy to state: total faith in and reliance on God! That was easy … what's for dinner?

Well, wait! Whether it's the wealthy Abraham, the enigmatic Moses or the battered itinerant preacher Paul, they did tough things, not entirely understanding the immediate purposes or eventual outcomes. From the points of view of their cultures, they did crazy things, all because God told them to do it. As some nowadays would pointedly put it, they heard VOICES! They totally trusted God while they did the “crazy” things. They totally trusted God while leaving behind familiar homes and friends, and abandoning successful trades and careers. They totally trusted God: even when facing down kings, emperors and governors; even while face to face with mobs; even while their muscles were being bruised and their bones were being crushed by stones; even as their head was being hacked off.

Ummmm … yeah! Do I trust God to obey Him even in things I understand (or think I do) but look a very little inconvenient or uncomfortable? What about things I don't fully understand? Do I trust God to do things that seem even just a little crazy? Do I so trust God that my life is less precious to me than God and His purposes. It shames me to think to answer just the first question!