Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Is May 21st Just Another Day?

All across America you can see them. Billboards, RV's and people proclaiming to "Save the Date!" May 21st, 2011, Judgement Day! Thanks to a campaign effort by a man named Harold Camping and his radio program, this information is everywhere and they want you and I to take notice.

Let me state for the record though that I for one think that Harold Camping and Family Radio have already made it clear in 1994, that they are tossing darts at a calendar with their various predictions.
The date May 21, 2011 is simply a date. Any significance of that date will be determined once we walk through it.
To predict anything of Biblical significance of that date before hand is not only an ignorant thing to do but is also a disservice to Christianity. It’s ignorant in the fact that scripture makes it clear that NO man will know the day or the hour. It is a disservice to Christianity also because if the “prediction” of Mr. Camping does not occur on May 21st, then the false prophetic uttering makes the non-Christian take the second coming of the Lord even more lightly.

Now, I do believe that May 21st could be the day that the Lord comes back. I also believe that the next day, the day after that or the weeks and months to come after that are also good days for Him to come back. You see, I am not predicting the day but do know that scripture tells us that one day He WILL come back. Is May 21st a good day? Sure. Will He come back on that day like Mr. Camping says? Only God Himself knows. Mr. Camping, nor Family Radio and not even I know the true day.

So, does that mean to kick back and rest easy now? Not so. He is coming back one day soon. Regardless of what people predict, regardless of what the naysayer might say and regardless of if we are ready or not, He will be coming and one day and each and every one of us will stand face to face with Him. We can look at the signs of the times and know that His return is eminent. We can read the book of Revelations and see how it resembles current world events. We can even watch for things to unfold at the temple mount and monitor various other end time events, but in the end, we cannot predict the exact time of His coming.

Sorry Mr. Camping. While the Lord can come back on May 21st, it will not be due to any mathematical equation you came up with. It will only mean that the Lord chose to come back then in His timing. So with that said, the truly proper thing to be doing with the RV’s and Billboards that are proclaiming May 21, 2011 on them is to proclaim the Gospel and reach the lost souls. Do Christianity a service and tell people about Jesus not just a date on the calendar.

Monday, February 21, 2011

A Focused God on an Unfocused Child

Have you ever been to a point in life in which you are not sure which direction to turn or who to talk to? Have you ever got to that point in which you wanted to throw your hands in the air and just cry out, “Seriously???”

A few years ago, my wife and I dropped all of our trivial stresses in life when we found that our son was legally blind in both eyes at 20/400. We worked closely with an eye doctor that was able to assist him up to a certain point but that quickly came to a plateau and we were referred to a Behavioral Optometrist. After just a few visits with the specialist, we begin to see signs that our son did not just have eye problems but was also struggling with multiple Sensory Integration Disorders or what is also referred to as Sensory Processing Disorder.

During our son’s first year in school, we found kindergarten to be a disaster. Between a teacher who admittedly was not used to handling kids with SPD and his quiet challenging behavior at times, we begin to wonder if our son would have a life beyond SPD. We had not taken him to a Occupational Therapist or any other specialist that could officially label him with SPD so the school district, while trying to be somewhat helpful, was hands off on their approach to my son. In other words, if he ‘acted out’ or had a ‘melt-down,’ they would just write him up as a bully or a hyperactive kid that needed to be medicated.

After somehow managing to survive kindergarten, we breathed a sigh of relief. Our thoughts were, “maybe it was just the teacher.” “Maybe our son is actually normal and all those who judged us for saying he had SPD were right in their attack.” Well, first grade came. The teacher had knowledge of SPD and was very open armed to our son. “I can handle him” she quipped. However, here we are nearing the backstretch of first grade and we are now at that stressful state of mind and aggravation that we had with the kindergarten year. Because the state and school have their hands tied, they refuse to accommodate his disorder or assist him in adaptive learning unless we officially label him.

The labeling is bothersome to me. I know, I know, it is a hang-up that I need to get past. But I also look at my son and know he is a bright young boy. He loves math, he loves school and when he applies himself, he gets A’s on all his papers. The problem though is that applying of oneself. One of his downfalls is being easily distracted and the inability to focus. Due to that, his grades are quickly declining and his love for school is waning.

In the very near future, my son will officially be tested. He will be ran through the battery of sessions and tests to find out where he stands and what we can do to help him cope with his SPD. There is a big unknown of what is to come from this testing. Will insurance assist us this time or will they be a large headache like they were with the Behavioral Optometrist? Will this ‘labeling’ hurt my son in the future? Will he ever be able to obtain a normal job or get a drivers license? Will he be looked down upon as if he has some type of mental illness? Many thoughts run through my head and the stress is ever present.

Thankfully, my wife and I know God. Between our faith in God and our close walk with Him, we are able to carry on spiritually even when our emotions are a wreck. We have learned that regardless of our emotions or stresses, we can never allow them to dictate our worship to God, so even when we are crying on the inside, we still give God our all.

This has helped tremendously as we walk down an unknown path with our son’s SPD. God has given a peace that passes all understanding and allowed us to handle the ups and downs of life with our son. Do we get angry or frustrated at times? Obviously, yes, we are after all, mere human beings. However, God has given us a balance to weigh our problems against Him. When God is in the scale, he outweighs ours or our son’s bad days every time. He is the lifter of the head and provides a place to run to when all the battles seem uphill.

For us, God has been the constant focus when our son has lost his. He keeps us from wringing the neck of the uneducated person who thinks a pill is the answer to the problem. He helps us stay calm when people blame our son’s personality on his upbringing. He holds our hand as we navigate through the ugly red tape of health insurance. He reminds us everyday that even though He is a miracle working God that could remove the disorder from our son at anytime, He also is a God that allows us to privilege a walk down the path of the unknown so we can learn and lean on Him.

We do not know what tomorrow may bring. We do know that our son has made strides and has come a long way already to this point. His social interaction is widening. His vision therapy assisted greatly, and he is beginning to learn how to cope with the moments in which his senses get out of whack. Whatever tomorrow does bring, we know that he is a unique boy and no disorder, no red tape, no uneducated person will be able to hold him back from fulfilling his full potential.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Define your journey or it will defy you

In the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, we read some depressing passages of scripture. Solomon, a man who had it all, a man who only knew of the best things in life, was concluding that life itself was nothing more than vanities. Here was a man, who could give great proverbial advice. Here was a man who could dive deep philosophically with the best of them. Here was a man who, according to 2nd Chronicles, had things that the kings before him never had.

“Wisdom and knowledge are granted you. And I will give you riches, possessions, honor, and glory, such as none of the kings had before you, and none after you shall have their equal.”

Yet somehow, in all of this,in all of the wisdom, in all of the riches, in all the best things life had to offer, Solomon had failed. Solomon was found lacking.

While he was trying to define his journey, In the end, his journey had defied him.

Solomon found that no pleasure, no possession, nothing he had was bringing a complete happiness. Nothing he pursued was fulfilling. His journey was for happiness,but he ended up with frustrations.

As he stopped in to ponder in his journey, Solomon found that he was hating life.

Solomon said that most of the things we strived for on this journey, proved to only be vanities. He realized that even the wisest of men, found themselves to only be fools. He found that for all the sweat, tears, and energy he put forth in the journey, that life was nothing but labor, sorrow and grief.

On an on, Solomon paints a grim picture. He describes the whoas of life.
He shows the despair, the hurts and the disappointments. In the end, he leaves the readers of the scriptures feeling depressed and hopeless about life. "All is vanity," he says, "all is vanity."

As we travel this journey called life, we will find moments of happiness, moments of frustrations, and moments of sadness. Many things will fall within our path.

Things like: Heartache, pain, change,stress,being let down,failure,success, confusion, misunderstandings and hopefully on many occasions, happiness.
If we really wanted to get down to it, and to be real with ourselves

We can admit that like Solomon, that we too can find the negatives, the vanities and the grim outlooks of this life. If we are not careful, if we allow the Solomon attitude to grip us, we risk the very thing that Solomon experienced:

We risk our journey defying us, instead of us defining our journey.

A journey by definition is "To travel or the act of traveling from one place to another." Biologically and psychologically speaking, a journey is "any course or passage from one stage or experience to another."

Whether a journey be physical or spiritual, one can conclude that there must be a drive and there must be some type of desire. It is a combination of these items which allows the person that is on the journey, to walk down the intended path. It is at the time in which the drive is gone or that the desire is lost, a person stops walking and could be found sitting.

When a person finds themselves sitting down and pondering the many things in life, the danger of a Solomon mindset begins to creep in. They begin to get down on their efforts. They allow the pains of life to catch up. Depression and oppression sets in. The very danger of the proverbial throwing in the towel, becomes a realization. It is at this moment, the person unconsciously allows their journey, to defy them.

A quick flip through the pages of the Bible finds many journeys. There was Abraham who followed God and went to Canaan as instructed. His due reward for following that journey was being blessed by God and becoming a great nation. There was Moses who was instructed to go to Mt. Sinai. He comes face to face with a burning bush and was given further instructions from the Lord. So Moses does as he is instructed and goes on the journey.

Many successful journeys are found within the pages of the Bible. But then, we see the likes of Sampson. Sampson was a man who has a relationship with God. He was given abilities that many of men only dreamed of. Yet somehow, Sampson chose to allow his journey to defy him, instead of he defining his journey.

Sampson strayed from the path when he went into the city of Timnah. He strayed once again when he went into Gaza. It was his straying, his temptations, that took him to places he should of never have gone. Sampson was blazing trails were not to have been blazed.

He was a man set apart for God's service. He was a man of power. He once took apart a lion with only his bare hands. With a jawbone from a donkey, he slew thousands. Yet, Sampson had a fundamental flaw in his life and that flaw allowed his journey to defy him.

In the end, Sampson's eyes were gouged out by the Philistines. The hair he had grown as part of his Nazarite vow, was cut off. The feet that led him down the wrong paths, were now weighed down by shackles. Sampson was hooked to a grinding stone like a donkey. Around and around he went. No longer on a journey with intent and purpose, but now aimlessly going in circles.

After parting ways with Abram, Lot wandered from his intended path, to take his cattle to the well watered green valleys of Jordan. He wandered off the path to camp out right outside the gates of the city Sodom. Instead of staying on the right path which was far from sin city, he chose to camp right next to sin.

The journey he once defined, was now defying him. As fire fell upon Sodom, and Lot and his family fleed, the very sin he cozied up next to, had destroyed his wife. Lot could of seen the warning signs there and ran back to the proper path, but he didn't. He chose to continue on down the wrong path and ran to the hills to hide. It was within those hills that his daughters became the next victims of his choosing the wrong path, the wrong journey.

Choosing to stray from the journey has its consequences. Sin has a price. It will cost you and your family much. However, if you choose to stay the course, to walk within the set of footprints provided for you, then no wind, no wave, no false teachings, no fads or relevant gimmick will cause you to leave the path.

The question presented then is a simple one. Are you defining your journey, or is your journey defying you? Are you deciding in your heart that you will only follow Jesus or are you allowing sin, temptations and things of this world to defy you?
Look at your path today. Which one are you residing on? Are you able to carry on a conversation with Jesus or are you finding that He is off in the distance walking a different direction?