Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go

I love the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes – the little boy and his stuffed tiger for the ones that don’t know it by name.  My all-time favorite is a June 13, 1992 strip (yes, I had to look it up) where for the first 2 panels, Calvin is burping a huge, window-rattling burp.  The third panel his mother yells at him and asks what he has to say after something like that.  He replies, “great diaphragm control, huh?”  The last panel shows him sitting on his bed, obviously sent to his room in trouble, saying, “when I’m a great soloist, she’ll be sorry.”  Granted, it’s a visual joke – being a comic strip and all – but I love it (and most of you aren’t surprised that it’s THIS one that’s my favorite).  But I have them emailed to me every day.  And like most strips, there are little stories.  Each strip tells a piece of a broader story arc.  On one particular arc, Calvin & Hobbes are at the zoo.   The first panel shows him talking to his mom who is wearing a black skirt.  Then when see him walking around the zoo gawking at all he sees while the black skirt is in front of him.  But then he notices that the woman in front of him isn’t his mother!  And now he is LOST!  She asks him what his mother looks like and he says, “from the knees down, she looks just like you”.

How often have I done that in my own life?  I get too busy looking at everything around me…work, soccer, friends, work, even church activities…but I get so busy looking at everything going on around me that I take my eyes off the one I should be following.  Ever been there?  You think you’re right in His footsteps – but you’re not actually actively looking at Him – just generally going along thinking you’re behind Him.  But somewhere along the way, the path turned, and He turned with it, but we missed it…drove off the road…lost in the wilderness.  We were so busy looking at everything else that we forgot to actually look AT Jesus.  And there’s moment of realization that you’ve wandered off the path.  You have that “how did it get this far?” moment.  You think you’re so far lost that you’ll never find your way back to the path.  Lost, just lost.  Despair hits you.  You start saying things like “if ever went back to church, the roof would collapse on me.”  And in the process, you undervalue the amount that Jesus was willing to pay for you, and you undermine the power of Jesus’ blood to cover your sins…whatever they are. 

But do you know what you have to do?  It’s really simple.  Just admit you’re lost.  Stop trying to get YOURSELF unlost (yes, I just made up that word, but you got the point).  You’re the one that got you in this boat to begin with, so just stop saving yourself.  And then yell for help for all you’re worth!.  Cry out to Jesus, if you will.  He knows you’re lost.  He saw you get that way.

Quick personal illustration time.  Way back when, my dad and I where hunting up in the Ozarks.  Beautiful country up there, by the way.  But we were hunting on the side of this mountain, walked all through trees and brush and who knows what looking for squirrels that we’d heard barking in the distance, and then dad asked me if I could get us back to the trail where we’d parked the motorcycles.  Well I knew everything, so I could SURELY get us back to the little path we’d walked away from.  We were standing next to a fence, so I started leading the way away from the fence.  And in my mind it was Sergeant Dwayne and his battered troops returning from the war – I was like 14, not like I was doing this at 30.  Well, maybe I did stuff like this at 30, but THIS time, I was only about 14.  But here were the troops – guns in hand, almost out of ammo, and I was single-handedly leading them out of the wilderness and heading for home.  Weary, hungry, lonely they were finally going to fight our way out and…”Hey!  Here’s another fence!” is what I said when I stopped visualizing military glory and realized what I was seeing.  Dad just laughed.  He knew what I had been doing all along.  I’d started out walking away from the fence, and for the past 15 minutes, I’d slowly been curving us in a big circle leading us right back towards it.  “That’s the same fence…I’ve been watching you walk slowly to your left, the farther you walked around this mountain.  Every brush pile you went around, every tree you avoided, your circled us a little more to the left.”  And then he led me to the road…Back to the bikes and the way out.

It’s the exact same thing with the Cross.  We take our eyes off of where we’re headed…and we slowly start that circle back to where we started.  The sinful nature, they call it.  Selfish desires.  We slowly start that circle back to what we want and not what God wants.  But when we see that fence…and realize that we’ve completely circled back.  Jesus already knows it.  Just like my dad, sometimes He’s followed right along behind you.  Watching you circle around and trying whisper in your ear to turn around.  And sometimes He knows that we’re stubborn people and lets us wander on our own.  And He’ll stop and wait for us…calls us back to the path if we’ll listen for His calling.  Like the parable of the shepherd, He leaves the 99 that are safe to go and get the one that has wandered away.  And the lost sheep recognizes the Master’s voice.  But if that lost sheep keeps trying to finding its own way out, it’s only keeps getting more and more lost.  So when you get THAT lost…just can NOT find your way back.  Just stop and cry for help.  Jesus will get you back on the path.  Take you by the hand and help you out of your struggles with sin.  But just as important as not trying to find your own solution is actually wanting to be found.  Don’t cry for help, then continue to struggle against Him when He takes your hand. 

Listen for the Whisper that leads you home when you’re lost.  But more than that think about how much easier it would have been better if we’d been following closely enough to not get lost in the first place.  The world is full of distractions, and (like Calvin at the zoo) if we only keep glancing at the One who leads us, we might get tricked into following the wrong shepherd.  When the devil tempted Jesus, he did it with Scripture.  2 Corinthians tells us that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  So how closely are we following?  Are we following just closely enough to hopefully kind of keep up, or are we holding onto Jesus’ hand everywhere we go?  Because from the knees down, Satan can try and look just like Him.  Don’t try to be like a kid at the store…close enough to see mom, but trying to stay far enough away to still find mischief and be out of swatting distance.  Walk hand-in-hand with Jesus…everywhere you go.  And like a cloud in the daytime and a pillar of fire at night, you’ll clearly see the path you’re walking together.  And you’ll never walk it alone.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Rainy Days and Mondays

Garfield, the comic strip cat has three basic recurring themes.  He loves lasagna.  He loves sleep.  And he hates Mondays.  Preach it, Brother Garfield!  Right?  I mean at the office, it’s a universal greeting, isn’t it?  At the coffee pot, in the halls, in the parking lot, with each person that comes to your desk…it’s always the same, right?  Not the lasagna part – but the Monday hating.  It’s always some grunt of greeting followed some expression of hatred of Mondays.  We reference how short the weekends are, and how we can’t believe it’s Monday again ALREADY!!  We hate Mondays.  We can’t wait to come up with new ways to gripe about Monday and the nasty, evil things it undoubtedly holds for us.

We have a weekend’s worth of emails to catch up on.  We have voicemails from someone about something you did Friday…and who can remember what they did on Friday 30 minutes before quitting time?!  I mean, c’mon!  I was barely paying attention to it then…much less able to remember it on Monday morning.  I mean, it’s Monday morning after all!!  And more than that…there’s a WHOLE week ahead of us!  Ugh!!  FIVE FULL WORK DAYS in our immediate future.  That’s another prime reason to loathe the beast that is “Monday morning” right there!  All week lies out there ahead of you.  Monday afternoon is even better than Monday morning simply because you have 4 hours under your belt, and quitting time Friday is that much closer.

You want more proof of the universal disdain for Mondays?  Look at the number of songs written about how bad Mondays are.  The Mamas and the Papas, The Carpenters, The Bangles (just to name the first three off the top of my head – although truthfully, that might be the whole list) all sing about how bad Monday is.  The only two people who seem to like Monday are the NFL for Monday Night Football and Jimmy Buffett – and apparently Jimmy just hates brown L.A. haze more than Mondays, because he thinks “come Monday, it’ll be alright”.  But for the rest of us, let’s face it…we walk into Monday morning like a dog being dragged into the vet’s office.  Every muscle clenched as tight as we can clench them, and digging our claws into the floor as far as we can dig them, and STILL we’re being dragged into Monday morning.  And honestly, we’d rather just take a beating with a stick than face a Monday morning.

But if there was ever a day of the week that we should come to work happy…and smiling…and dare I say whistling and dancing like a pack of fat, happy dwarves with corny names, it should be Monday mornings!!  We’ve just come off of a Sunday, after all!  We’ve shared some singing with fellow Christians.  We’ve heard an uplifting sermon reminding us of God’s love.  We’ve prayed in earnest for those we care about.  We’ve dreamed together of how it will be when we all get to Heaven, God’s Family (to borrow a line).  For me, I never feel more uplifted than Sunday after church.  I never feel more assured that everything will be ok than Sunday after church.  I never feel God’s presence with me more than I do Sunday after church.  I never feel more excited to be a Christian in the midst of God’s creation than I do Sunday after church.  I never feel more like screaming the Gospel from the mountain tops than I do Sunday after church.  And I’ll spend all day singing a particularly uplifting song that we sang that morning.  As a matter of fact, on this particular Monday morning as I’m writing this devotional, I spent all day yesterday singing “Beautiful Lamb”.  I love that song, and it sums up so much of what Christianity means to me.  But apparently it’s not joyful enough to keep me from plummeting from the Sunday morning mountaintops to the valleys of Monday mornings.

Listen for the Whisper that asks you if the turning of a clock from Sunday to Monday all it takes to rob us of our joy?  And then ask yourself why that is.  How deep-rooted is our joy in Christ if a simple little thing like a Monday morning is all that it takes to take that joy away from us?  Hallelujah Christ arose…except Monday mornings, when I’m more put out by an email than I am overjoyed about my salvation.  What’s wrong with that picture?  Absolutely everything…that’s what’s wrong with that picture.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Be Careful, Little Tongue, What You Say

Darth Vader said, “I am your Father!”

Ferris’ teacher (Ben Stein) said, “Bueller…Bueller…Bueller…”

Michael Corleone said, “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.”

Forrest Gump said, “Momma always said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates.’”

Rocky Balboa said, “Yo, Adrian…I did it!!”

Spiderman’s Uncle Ben said, “with great power comes great responsibility.”

Jedi Master Yoda said, “Do or do not!  There IS no ‘try’.” (yeah, I threw in 2 Star Wars lines)

Annnnd Rhett Butler said something close to “Frankly, my dear…I just don’t care a whole lot.”

Iconic movie lines.  The lines we remember.  Maybe not the last line of the movie, or even the only memorable line.  I mean, seriously, I included two Star Wars lines and neither was “May the Force be with you.”  (ahhh, there it is) And I imagine that most people reading this little devotional have either heard those lines themselves, or heard someone else quoting them.  People can carry on an entire three-hour conversation simply quoting lines from movies and television…or song lyrics. 

As an off-the-topic aside, they did similar things in biblical days.  They would ask each other questions in Scripture, then answer in Scripture.  AND they knew the Scriptural text so well, that the Scriptures they quoted weren’t always the verses they were actually asking about – but the one either before or after it.  The person being asked would KNOW the verse the first guy was REALLY meaning, and would give his answer…but not the verse he meant, but the verse either before or after it.  And back and forth they’d volley.  Dollar word of the day is “Remezes”, the Jewish art of questions and answers.  And when Jesus was 12 and lost and then found in the temple, what does Luke 2:46-47 say of those in the synagogue?  “Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.  And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.”  Interesting…Jesus was asking questions and giving answers.  Remezes.  J

Meanwhile…back at the devotional, Ben Cartwright was about to tell Hoss and Little Joe about a quote from Maya Angelou, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  And not that my piddling little devotionals puts me in a class with Maya Angelou, but if there’s one thing that I’VE learned, it’s that sometimes people will never…EVER…forget what you say.  James 3 says that the tongue is a burning fire.  We can burn huge forests to the ground with a single fire.  We see proof of that in California almost every year, it seems.  And we see it every day in our daily lives.  One person can say one thing, and we’ll remember it and hold onto it forever.  People remember the words we say.  Especially when they’re stinging, hateful words.  Now imagine that you’ve said something disgustingly hateful, and it’s the last thing you ever say to that person. 

Several years ago, Andrea and I went to a Razorbacks game with some friends…well, friend and an acquaintance.  The acquaintance was a friend of the friend, and was someone that I considered to be a huge annoyance.  (and yes, I get the irony…I don’t need to have it pointed out that I’m sitting here calling someone ELSE a huge annoyance, I got it thankya ver’ much).  But I’ll get to me and my issues here in short order.  But this guy was just obnoxious and crude, and I generally didn’t enjoy his company most of the time.  That is, until that weekend.  We all had a good time, and upon returning home and unloading the truck, I shook his hand and said, “Hey, man, I had a great time…you were almost human this weekend!”  Yup, that’s what I told him.  And I yucked it up like it was the funniest thing I’d ever said.  And it was the last time (that I can remember) that I ever talked to him.  Simply didn’t cross paths again.  Not because of what I said just happened to not cross again, but it’s something I’ve regretted saying.  But What If what I said was something even worse?  What if I threw out some expletive-filled insult and then promptly quit living?  Is that something that I’d want people to remember about me?

Our light shines even when we’re not actively shining it.  Adrian Rogers is still calling people to Christ.  Adrian Rogers is still having sermons played on the radio, still has books being sold, still sharing the gospel message of Jesus Christ, and has been dead as a hammer since 2005.  And just like his, your light will shine and your testimony will live on long after you’re gone.  People still go to Talladega and fly their Dale Earnhardt #3 flags.  And after you’re gone, people will carry on your legacy.  Friends will talk about you.  Family will talk about you.  And somebody that you said something hateful to will talk about you.  Matthew 12:36 & 37 speaks to that, too.  For those that think that only the red words are important…it only matters what Jesus himself said…well, here’s what Jesus said, “³⁶ But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. ³⁷ For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”  Did you catch that?  Every.  Careless. Word.  Gotta watch that tongue.  Want another one?  Take 1 Peter 4:11 out for a spin…If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.  I don’t need to elaborate on that one…pretty much speaks for itself.  But I ask myself, “did God ever tell someone they were almost human?”

It’s worse when we’re teenagers.  Most of the regrets of things said come from my high school years.  Like most of us, I said some things to people that still haunt me.  I’m like Kevin Bacon’s character in the movie Flatliners in that regard.  That’s the movie where several medical students take turns killing themselves and then bringing themselves back to life.  (nice plot, huh?)  Then each one, in turn, is haunted by ghosts of their past sins.  Kevin Bacon’s character is haunted by a girl he tormented as a kid.  He and several other children circled her while insulting every single thing about her…her clothes, her looks, you name it.  His haunt is that same little girl is continually haunting him by hurling the same sort of insults at him.  His solution is to look her up, drive to her house and apologize to her.  She tries to brush it off.  She says things like “oh, that’s just how kids are” and he tells her that under no circumstances was that ok, that it was wrong of them, and they shouldn’t have done it…ever.  She offers forgiveness, and he accepts it, and she thanks him for apologizing.  Ghost goes away.

Ever felt like doing that?  I have.  And in the days of social media, it’s easier than ever to do it.  Why haven’t I?  I don’t know.  Listen for the Whisper that says you can still make amends.  You can make amends before it’s too late to make them.  Maybe the last thing that someone remembers about you will be that you were a Christian that said, “I’m sorry.”  Maybe they’ll remember that…instead of remembering that you were someone that called themselves a Christian and then said, “hey, man, you were almost human this weekend”.  Or someone that said something even worse.  Contrary to what Maya Angelou says, sometimes people remember exactly what we say.  And not only do they remember exactly what we say, they remember that we said it forever.  So while we’re Listening for the Whisper that tells us that we can still apologize for something we’ve said, let’s listen for the one that tells us to not say it in the first place.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Otis' Epistle

There’s an episode of the Andy Griffith Show where The Women’s Historical Society has discovered the last living relative of some big war hero lives in Mayberry.  If you know the episode, you know it turns out to be none other than Otis Campbell, the town drunk.  That’s right.  Otis Campbell, the cow-riding, Barney-teasing, hitting-his-wife-with-a-leg-of-lamb drunkard turns out to be the one to be honored.  And as I watched that episode, my mind toward these devotionals.  And I was torn by which way to take it.  And I honestly couldn’t decide…so I decided to not decide.  Here’s all the ways I thought of taking that episode, in no particular order.

First, as it’s discovered that Otis is the one that’s the descendant of Nathan Tibbs, all the town leaders start worrying about what others will think of them…to the point of wanting Andy to get a substitute Otis.  Nobody had faith that Otis could show up sober and accept the plaque without embarrassing them all.  This is where Barney does his HILARIOUS “where’s my plaque? Gimme my plaque!” impression of “drunk Otis”.  In the end, Andy’s faith in his friend was justified when Otis shows up sober and groomed and ready to accept his plaque.  Listen to the Whisper that tells you that when people around you abandon you, remember that there’s always someone that will stand beside you.  Jesus will always be there for you.  Make Him proud and give Him reason to stand beside you again.

And going back to the town leaders, the whole reason that the “fat little mayor” and the councilmen were ready to lie about Otis being out of town or try to find a substitute is that they were worried about what others would think of them.  They were ready to betray the trust of someone they knew because of the opinion of others.  The reason, of course, is that they are more concerned about themselves than they are about anything else.  “What will others say?”  “What will everybody think?”  “They’ll all laugh at me!”  We’ve all been close to someone that’s said or done something insanely stupid.  If you’re a close friend of mine, then God bless you for standing by me!!  Because I say and do stupid things ALL THE TIME…and not ALL of it is intentional! J  Listen to the whisper that says don’t worry about what others think.  Do the right thing.  Stand up for your friends when they need to be stood up for.  And encourage them to do better when they need that nudge.  Nothing stopped those guys from going to Otis and saying, “alright, Otis, this is big, and we’re going to help you out today.”  But none of them did it.  Their first instinct was to distance themselves from him.  Don’t turn your back on your friends when they need you most.  Ever.

Next was when he actually received his plaque.  That segment could have been called the Roman Epistle of Otis!  The ladies from the Women’s History Society have handed a “shined and polished Otis” his plaque, and he tells them that he’d been thinking all day of what to say when accepting the plaque.  But then he says that he hadn’t done anything to deserve that plaque.  That being related to somebody famous didn’t mean he had done anything important.  “A guy can’t take credit just for being born.”  Which was exactly the stumbling block for the Jews.  They came to believe they were owed God’s Grace by being God’s chosen nation.  And for us as “Christians”, we stop doing what’s expected of us because we think that God’s Gift of Grace is something that’s owed to us.  “Hey, I’ve said the words ‘I believe in Jesus’ so I don’t have to do anything else…can go on acting like any other hethen I know, because I’ve said the abra-cadabra of Christianity!”  The devil believes that Jesus is the Son of God, too!  James 2:19 says that even demons believe that God is One, and tremble with fear!  Do you tremble with fear, or do you think that everything’s ok because your grandparents are really strong Christians and lived their faith and you “believe”?  You’ve seen A Charlie Brown Christmas, and think it’s cool when Linus says that’s little spill when he’s on the stage.  “Yeah, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God…really, Linus’ passage is from Luke?  Huh?  Who knew?”  So Listen to the whisper that tells you to not take your salvation for granted.  It isn’t owed to you for who you are or anything you’ve done any more than Otis deserved his plaque because Nathan Tibbs was a Revolutionary War hero.

And to get to the last point, we have to go back to the beginning.  Well, not the actual beginning with the whistling and fishing poles and Opie throwing a rock in the lake, but back to when it’s discovered that it’s Otis that is the last living relative of Nathan Tibbs.  When the ladies come in and tell Andy and Barney that the descendant is….”Otis Campbell”, Otis is in the jail cell passed out.  At the first mention of his name, he roused just a bit, but then passed back out.  After that, they say his name several times, but he’s passed out and has no idea they’re talking about him.  And to that end, never get so caught up in your own self…whether that’s wrapped up in your own worries, or caught up in your own pride, or like Otis you’re just so blind drunk on alcohol OR yourself…but don’t get so caught up in your own self that you can’t hear the whisper.  Sometimes you’re name will be called…over and over and over.  Dwayne, c’mon stop that sinning.  Dwayne, I saw how you treated that lady.  Dwayne, I heard what you thought when you saw that guy.  That’s not loving your neighbor, Dwayne…that’s thinking judgmental thoughts about your neighbor – whether you actually say them or not, it’s just as wrong.

God is constantly trying to shape us into the people we’re supposed to be.  It’s called sanctification.  And sometimes we need to have more than one thing changed.  As much as we like the think that we’re perfect with the exception of one or two minor little things, we’re far from being Holy as we’re called to be.  Sometime when we take the time to Listen for the Whisper, we’ll be told several things at once.  Sometimes changing ourselves is like watching an episode of Andy Griffith and trying to find one lesson to learn.  Sometimes the Whisper tells us that we need to work on several aspects of our lives as we live our Christianity.  Instead of listening to what we think we need to hear, maybe we need to be open to looking at our incompleteness from every aspect.  We’re far from perfect, but God’s doing his best to get us there if we’ll just step out the way and let Him work.  Otis showed up gussied up and sober and made Andy proud.  And there’s no reason we can’t do the same for Jesus.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Avatar 3:16

If you’ve spent much time around me at all, you’ve heard me say that one of the best things about having a son is that I get to legitimize doing things like hanging out in the toy department.  If you’re my age and standing there alone looking at Star Wars toys, people look at you like you’re a weirdo.  But if you’re there with a 10-year-old, you’re a good dad!   But it also legitimizes watching HIS cartoons.  And let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to just watch cartoons all day again?  There’s one that was on Nickelodeon a few years ago called “Avatar: The Last Airbender”.  It has nothing to do with that 3D “Blue People” movie that James Cameron made a few years ago.  It’s just a fun little cartoon about people who can “Bend” elements.  Basically that means that they can manipulate the elements.  Firebenders manipulate fire.  Earthbenders control rocks.  And then there were air and water benders.  “The Avatar” was the only one on the planet who could bend all four. 

Let me see if I can quickly summarize the 3-year, 60-episode story arc.  There was a mean Prince (that had been banished by his even meaner dad) that was a firebender that chased the Avatar (the last airbender) for two and a half years, and in the end joins the Avatar to help defeat the Evil Firelord (the prince’s father).  OK, followed all that?  Well, while being banished, Prince Zuko (the banished prince) is accompanied by his Uncle Iroh.  During the first season, Iroh is pretty much comic relief being the silly, old uncle.  Starting in the second season, he begins to be the voice of reason (the whisper?).  He tries to help Zuko be his own person and do the right thing, not just what others expect him to do.  Iroh tried to teach Zuko to be the good person he should be…the person that Iroh knows is already inside Zuko.  Then Season 2 ended with a HUGE betrayal, and Zuko turned his back on his Uncle.  Iroh gets thrown in jail.  Zuko gets a hero’s welcome back home with this father the Firelord (who, by the way, is conquering the world and is voiced by Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill).

Skipping a LOT and jumping to the last episodes (and you’re thinking to yourself, THIS is skipping a lot?!), after half a season of trying to get (but not getting) advice from his Uncle in prison, Zuko has joined the Avatar.  Iroh (who only spoke a few words to Zuko while he was in prison) has busted out of jail and started his own group of good guys.  And THEN there’s a reunion.  Zuko enters the tent while Iroh is asleep, and waits all night for him to wake up.  When Iroh awakes, his back is to Zuko, and Prince Zuko pours out his heart to him.  “I’m so sorry, Uncle. What I did was awful, and what I wanted isn’t what I thought I wanted…” and Uncle Iroh grabs him unexpectedly in a huge, loving hug.  Zuko is taken aback and says, “Uncle?  I thought you’d be furious at me.”

And Iroh said, “I was never angry with you.  I was only sad because you’d lost your way.”

I know that’s not a parable…but boy, it COULD be!!  And those who have actually seen the show, know the emotion that Uncle Iroh has in his voice.  And I know we hear about the wrath of God and sometimes we think that God’s up there just marking off the days until Jesus comes back to judge the Earth.  “You just wait until Jesus comes back! THEN they’ll get theirs!”  But like Iroh, God doesn’t get angry when we lose our way.  The story of the prodigal son illustrates that He’s ready to run to us with open arms after we’ve lost our way.  Will there be punishment for those that refuse the Gospel of Jesus?  Absolutely.  Did Jesus say, “If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments” to those of us who call ourselves Christians?  Sure did.  Did Jesus himself while walking on this very Earth say in Matthew 10:4 that each of us will have to give an account for every careless word we’ve spoken?  No, not in Matthew 10:4, good buddy.  He actually said that in Matthew 12:36.  Bonus points and your devotionals next week are free if you caught that one. J  But Jesus DID say that very thing.

So as I sit here today and type this devotional, do I have some ‘splainin’ to do (as Ricky Ricardo said) about the way I talk and act sometimes?  Yeah.  Do I have some forgiveness to ask for because I say I’ve accepted the gift Jesus had to offer.  The one He offered by DYING for me…while I act like I’ve never heard his name at times.  “Jesus who?  Yeah, they mention him at church sometimes, but we have a ‘Jesus check’ right next to the coat check at the office, so it’s ok.”  Really?  NO, not really!  He’s at the office with you, too.

But with repentance comes forgiveness.  And no, God’s not sitting up there in Heaven with an abacus with my name on it, and every time I lose my temper, he slides a bead over.  Tick.  Oops, just said something in traffic, sliding another bead over.  Tick.  Ducked an opportunity to share the Gospel, let’s move another bead over.  Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

He’s not counting down the days until Judgment Day so he can get his revenge against you for acting like we do sometimes even after Jesus died for us.  No, He’s not angry with us…He’s sad because we’ve lost our way.  My man Peter…the one I can identify with most…said in 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  That’s not to say that there won’t be a day when his anger will be poured out on the world.  Scripture is clear that it will.  There will come a day that the unrepentant will pay the bill that’s due.  And many will say to him “Lord, Lord”.  But my point is that he’s NOT up there in Heaven wringing his hands together like a mad scientist waiting for the day that He gets to do it.

So the next time you’ve stumbled, again, on that same stumbling block.  When you’re struggling with your thorn the way Paul struggled with his.  When you’re sobbing at Jesus’ feet saying “I’m so sorry, Jesus. What I did was awful, and what I wanted isn’t what I thought I wanted…”  Listen for the whisper that tells you that God is not angry with you.  And feel the comfort God offers when He pulls you to Him unexpectedly in a great, loving hug and says, “I was never angry with you.  I was sad because you had lost your way.”

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

  

THE CANADIANS ARE COMING!

THE CANADIANS ARE COMING! THE CANADIANS ARE COMING!!  Ok, as a warning cry, that one comes off pretty weak, but bear with me.  I know Paul Revere’s midnight horseback warning cry carried more weight as the British ships were bearing down on the colonies, but you already know how that story ended, and I needed something that was different.  Now, where was I?  Oh, yes!  The Canadians are invading!  And we have the world’s greatest military ready to defend our country.  And the northern border states have well-equipped militias trained to defend their states.  And the Canadians have Dudley Do-Right on his uniformed white horse (named simply “Horse”, by the way) invading the United States.  And Dudley’s charging into Minnesota on horseback yelling in a Canadian accent, “I’m ‘aboot’ to attack you guys! Surrender, eh?”  And I’m here writing an email yelling, “the Canadians are coming!”

And here we sit with our planes and our missiles and our snipers and our troops and our tanks.  And we just let him invade.  And Dudley takes over “Minne-sohh-ta”, eh!  Then he turns east and takes over Wisconsin.  Then he jumps in a boat like George Washington crossing the Delaware and crosses Lake Michigan and conquers Michigan with no opposition!  Then he turns South, and begins a one-man (and his horse) reenactment of Sherman’s march to the sea.  And he’s conquering Illinois, and Missouri, and Arkansas and state-by-state this Canadian Mounty is sacking our country.

And at this point you’re thinking, “yeah, like one Arkansas redneck with a good deer rifle couldn’t put a stop to him AND his goofy horse!”  You’re right…they COULD.  But in my story, not one of them did!  They just sat back and let it happen.  They never asked for help.  They never got their guns.  They just sat back and let Dudley take them over and set up a new set of rules for their lives.  And by now you’re thinking, “this is just stupid…why would somebody let Dudley Do-Right, of all people, take over the country without lifting a finger?!”

And my answer to that is this:  The same reason we let the devil do it.  We see him coming.  We see the temptations.  He doesn’t even really have to hide it very well these days.  2 Corinthians 11:14 says he disguises himself as an angel of light…but these days there are times when he almost doesn’t have to disguise himself as anything.  Just walks right up to us, “hi there, it’s me…c’mon, let’s go sin!”  Sure, Devil, Let’s GO!!  And first he’s conquered your Wisconsin, then that spills over to your Michigan, then he crosses that Great Lake you swore he’d never get across…and he did.  And now he’s conquering more and more of your life.  And controlling more and more of your actions.  And we just laid down and let him do it.  Then it’s me sitting on my couch Sunday morning watching NFL pre-game shows instead of going to meet with my church family and giving my worship to God.  God?  God who?  Is he a back-up on the Vikings?  I think I might have him on my Fantasy Team…drafted him late in the draft just in case something happened and I needed a backup to fall back on.

Not so funny when it’s not Dudley Do-Right anymore, is it?  I look back at the person I used to be…the mouth I used to have…the things I used to say about people…the things that I actually said TO people.  And why?  Because I let the devil walk right in…”Here!  Have some anger, Dwayne.  It’s better than heroine!  The world still frowns on heroine…but if you’re funny when you get angry and insult people, then other people will LOVE you!!  You’ll be hilarious when you insult this guy, then that guy, then make fun of that professor.  OH!  OH!  And do funny voices and make fun of how they talk!!  People love it when you do funny voices when you mock someone!!”  And I said, “Yeah, I like doing voices.  I like when people think I’m funny!  AND I’m quick-witted!  I can insult people like nobody’s business!”

And he conquered my Michigan, then my Wisconsin…because I let him.  EVEN THOUGH I had someone even MORE powerful than the US Military taking on Dudley Do-Right on my side!  He was sitting there the whole time…watching…whispering to me “ask me for help…just ask me for help…I’ll be there…just ask…”  1 John 4:4 “the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world!”  He can win the fight for you.  Ephesians 6:12 says our struggle is not against flesh and blood.  And I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that when you’re fighting ghosts, you can’t win.  But seriously, you think you can beat the devil on your own?  Not a chance.  Call out for help!  If there were 6 big dudes pounding on your head in a parking lot…I’d bet you’d be yelling for help! 

One of the funniest things I remember from high school was a friend of mine getting beaten up by a guy twice his size.  (and you’re thinking, “THAT was funny?”)  It was sort of a sucker punch deal, but still.  Big dude walked up to us, and said, “maaaan” then POW!  He threw a punch right over Andrea’s head and socked him right in the face.  Then commenced to beating on his head while my friend ran to the high school office yelling for help!  Yelling for help, squawking like an injured chicken…something like that.  And yeah, that guy chased him right into the office while punching him in the head the whole way.  I was a good, loyal friend…I didn’t get involved at all…I went on to my class and heard all the other details later! HA!  But this illustration still works.  He was in a fight he had no chance to win.  The big guy was a guy we both knew, and we also knew that even together, that guy would have killed us both.  So what happened?  He RAN toward help!  He didn’t just cry out for help!  He cried out for help while running as fast as could TOWARD that help with his hands over his head while he was doing it.  Duck and cover…stop, drop and roll…he was trying it all.  (man, that story still makes me laugh as I remember that scene while I type it).

But we should be the same way.  Because the devil disguises himself sometimes, and it may be something that we’ve known for a long time and had no concern when you saw it coming.  THEN BAM!!  You’re punched in the face!  So do you stand there and let the devil beat you down?  No way!  You cry out to God for help!  And then you RUN to Him!  Jeremiah 16:19 “Lord, you give me strength and protect me.  You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble.“  Psalm 143:9 “Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord!  I run to you for protection.”  Psalm 27:5 “Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord!

I run to you for protection.”  Psalm 12:7 “You, O Lord, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever.”  Are you starting to get the picture?  Probably a picture you already knew, right?

So why don’t we?  Is it because we don’t have trust in God to help us?  Probably not the reason.  I think the more likely reason is that we place FAR too much trust in our own abilities.  And honestly, our own abilities could be enough…if we were wearing the full armor of God.  If we were to put on the Belt of Truth, and the Breastplate of Righteousness, and had our feet fitted with the peace that comes from the Gospel of Peace!  And we would stand a good chance if we also grabbed the Shield of Faith (with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one), and put on the helmet of salvation and stood ready to fight with the Sword of the Spirit – which is the Word of God.  That’s how Jesus fought the devil.  When tempted in the wilderness, the devil used scriptures to attack, and Jesus used his knowledge of the Word to recognize how it was being twisted, and fought back with his own scriptures.

But we don’t always wear the Armor of God.  We wear the armor of ME!!  And I grab my Belt of Half-Truths, and the Breastplate of Self-Righteousness, and my feet are fitted with the worries of this world because my worries outweigh His Peace.  And I stand behind a Shield of Weak Faith (that sometimes falters when it’s tested), and I don’t need a Helmet of Salvation because My Big Dumb Hard Head is helmet enough for me!  And lastly I use a dull, rusty sword.  And my sword is rusty and dull because I never sharpen it.  My sword (which is the Word of God) lays in my back seat all week long until I get it out to carry it in on Sunday morning.  Then I carry it back out (having never opened it) when church is over, and when I finally need my Sword of the Spirit, it’s mostly useless to me…because I don’t know how to use it, because I never have.

Like the Boy Scouts, we need to be prepared.  Like the United States military, we need to constantly train so that when evil strikes, we’re ready.  Like firefighters with their gear ready to go, we need to have our Armor regularly maintained, so that it’s flawless and perfect.  Our swords need to be sharpened, and we need to be training with our weapon daily.  Wear your armor like a football player practicing in full pads, so that when you need it, you’re comfortable in it.  Not trying to fight the devil in unfamiliar armor with a sword we don’t know how to use. 

When you get a minute at work, don’t immediately whip out your phone for Angry Birds or Facebook updates about how bored you are at work.  Pull up a Bible App, or jump online for a quick online devotional.  Andrea got me one that I keep in my desk drawer.  It’s a daily Razorback devotional.  It tells an interesting little Razorback story from back when, then uses that story as an anecdote to illustrate a biblical concept.  That sounds familiar.  Listen for the Whisper that tells you that you can’t do it alone.  Stand ready to defend yourselves against the devil and his army, and don’t be too proud to call out for help.  If we wouldn’t try to fight 6 guys in a parking lot – or one guy in a high school hallway – alone, why would we try and fight the devil alone?  Maybe we need to take off  our “My Big Dumb Hard Head” helmet…and let God help us fight.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Roadmap

 In March, we plan to take a spring break trip to Mount Airy, NC.  The Any Griffith Show fans among you will recognize that name as the basis for the fictional town of Mayberry. There’s not really a Mayberry, but just over from Mount Airy there really is a Mount Pilot…go figure.  When asked to point out Mount Airy on a map, I could point you to North Carolina, but past that I couldn’t even really point you to the correct corner of the state.  Given the “Mount” in the name, I can probably safely assume it’s not near the coast, but that leaves quite a bit of state left over to try and find this “Podunk” of a town.  And what makes it worse than finding a needle in a haystack is because it doesn’t cost me nearly $4 a gallon to search blindly through a haystack.

So as we made plans to go on our trip, I pulled up Google Maps and punched in West Memphis, AR to Mount Airy, NC.  It told me how far it is from here to there and showed me a line that stretched the

E-N-T-I-R-E length of Tennessee.  (Ugh!)  But I zoomed in really close and looked to see where we crossed from Tennessee into North Carolina, which highways we took, and where each exit was.  I studied that map as closely as I could to figure out where this Mount Airy place was and how exactly I was going to get there.  Oh sure, my little Escape has a GPS built right in the dash.  And I can punch in an address, and it will kind of give me a decent idea of how to get there. So long as I don’t mind a lot of wasted time taking extra turns or new roads that haven’t been updated and being constantly told to “make a legal u-turn” (which I do mind being constantly told, thank you..I mind that A LOT, GPS lady!).  It can point me generally in the right way, and tell me when I’ve gone wrong, but to know with certainty that I can leave my house and get to where I’m going, I’m going to study my map.  I’m going to study it before we go, and will most likely print it off and take it with me just in case.  And as I approach every turn (which thanks to the very cool Roadview on Google maps, I’ll recognize those when I see them), I’ll check my map to make sure that I’m going the right way.

All of this preparation just to get to some hicktown (pardon the pun). So why don’t I put this much preparation as I get ready to go to Heaven?  I mean, I can generally tell you where Heaven is in terms of “it’s where Jesus went” and offer some descriptions we’re given in Revelation.  I might even pull an NFL post-touchdown gesture a point to the sky and tell you “it’s up there.”  But left to my own devices, I have no better chance of getting to Heaven on my own, than I do of getting to Mount Airy, North Carolina.

But I have a map!  We call it the Bible.  It will tell me which path to take every step of the way. Sure, I have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and like my GPS it can tell me I’m about to take a wrong turn, and can convict me and tell me to make a legal u-turn to get back on the straight and narrow path. And without the Holy Spirit, make no mistake, it would be impossible to understand the map at all. But regardless of the huge stretches I’m making to compare the Holy Spirit to a GPS, the best way to make sure I get to Heaven is to really get in and study my map. It tells me where I came from. It tells me where I’m headed. It will show me that there will be twists and turns, and mountains and valleys in my path and the best way to get around through each them…and like the roadview, will help me to recognize the temptation fork in the road. Do I take the Temptation Trail or stay on the Heavenly Highway? My map will show me what these intersections look like before I’ve ever gotten to them. That way when I reach those crossroads, I can immediately recognize it for what it is and know how to stay on the road to Heaven.  Like Joseph running from Potiphar’s house as he was being trapped by Potiphar’s wife!  “I gotta get outta here, and I gotta get out RIGHT NOW!!”

We’ve all been chosen by God to receive His gifts of mercy and grace. John 3:16 is simple – for God so love the WORLD that He gave His only Son.  He wants us to get to Heaven with Him.  The whole point of the Law was to show us how we CAN’T do it that on our own.  So He’s given us the map to get us there. The map is the Bible. It’s the word of God that tells how to get from where we were to where we’re going.  Every single day we need to be getting out that map.  Zooming in closer and closer, and studying it more today than we did yesterday. Too often, we’re content knowing that we can see the purple route marked on the computer screen. “I was over here in sin. But now I’ve been saved and my destination is this little dot over here marked Heaven.” And zoomed that far out, we miss the twists and turns, and it’s easy to get off course.  Sometimes without our map, we can get so far off course, that we don’t think we’ll ever be found again.  Hopelessly lost like a hiker in the Montana mountains…when you thought you were in Georgia.  Yeah, sometimes we’re THAT lost.  Listen for the whisper that tells you that you need to study your Bible.  You need to study your map if you don’t want to get lost.  Only then can you find your way back to the main road and stay on the course that leads to the Father’s house.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

More Than Words

OK, I’ll admit on the front end (right here in the first sentence, even) that quite a few readers won’t know the band “Extreme” or the song “More Than Words”.  So I’ll provide some back story for those that don’t.  Those that do, please hold *click* 

Extreme is a mediocre hair band from the late 80s.  One of their most popular songs – if not their most popular song – was a song without most of the band even playing in it (which should give some clue about the quality of the band, right).  The singer (Gary Charone, who was later in Van Halen for about 27 minutes) and the guitar player simply sang and played a song all about the girl he loved.  And if he took away the words “I love you” how would she show him that she loved him.  He sings about how easy it would be, by doing simple little things, to show him that she loved him without ever having to say the words.  How would she make it right, if she’d broken his heart and had to do something other than saying “I love you” to try and fix it?  And if she’d been living it all along, then she wouldn’t need those words anyway.  That’s all he wants her to do, not repeat some simple over-used phrase (more on that in another email), but just reach out and hold him close and never let him go.  And then she’d never have to say “I love you”, because he’d already know.  OK, now fess up.  How of you that know that song and were reading this part anyway sang that last line in your head when you read it?  It is, however, a pretty song, and if you’ve never heard it, you could do worse than to look it up on youtube, or the video/song hosting site of your choice, and give it a listen.

*click* Those that already knew all of that, thank you for holding…we appreciate your patience.

But what if, instead of some mediocre, marginally-successful hair band ballad, we were talking about Christianity.  How often do we say with our mouths that we believe in Jesus, but then yell at the guy in front of us on the interstate for going 15 miles per hour slower than the limit?  You want some self-reflection?  Try getting on someone’s bumper – you know, that someone that’s driving 20 in a 45 – and saying in a deep, overly dramatic voice, “WHY are you going so SLOOOOW?” and you hear that voice from the back seat say, “Because he’s an idiot?”  And right after you hear your 10-year-old finish your rhetorical question with your normal I’ll-answer-for-them answer, you hear James 3:8-10:

⁸ but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.
And you realize, that if a 10-year-old kid notices that my habit is to insult people I don’t even know, then surely God notices.  And in John 14:15 when Jesus says, “if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments”, I don’t remember finding “in all matters, insult people you don’t know” in the list as being one of them.  (Or insulting those you DO know, either, for that matter).
Either way, simply saying “I believe in Jesus” over and over and over isn’t enough.  You have to live your life like Christ wants you to.  Read James 2 if you want it said better than I ever could.  But if we truly loved Jesus, then it would be obvious to everyone around us.  We wouldn’t have to answer the question “do you believe in Jesus” because it wouldn’t need to be asked.  And by saying it over and over and over, who are we really trying to convince, God or ourselves?
I mentioned James 2, and that’s the passage that talks about “faith without works is dead”, and that’s often debated about what all that means.  It’s not about earning salvation – it’s about John 14:15.  And John 14:15 is about me showing Jesus how much I love Him by not acting like the jerk that insults slow drivers in front of me…or the jerk that takes walked-away-from baskets in Walmart and moves them two aisles over because you left it in my way to go get your hot dogs 3 aisles away (and yeah, I’ve really done that in my past – more than once, actually)…or the guy that tries to justify the reasons he DIDN’T share the gospel of Jesus all those times he had the chance…or the guy that never talks to God or studies his Bible or visits the sick or helps his neighbors or smiles and says a kind word to an elderly person on the bench at Walmart or…should I go on?  John 14:15 is about being the Good Samaritan.  John 14:15 is about Jesus already knowing how much you love Him based on how you act.  “Whatever you’ve done for the least of these, you’ve done for me”  Wait, ummmm…Hey, Jesus, does that mean that I actually called you an idiot for driving too slowly in front of me?  Yes, yes it does.
This wasn’t an easy devotional for me to write.  Because anyone who knows me, knows that I have a VERY sarcastic side to me.  A sarcasm that I’ve tried very hard to tame.  And the story about Cameron saying “because he’s an idiot” actually happened.  In fact, it happened less than a week prior to my writing this.  And that’s a hard thing to hear.  Your own insults coming from your son.  Way to go, dad!  Way to raise him up right!

We’ve all heard the verses about “when did we see you hungry…”, “even the wicked love those that love them…” but I heard John MacArthur make a point one time.  He asked “does ‘love those that persecute you and pray for your enemies’ mean that I only love Jesus as much as I love the person I hate the most?”  That’s one of those twisty sentences, so I’ll repeat it:  Do I only love Jesus as much as I love the person I hate the most?  Wow.  That’s a meditation thought right there.

It’s not about who can put others down the quickest or be the meanest when someone’s done something to us or who can come up with the best insults.  It’s about love.  God is love – 1 John 4:8.  And we’re supposed to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength – Mark 12:30 (Jesus quoting Deuteronomy 6,).  And love our neighbors as ourselves – Mark 12:31 (Jesus quoting Leviticus 19 – he quotes the Old Testament a lot, but that’s another show).  It’s about 1 John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.  It’s about listening for the whisper.  And sometimes the whisper that God uses to convict us comes from the back seat from our own children.

Loving Jesus is more than words.  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence.  1 John 3:18,19.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com