Tag Archives: God

Dopplegangers and a turkish waiter really make life better.

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Did I mention that I went on a cruise in May? If you are sick of hearing about it then stop reading. I think this will be the last post I will make about it. Maybe…maybe not. We’ll see. =-)

So you have heard about the food. Swimming with sharks? Did that one. Just being on such a huge vessel with so many options. Wow! It really was one of the best vacations that I have ever taken.

There is one aspect that I have not shared much in-depth about from my experience. We set sail on Sunday. On Monday, we met another couple. This couple, Fred and Wilma*, turned out to be our best friends for the week. We spent almost all of our time on the ship with them! They even changed their dinner reservation so they could eat with us! And that brings me to another point. Our waiter, George*. You see, George was fantastic! I think the food tasted better because he served us. But let’s get back to Fred and Wilma.

doppleganger

Fred and Wilma were Doppelgängers for my wife and I. They have kids. Church is a huge part of their lives. We all enjoyed the shows. Fred and I were excited about the sports stuff. The wives kept finding things they had in common. We kept talking about our lives and sharing our experiences. There were so many connections! It was eerie at times. I would say that the cruise was twice as nice because we met this couple. Everything was so much more enjoyable because we got to share it with them.

And then there was George. He was from Turkey. From the first night at dinner, his smile drew us in. Of course he was knowledgeable and could answer all of our questions. Any server should be able to do so. But it was his demeanor and attitude. We were completely comfortable around him from the get go! By Friday, I didn’t even look at my menu. He ordered for me. And he hit a home run every time! One night, we (me, my wife, Fred, and Wilma) all laughed really hard. I asked about some berry, fruity dessert thing. George, with an expressionless face, said, “No.” He denied me of that dessert! It was awesome! There was no malice in his voice. It was as if he knew what I liked and also knew that the particular dessert I inquired about was not right for me. He just said no! That was a running joke for the rest of the trip.

waiter

Doppelgängers and a turkish waiter make life better. Life is all about relationship. Sure, my wife and I would have enjoyed the cruise even if we had not met these three wonderful people. But nearly as much. Everything was enhanced and improved because we had a relationship. Almost every problem or conflict in our life can be traced backed to a broken or injured relationship. But, when the relationship is good, life is so much better. Example, read this post again. =-)

 

Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

Jesus was speaking of relationship. The devil seeks to break relationship. God wants to mend it. See John 10 and 2 Corinthians 5.

My time is up so I leave you with this: Are you relationship with God? You can be today. Click Bad Words #2 for more information.

 

*Fred, Wilma, and George are fictitious names to protect their privacy. And that picture of a waiter is not George.

Are you living in a bubble?

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Bubbles! What a great summertime activity to do with the kids. Even adults can enjoy a good bubble-making session.

I think I mentioned in one of those previous posts that while I was on the boat, I didn’t have my cell phone turned on. It got shut off while in port at Galveston and was not turned on again until back in that same port a week later.

I felt liked I lived in a bubble for that week. And it was terrific!

bubble

Only when you can go on a cruise for yourself do you understand the culture that is created on the ship. There are so many things happening almost all the time.

  • Rock climbing…did that.
  • Pizza at midnight. Totally there.
  • Dodgeball happened twice.
  • Live shows…every night.
  • Three separate comedy acts.
  • An ice rink!?!? Yep.
  • And list goes on…

I was in a bubble for a week. That bubble was popped when, in Houston, our flight home got cancelled. Reality hit pretty hard at that moment. And then, finally, we arrived home, an entire day later. It took a week to get back into our “normal” lives and routines.

It has been great back at home but I still wouldn’t mind going back to “bubble life.”

As a followers of Christ, our lives are in God’s hands. His will and purpose is fleshed out in our daily walk with Him.

But we, as humans, can choose to not live out God’s will in our lives. We can choose to go another way. This is where the great Bubble-Maker comes on the scene.

Listen to some of these Bubble stories:

  • Go on, have one more drink. One more won’t kill you.
  • Have you heard what Sally said? Well, I shouldn’t say anything thing…
  • Pornography is okay because it is only a picture, not an affair.
  • Are you going to really believe what your Pastor just said? Seems pretty judgmental.
  • You have not read your Bible in a few days? No big deal, God will give you grace.

You can probably add your own Bubble story to this list.

The devil, since the dawn of creation, has been weaving Bubble stories to distract men and women from the truth. He gets us to start questioning our faith, the Bible, even God’s existence. When this happens, our lives become bubbles. In other words, we stop living in reality and start living in fantasy.

Satan is a liar. Today, as you are reading this, can you identify any lies he has been whispering to you? It does not take real long for me to see what lies he tells me. But these bubbles can easily be popped!

In Acts 17, Paul is in Athens. Verse 16 says, “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” The people were living in a Bubble. Their city was full of idols. They even had one named “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”. Bubbles everywhere!

Paul begins to explain the gospel. He starts teaching about Jesus. God’s truth is flowing out of Paul. There were bubbles popping in people’s’ minds. Verse 28 gives us a massive bubble popping truth, “For in him we live and move and have our being.”

Can I caution you today? STOP living in a bubble! Let God and His Word pop the bubbles in your life. It is in Christ that we have life. We are not living until we live in Christ. If you recognize a lie heading your way, pop that sucker! Pull out God’s word (which is likened to a sword) and start slashing through the bubbles that the enemy is blowing at you.

Jesus sums it up like this, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

Living in a bubble will cost you more than you want to spend, take you further than you want to go, and eventually will destroy you.

So let today be a bubble-popping day in Christ!

Play ball!

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I have played tee-ball, baseball, and softball for almost my entire life. I missed a couple of summers when I was in my twenties but I am still swinging the bat and running the bases on my church softball team. See a previous post:

Again…and again…yet again.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of performing a wedding ceremony on a baseball field. We were in left field and not on the actual dirt part though. This post was inspired by the sermon I gave at that wedding.

In baseball, you need a glove, a bat, and a ball to play the game. These are essential.

baseball-pic

These items represent different parts of the game.

The glove represents defense. The glove I use is over 20 years old. If it could speak, it might tell of the countless times that it saved me from certain disaster. =-)

The bat represents offense. Bats are as different and varied as the players who use them. The common denominator is that we all need a bat if we are going to hit the ball.

The ball represents the game. It is the game. Everything revolves around the ball. Without it, you cannot play baseball.

As a follower of Christ, the glove, bat, and ball can represent three aspects of following Jesus.

The glove represents defense. 2 Samuel 22 starts out with these verses, “David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior from violent people you save me.”

God is the ultimate defense when are faced with troubles and trials.

The bat represents offense. 2 Corinthians 10 explains the offense, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

God gives us what we need to be victorious as we follow Him.

And finally, the ball. The ball is everything. Nothing can or will happen without it. The ball represents Jesus.

Here is what Colossians 1 says, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Jesus is everything. No point in living unless life is lived in Jesus.

So whether you are watching some Major League Baseball, playing co-ed softball on a church team, following Christ or living for yourself, let me remind you of one thing:

Keep your eye on the ball!

Wind in your face?

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In the movie, What About Bob?, Bill Murray is hilarious! At one point, he is strapped to the mast of a sail boat.

what about bob

And here is what he is saying…

what about bob 2

Very funny!

Sailing. It is something that I have never tried. Someday perhaps.

But I do know something about sailing. Going from point A to point B is rarely, if ever, a straight line.

Even as I type these words, I recall all the twists and turns I have experienced. In the language of sailing, it is called tacking. Another picture to help with the idea.

tacking

There were many more photos from which you could choose to better understand tacking but this one worked for me.

Sailing a boat: There is a goal. There is a course that is plotted to get to the goal. But then the wind blows. Start tacking. Progress can be slowed but it is still progress.

Following Jesus: God plants goals, visions, passions, and dreams into our hearts. We set out to achieve all of these things for God. But then the wind blows. Start tacking. Our forward progress is slowed but we still move forward.

I am reminded of the words in James 4, “But he gives us more grace.”

Sure, I make mistakes. Life happens and I get wronged. Whether I did something or something was done to me, there is some readjusting to be done. Tacking.

So when rejection (this could mean your sin or someone else’s sin) occurs, will I regret or redirect?

We are all sailing through this life. And the wind is usually blowing.

Regret means to stop forward progress by not changing according to God’s standards.

Redirect means to move forward by adjusting to God’s will and changing directions.

One of my favorite bands is the Imperials. Here are some of the lyrics to one of their songs, “Sail On”:

“Cast up your sails
And let the wind blow
Jesus will never
Let your ship lose control
Just keep your compass set on the Son
And He’ll guide you safely
To His beautiful Home”

Faith…time to soar!

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Ever been in an airplane? I am sure that most of you have. I like to fly. It generally means I am going on vacation. But there was this one time. It was a single engine plane. There was the pilot and then me and my buddy. We were flying for about an hour when the storm hit. Wow! I was not excited on that particular flight! You feel the bumps and rolls so much more when you are in a little plane. We prayed that night. =-)

A pilot has to check so many dials, gauges, readouts, etc. when flying. Most of them I could not even name. But there is one that I do know. And frankly, it could be the most important one in the entire cockpit; the altimeter. In my simple way, it is the dial that tells you how far above the ground (which is altitude) your plane is flying. And when flying, being above the ground is essential!

altimeter

So the altimeter measures your altitude. Here is another definition:

Altitude – “the height of anything above a given planetary reference plane, especially above sea level on earth.”

The higher your altitude means you are higher up in the sky. Pretty simple. Now let us apply that to our faith. I John 5.

This is just the first verse of ch. 5. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.”

We can have faith in many things. I believe that we are all born with a measure of faith (more on that in another post). The neat part is that we get to apply that faith to anything that we would like. We can have faith in people, jobs, money, alcohol, our looks, pastors, pornography, intelligence, or so many other things.

But the highest idea/person/thing that we could possibly put our faith in is Jesus. Specifically that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah or anointed one. Our sins can be forgiven because of Him. Freedom comes from Him. Life is in Him!!! He is alive! With Easter just passed, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. He was more than a prophet or teacher. Sure, he was a good man but he was more. He is…how do I finish this sentence? He is life. He is everything. Everything consists because of Him.

But don’t take my word for it. Read the Word. Start in the book of John. Jesus actually makes some statements that describe himself.

 

As you go through your day, ponder your faith. Here is a question I would like to ask you,

What is the Altitude of your Faith?