That Smell

This Monday Loralie called me about mid morning. She said that our dog had cornered a skunk under the back deck. The dog got out but not before the skunk sprayed a bit. Missed the dog. Hit the deck. Hit the foundation of the house.

So began a process of pulling up decks boards and putting a light under the deck for 24 hours a day. I did see the beady little eyes reflecting back at me once but there has been no sign of it now for several days. So time to button everything back up and get things back to normal.

As is normal in situations like this the skunk came at a bad time. It was an hour before Loralie was having people over for the day. She ran out for more candles and air freshener. And it was the start of my busiest and roughest week of the year (week before school starts). But her friends were good about it and I managed to survive the week(barely).

I did learn from one of the guys who works for me that a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda mixed with a little liquid soap cuts the skunk smell when his dog gets sprayed. And his dog gets sprayed all the time (I think I would get a new, smarter dog). Anyway, I tried spraying that (minus the liquid soap) under the deck. And it really cut the smell. Details of the specific solution for those interested can be found on the Internet.

But every once in a while I will still get a whiff of that distinctive odor. And I have been struck by how much that is like life.

You see I have these faults and issues. And I am sure that you have your own set so don't get too smug on me now. But as I work to clean up those faults and issues sometimes I am just covering up the smell with candles and air spray. And the odor keeps coming back.

But if I work to the root of the problem (which is almost always me) and with outside help, those issues and faults can be washed away. Sometimes that faint whiff comes back to remind me of where I have been and where I don't want to go again.

And sometimes I just flat fall down in the stink and have to get cleaned up all over again...

Two Churches

We went to church on Saturday night. We had never been to this church before. It was the stereotypical Missouri synod Lutheran church service. Lots of people sitting in back. We sat toward the front.

Sang every verse of every hymn. Except for the last one since we were over time and then it was just the first and last verses so that we could get out of there. The sermon was OK. But we left with the feeling of being "unfilled".

Sunday morning I got up early and went for a run. 'Twas hot and humid. As I ran I prayed. I knew that I should go to church on Sunday so I decided to go to the nearby nondenominational church that we have visited several times. I showered and cleaned up ate breakfast and headed off to the early service.

Got there just in time for the praise band. And they played a couple of old standby hymns. The violin was a nice accompaniment. Lots of joy. And a great sermon on temptation that compared the lives of Joseph (Old Testament one) with the life of Jesus. Compared the temptation that Joseph faced from Potiphar's wife with the temptation Jesus faced from satan after 40 days inthe wilderness. Practical application points at the end. Followed by communion.

God worked me over. Lot's of prayer.

Right at the end of the service I had the distinct impression of: "It is well with my soul."

Quite the difference from the feeling of the night before. And a great Father's Day present.

I have to be careful though. Feelings can deceive. I need to listen to the voice of God speaking through His Holy Spirit and follow the direction that I can discern. And thats not what I want to discern, its what I can discern.

For the road is narrow...

Tightly Wound

So yesterday I was reading my Bible and praying and the words: "tightly wound" kept coming to mind. Over and over.

I came to the conclusion that I was wound so tightly about myself that I wasn't hearing God. I was letting the stress get to me. Not enough sleep. Weight creeping up. No motivation to do anything. Work pressures. Family visits. Trying to be (get) in shape. Trying to please men. Worrying about things that I can't even remotely control.

So I have started to unwind. Took a nap at 5PM and went to bed at 930.
Still got up at 405 this morning and off to work at 440. Still went to Bible Study ( took my Dad). Still had a ton of e-mails and phone calls to deal with. Turned it all over to God because I can't possibly deal with it all myself.

You see, I have to be a God pleaser and not a man pleaser. Don't get me wrong, I can not deliberately set out to offend men, for this displeases God. But I must always attempt to please God first and foremost and seek his will for me and my life.

If I worry first about pleasing God the rest will fall into place.

Oh, I was tired tonight. I still went for a run to break the carbon loose.
But I don't have to go into work quite so early tomorrow.

Might just get the dog out for a walk before the sun comes up.

That would be a good unwinding...

Living Water: True Freedom

Chapter Eight of Brother Yun's book Living Water: Powerful Teachings from the International Bestselling Author of The Heavenly Man. The chapter is titled: True Freedom.

In this chapter, Brother Yun recounts how it took prison for him to realize the freedom that he had in Christ and that "prison is mainly a state of mind rather than a physical place." He realized that by praising God in all things and for all things he could still be a witness for Christ in the midst of filth squalor and violence.

But even more powerful was how he talked about people in the "free" world who are tightly bound. People's hearts are "tightly chained with sin and addiction" and even though they look normal "they are prisoners within." Furthermore he states that this is the condition of many who attend church and: "They need the truth of Jesus to set them free!"

How true! We walk around with our smiling faces and we pretend that every thing is OK when we desperately need to get well. The problem is that our addictions, bitterness, sin, unforgiveness, lusts, greed, hate, etc, etc are comfortable to us. Christ is asking us if we want to get well and we are going: "Uh, let me think about that for a while. I am not sure that I want to give this up right now."

Once we let Christ heal us he can use us to reach others who are bound to the same sort of sin that we have been freed from. This process may be instantaneous or it may be gradual but the healing will take place.

And true freedom is ours for the asking.

We just have to ask Christ to set us free.

And He will.

Water Bottle

On Tuesday, the Print Shop had an open house to show off a bunch of new equipment and processes. I send pallets and pallets of paper there every month.

I went over to see a couple of paper vendors that I do a lot of business with and I picked up some samples of various products that they sell.

The next day my guys went over to do the morning pick up and delivery and the Print Shop people gave them some stuff the vendors had left for our department. I got a nice notebook.

Later that day one of my guys was showing me all the other stuff he had got. There was a really dumb paper car (dust collector) that made noise and a really cool stainless steel water bottle.

I instantly thought "Where is mine?" although I didn't say anything. Other thoughts ran through my mind like: " I do a ton of business with those guys, why didn't I get a water bottle too?" and "What if one of the guys swiped mine?"

I was kind of steamed for a bit.

Until I realized something: ITS ONLY A STUPID WATER BOTTLE!

And it was not a big deal. I can go buy one if I need one. And I don't need one.

I was not slighted in this and if I was so what?

See, all too often we covet junk just for junk's sake. I am just as guilty (if not more so) as everyone else. But I need to learn to be content with everything. And I need to rejoice with my guys that they got a nice gift.

So I repented of my greed in this matter and I hope that I learned my lesson (probably not though, I seem to be a pretty slow learner in some things.

And Father's day is in June so I can add a stainless steel water bottle to my wish list.

And I'll be happy with just a card.

Tired

I am tired. I am tired of turning on ESPN and hearing about Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) and his steroid test.

A couple of thoughts: The tests were supposed to be anonymous and the results never revealed. Then the Federal Government subpoenas the two lists and work out who tested positive.

So the first lesson learned is don't trust the government. As a Christian, I am supposed to submit to the authorities. Don't see anything about trusting them.

I do not think that whoever revealed the test results is on any higher moral ground than A-Rod. I think that individual (or individuals) have serious integrity issues.

The second thing that struck me is that A-Rod had been lying about his usage for six years. he even lied on national TV. Then this whole matter became public.

During his coming clean session with Peter Gammons, he said that he felt like a load had been lifted from his shoulders now that this lesson is public.

What a lesson! If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. God forgives us and takes that burden from us.

We are also told that all things will be revealed. Nothing can be hid from God. Nothing we have ever done has been hid from God. A-Rod has had one of his mistakes revealed for the world to see and is suffering the humiliation of being found out.

But someday we will all face God and answer for our sins. Forgiveness releases us from the burden of carrying our sins around. Confession is good for the soul.

Excuses

Excuses are like belly buttons, everybody has one.

But now I am seeing an epidemic of excuses.

We seem to grab at whatever we can to excuse our behavior.

Churches use the economy to excuse down giving and not face the reality of spiritual bankruptcy.

Business use the bad economy to excuse poor results and not face the reality of bad decisions and mismanagement.

Husbands use not having their needs taken care of as an excuse to leave their families and don't face the reality that they are selfish.

Politicians use I forgot to excuse not paying taxes and don't face the fact that they should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us as custodians of the public trust.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It is time that we face up to that and admit that we are less than perfect. The sooner we do that the sooner we will quit making excuses.

If we admit that we screwed up and are ready to take the consequences for our actions, it takes the wind out of those who accuse us.

Living Water: Repentence 2

First time today on the book Living Water by Brother Yun.

It was interesting to see how different guys are impacted by different sections of the book.

I think it is the Holy Spirit at work.

Some thought it was interesting that a Lutheran missionary in China was so "hard core" in telling others to repent. Others were impacted by different sections of the chapter.

Others thought that grace is so preached much that we lose sight of actually working for the Lord. This really hit home. As a Lutheran, we are taught that we are saved by the blood of Christ and that He foreknew who was chosen before the world began. In effect: we have absolutely nothing to do with our salvation.

So that begs the question: Where does repentance come in to Lutheran theology? And I am not sure so sure that I can answer that. And to be honest, I am not sure that I really care that much. Because I am not concerned with Lutheran theology, I am concerned with theology. That means that I am more concerned with what the Bible says rather than what a denomination says.

You see there are all these rules and structures that are put in place to prop up and justify our form of worship and a lot of these tend to divide us into groups and separate us from other believers. Don't get me wrong though, I do not think that there is one religion that has a lock on salvation. Religion is the man made structure we put in place to worship.

It is the doing.

And Christ is about done.

No church can save me.

I do not have eternal life through a church I have it through Christ's death on the cross.

And it is not enough to believe (after all even the demons believe), I have to turn from my sins and repent.

And this is an action that I have to take.

Living Water: Repentance

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we start looking at Living Water by Brother Yun during our Tuesday morning Bible Study.

Brother Yun is a Chinese Christian evangelist who has had both persecution and miracles in his life. This is a call to radical faith.

This is a very interesting book. During the study we are going through it roughly a chapter each week. The first Chapter is titled: Repentance.

As I read through the chapter I was struck by several things that I have been feeling for sometime. The first is summed up in this quote:
"thousands of sermons are preached every Sunday in which Jesus is presented as Savior only, but not as Lord and Master. People are told "Jesus will help you, bless you, forgive you and empower you." But very little is said about repentance, humility and sacrifice."

This really hits home. Sermons are taught where we here the salvation message but not how to live as Christians. Or we are told to continue in the way we currently live just relabel ourselves from nonbeliever to Christian.

As the Brother Yun points out: "The result of the false gospel so prevalent today can be seen in churches full of half hearted Christians whose lives are still centered on selfishness and the principles of the world."

I remember attending a new members class a few years ago and as the leader went around the room asking why each couple was there, most of the people responded that "it was time for the kids to have some training in the church." And that is why so many people are in church: my father made me go so I am going to make the kids go. There is no change of heart.

Brother Yun's central thesis here is that repentance is the first step in maturing as a believer. consequently we end up with churches (and pulpits) filled with immature Christians who are unsure of what it means to be a Christian and who are not growing in their faith. Don't get me wrong, many of these people are good people who do good things (from time to time) but they are not living their Christian walk to the fullest.
As I heard it put one time: their faith is a mile wide and an inch deep.

The roots are what make our faith stand against the storms that will come if we are truly following Christ. The roots have to be more than an inch deep to stand against anything other than a light breeze.

I found myself convicted on reading through this chapter. I tend to do the normal thing of trying to fool myself that things are alright with me and God and not truly repenting of my sins. Especially those sins that I kind of like so I don't want to let God deal with them. Or the sins that I don't want God to deal with because I think that they will be painful for me to confront.

But if I am going to live the life that God wants me to live to the fullest I must:
"Ask the Holy Spirit to take full control of my life and to help me daily walk in humility and dependence on Him."