The photo of the day today comes from about 50 feet away from where I type this blog post. You can’t really tell from the shot but these little guys are about the size of my thumb, and while we don’t have a huge supply of Daffodils at our place we have a bunch of little Jonquils. Normally I wouldn’t take shots of flowers blooming in direct sunlight but it made for some great bokeh in the background.
It’s just the very beginning of Spring here in Auburn (we have had March snowstorms before, see Rare March Snowstorm in Auburn 2009 and also Samford Hall and Auburn University in the Snow), one of the most beautiful times of the year. Every year I look forward to these little guys coming up in the garden because no matter what cold temps are currently outside I know warmer weather is coming.
I know sometimes in this part of the country we look over the landscape, see nothing but green Pine trees that grow like weeds and think there are no other colors to be seen besides brown and green. To me, seeing other colors is often a time issue. Taking time to slow down enough to see the nuances that occur all around us. It’s easy to see in the heart of Springtime, but even winter has some color around here.
Coming up next will be the beautiful purples of Wisteria and the Dogwood Trees.
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Once again I am a little behind the current book release scene in reading Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson but I did finally get around to reading this book last week. After a quick tally for 2009 I discovered that this was around book number twenty-five for me this year and out of all the popular (none scholarly) books I have read so far, Wild Goose Chase had to be one of the best.
Reading Blue Like Jazz and Wild Goose Chase back to back was very interesting and they complimented each other very well, even though they were very different books.
Batterson walks through, in very practical ways, how we go about chasing after the Holy Spirit (as Celtic Christians called Him, An Geadh-Glas, or the Wild Goose), or our lack there-of. Often we go through life from one routine to the next and our spiritual life becomes, to us, boring. As Batterson explains, God never meant the Christian life to be mundane and boring. It is dangerous, bold, exciting, and adventurous… when we learn to depend on Him and follow the Holy Spirit instead of our own selfish ambitions.
As I have mentioned in my blog many times in the past, I have never thought God intended our life to be the pursuit of a good 9-5 job, a nice house with a two-car garage (and two cars to go in the driveway because we can’t get them in the garage), a 401k, and early retirement so we can play golf until we are called home to heaven. An over exaggeration perhaps, that might be “the American dream”, but I don’t think it is God’s dream for us (or at least not for me). Batterson brings this home and sums it up like this:
- Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death
- Set God-Sized Goals
- Pursue God-ordained passions
- Don’t let fear dictate your decisions
- Don’t take the easy way out
As I read through each chapter it became aware to me that Batterson has been following me around without me knowing it, and I appreciate him writing a book just for me. What a great reminder it was to read about living boldly for Christ and not getting stuck into a routine of ineffectiveness.
The book was a quick read, easy to understand, and applies to a great many Believers in the U.S. today. It was probably written more for the layman or pastor but anyone interested in following the Holy Spirit, wherever it leads, can’t go wrong with Wild Goose Chase.
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Change is coming, all we have to do is look up and observe. You may be asking yourself what does Andrew Jackson, the Blue Angels, and Altocumulus Clouds have in common. Not much, but today, call it an observation. Today being President’s Day, we are observing a day to celebrate the office of U.S. President if not the actual presidential person. Since President’s day has been on the marketing horizon for a week or so the stations like National Geographic Channel and others have been doing biographies of each president.
I was only able to watch two, Lincoln and Jackson, but I still learned a bit from each and haven’t really had time to discern the historical quality of each show, but they were both informational non-the-less.
Andrew Jackson had a pretty incredible stay as President. Outside of the Native Indians Trail of Tears when they were forcibly removed from the eastern part of the United States, he tried to do some great things as President, bold ideas that never took hold, but gave us a gimps of who he was and how he thought. Jackson was the only President to ever pay off the national debt. This should be a shock to us today when there is little hope of ever paying off the national debt when we move to pass an almost $900 billion spending stimulus package, but he was the only President to do so, ever.
What I liked about the story of Andrew Jackson was how the narration ended. He spent a good part of his life in politics out of love for this country, but also for people’s freedom to be able to vote and live in a free country, and that the government should be run by it’s people. It stated that Jackson would be dumbfounded and appalled that less than 50% of people vote today, and most are not even interesting in the politics of today.
An amazing statement since government control of it’s people has been passed down through history from the beginning of time. We don’t all have to be political junkies, but everything the government does today has an effect on how we live our lives today. We fought the British over a 4% tax on its people and today we don’t even notice when our taxes are raised by that small an amount. Observation.
The Blue Angels comes from a message given by Rusty yesterday about a man who came to know his Savior and later found himself face to face with the beauty of his Creator through the cockpit of a fighter jet. After weeks of coming to a Bible study with his wife, the words of John chapter 3 in the story of Nicodemus came to life and he became a new creation.
He tells a story of this Marine fighter pilot who sees the sun rise from his cockpit and cried after recognizing that he now knows who created the sun itself. It made me think about how many days we see the sun come up and don’t think twice about its beauty and how much more beautiful is our creator. This pilot must have seen the sun rise from a cockpit of a plane 1,000 times before this, but this day it was different. Observation.
Altocumulus Clouds are these clouds that roll in like waves or ripples in the sky, Alto (middle) Cumulus (heap or pile), and can be seen in advance of a storm system (like the one that is supposed to be here on Wednesday). For those who don’t know, I am a little bit of a weather buff and have always liked to observe the weather that goes on around us every day. Today a large band of Altocumulus clouds rolled in about 8am and were quickly starting to dissipate when I went out and took this shot.
How many times have you looked up at the clouds and recognized a specific type of clouds like we had here in Auburn this morning? Are we all to busy to do that any more? I have to admit, I recognized the system but for the life of me could not remember the name of the clouds, so a special thanks goes out to James Spann (Meteorologist for ABC 33/40 in Birmingham) for the quick answer to my question.
Altocumulus clouds signify change is coming. All we have to do is look up and oberve.
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This is my installment for the Blogger Small Group post (on chapter 4) and there is still time for anyone to join in if they like (see Blogger Small Group Rules/Guidlelines). Right now we are four weeks into a study on James, not need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.
You really have to love how James just cuts right to it and is so direct. I think this is somewhat lost in our world today. If we are direct, we usually end up offending someone or worse. But, this week, we read James, Chapter 4, and he was direct.
From the Book of James, Chapter 4
James gets right to it with this chapter, so I will dive right in. This chapter can be broken up into three pieces, (1) Changing Conflict into Humility (4:1-6), (2) Changing Judgment From Us to God (4:7-12), and (3) Changing Boasting into Believing (4:13-17). I will take these three sections and discuss each below.
Changing Conflict into Humility (4:1-6)
James can be so practical, he gives us a cause of conflict (v.1-2), a consequence of conflict (v.3-4), and then a cure for conflict (v.5-6). James seems to cringe at the very nature of conflict between Believers here, and it is something we can all learn from, and remember.
The verse that really stands out to me, is verse 3. I am not a big fan of drive-by, rub the lucky penny of prayer and you will get it kind of thing. Here, James tells us why, when we do ask, we do not receive. It is all in our motives. God knows when our motives are pure and when they are self serving.
3You ask and (D)do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
At the end of this section, James gives us no doubt about the truth at all: GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. Even the writers and editors of the early scripture understood the importance and use of CAPS, amazing.
5Or do you think that the Scripture (I)speaks to no purpose: “[a]He jealously desires (J)the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?
6But (K)He gives a greater grace Therefore it says, “(L)GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”
I love the fact that our God is a jealous God. He wants our attention, because He wants what’s best for us.
Changing Judgment From Us to God (4:7-12)
Judgment is something that talks to all of us I think. How many ways do we have to judge others. Countless ways. He has red hair, a tattoo, she has piercings, he cusses, she drinks, the list is endless. One thing that God requires is justice, not judgment. Judgment is supposed to be left up to Him, not me.
In this first part of this section, James gives us advice on how to handle judgment of others. Some key words that pop out to me are flee, draw near, purify, and many others, but we are to resist the temptation and try to bring ourselves nearer to God.
11(U)Do not speak against one another, (V)brethren He who speaks against a brother or (W)judges his brother, speaks against (X)the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not (Y)a doer of the law but a judge of it.
What is really amazing is how well scripture falls into place with our current lives. The verse above is what we have been studying as a church, and its importance is clear to those of us who tried to use wise words yesterday, but are still trying. Here it shows up again, speak kindly to each other.
Change Boasting to Believing (4:13-17)
James was speaking to Believers when we was talking about boasting. How much of pumping ourselves up is involved with our daily walk? James gives us a great solution to our boasting, change it into belief.
15Instead, you ought to say, “(AF)If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; (AG)all such boasting is evil.
But it is the last part of this section that really hits home. I think many times as Believers we try to discover what is sin. What is the definition of is, is (without trying to be to political). I think we tend to try to figure out what is and isn’t sin, and try to ride the line right down the middle. Get as close to it (sin) as we can without going over. This isn’t the intention, I don’t think, but perhaps we all do this to some extent.
Here James tells us. Anything we know to be the right thing to do and we don’t do it. That is pretty convicting to me. Just because we know what is right to do doesn’t mean we always follow through, but now, James tells us, to us, this is sin.
17Therefore, (AH)to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
I can give a real example of what I think he is saying here. Take fasting. Are we commanded to fast. No. But if through our daily walk, we discover that the Lord has put it on our heart to fast, and we don’t, we are living in sin at that time.
This means we have to listen. We may not want to, and at times I know I don’t ask, because I don’t want to know the answer. James here tells us to be careful doing this. Great stuff.
Some Other Posts From the Group
You can always go to the main group page at the top and see all the posts. As of this writing, here are a few that have already posted, be sure to visit their site and comment as well.
- Pondering James 4….. (Got Root)
- James 4 (Just Another Minute)
- Blogger Small Group (MandyCon)
- Blogger Small Group (Vagabondrunn)
- James 4 (Worship Journey)
There is still room for more and time to jump in at any point.
Update:
I was trying to keep it as short as I could (and you see how long it is), so I didn’t really get to my point very well on going from boasting to belief, thanks for giving me a chance to clarify.
In the last half of the chapter, James is speaking about being boastful. He gives us a statement on boasting (v.13), then tells us how it effects us (v.14), that is “time is not our own, it is God’s”, we need a Godly perspective, no an earthly one (if that makes sense).
Then, James gives us a solution to boasting (v.15-17). We can avoid boastful attitudes by maintaining a Godly perspective (v.14). James to “boast and brag… is evil”, so self-centered bragging (being boastful) needs to be replaced by… belief.
So, the cure for being boastful is belief (or being God centered).
I did a little to much studying on this chapter, probably should have gone a little more with my heart, didn’t mean to confuse.
