The Double Image

If someone were to ask you how is your daily spiritual life, how would you respond? Can it be said that there are two "you's?" The everyday Christian and the more polished Sunday Christian is somewhat descriptive of many believer's lives. It is true that we cannot live a perfect life, but sometimes our lives part greatly from what they should be when we are not always around other believers. The photo above somewhat illustrates this point. If you have never seen such a picture, it is a 19th century stereo picture from the Life of Christ Series. The two photos are the same but one is slightly off center to make the stereo effect when viewed in the stereo viewer. When you look at the photos in a stereo viewer their is only one image. That is the way it should be when others see us in the workplace, the store, the park, or wherever you are. So why is this all so important?

Lets list briefly the dangers of a double image personally...

• Leads to inward turmoil that can result in emotional stress


• Leads to a general deteriorating desire for prayer and Bible study


• Leads to tensions in the Christian home which can cause marital issues


• Leads to a spiritual state of doubt and broken fellowship with God

Here are some potential dangers to the public...

• Outward show that has no foundation


• Persistent need to brag or be complacent


• Subjected to unfortunate gossip


• Deflect new believers away from the true paths of the believer


• No genuine heart to see matters through or to help others in need

That's a tough pill to swallow, but left unchecked it can lead to unwanted hypocrisy and a false image to non believers who see through it as well and decide against trusting in Christ. But you may say that since you are not perfect, doesn't that give me some room to be bright and shining on Sunday and then during the week, do things or say things that MAY lead others to stumble? The simple answer is NO. We can't serve two masters as Jesus said in Matthew 6:24. Though so many Christians try to live worldly Monday through Saturday and "clean up" on Sunday, it just does not work, not to them, not to others, not to God.

How do we end the pulling apart effects of the double image? Simply desire to be more like Christ than like the world, or anything of the world. You may call that a stock answer, and it is, but its also the only answer. There are only two natures in life, the nature of Christ, and the nature of self. One must win and one will win. Which shall it be for you? If you experience problems with this, lets pray about it now.

Heavenly Father, thank you for redeeming my life and setting me apart from the world. I know I have erred and am projecting a double standard for all to see. Please forgive me for not representing you as I should and help me dear Father to desire to live as you would have me live so that you may be glorified and that others may see You in me. Thank you for your great love always willing to restore, may I show your love towards my family, my co-workers, my church, and all that I am involved with. In your name, Amen.

If this post has been a blessing to you please let me know by posting your comments or by emailing. Tell a friend about what you have read, email them the article by clicking the icon below. May God bring peace and blessings to you this week. Note: Images used on this site are used only for this non-profit blog. Credit is given to the creator of the image and a link back when available. We try not to knowingly violate any copyrights.
Photo courtesy of Ingersoll Stereo Views

The Effects of TIME, part 2

Last time we were reading together I used an illustration of an old photograph and some other things to illustrate that the passage of time in this world will result in crippling effects, but we are to take hope in Christ and the fact that He doesn't change and neither should our desire to serve Him. This time to illustrate the same concept in the title, I want to use a flower, particularly a Gladiola. A few years ago, at a bargain sale, I bought a bag of Gladiola flower bulbs. I am drawn to flower bulbs because they come back generally with no need to replant every year. I am also amazed as I watch the growing process. This growing process is another example of the effects of time.

The believer's life is a growing process. The effects of time is evident here. It cannot be done overnight. It will not be done perfectly every day. It will not be done if proper nourishment is not present to sustain it. A Gladiola, as mentioned, starts as a bulb. The bulb will not grow if any of four elements are not present. They are: 5-6 inches of good nitrated soil, ample water base and moisture, plenty of constant sunlight (the more direct the better) and time (usually 4-6 weeks to germination). Once that bulb is planted into the ground and the dirt is filled in and the first watering over, there is always the wonder in the mind of a first time "gardener" if this thing is really going to take off and sprout. You wait and wait and wait.....keep waiting and then a small finger point breaks the ground. From there, with proper nourishment the plant steadily grows to 5 feet. Sometimes it takes a while for a Christian to "break the soil" and really begin to show growth. At the inception of the new birth, there are a host of Satan's devices plotted against the new believer. Weeds and underground matters of growth can serve to stifle the new plant. Satan uses discouragement and confusion with sometimes religious tones to retard the new believer's growth. Satan knows how vital the new believer will be and that he or she is most vulnerable when they are this weak. However, it is during this time that good formative instruction and foundation in God also is formed. In the early years of a new believer, no matter the physical age, the right truths taught the right way will have maximum impact on the amount of his or her endurance and faith will be later in life. Time will be the classroom of this growth.

The effects of time in the believer's life will seen in the fruit he or she bears. Now of course the Gladiola bears no edible fruit like a peach tree or so forth, but the flower blossom is its fruit. The whole intention of the flowering plant is to present its blossoms. But before it can do so the stem has to reach a certain height. As the height of the stem grows you will notice the bulge inside one of its normally paper thin branches. At the right time, the plant opens up and the beauty of its inward treasure spring forth. Here is where we depart somewhat in our comparison for it is true that it takes time to bear fruit, but in the believer's life we can bear fruit in just a few short hours of being saved. The main point is that there is fruit to bear. Jesus said in Matthew 7:16 that disciples are known to be such by the evidence of the works (fruit) they do for the Lord. This fruit is not the reason of salvation but is the proof of salvation. A plant grows not because of its flowers but for its flowers. We serve Jesus Christ in order to produce good works that is evidence of Him inside each of us.

One last effect of time is that sometimes a Gladiola stalk can grow so tall it becomes top heavy and in need of support. In the believer's life we can grow so tall for so long we can get a bit overconfident. We have read the Scriptures for years, we have taught many classes, we have served in many ways and that can sometimes tend to make us overconfident and full of pride. When that happens we fall over to the ground. We are not cut off but sorely bent over. When this happens to a Gladiola stalk we can take a stick or a dowel and fasten the weak stalk to it to help hold it up. Sometimes its not time that has caused us to fall over but rain. Rain can beat down such a tender plant and a storm in life can serve to beat us down in despair. Storms can come in various forms, but most often they come in Satanic attacks or attacks we have brought on ourselves by our making.. Of course the only strong support we have is God's Word, but we as brothers and sisters in Christ can be the lashings that hold on or reach out to help secure one who is failing. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 6:1, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted."

How is time effecting you? Are you growing as a believer? Are you desiring and or producing fruit? Just like growing a Gladiola, we hope that what we put in the ground will become a tall plant with lots of blossoms. Christ desires exactly that in each of us. He desires that the longer you serve Him the more fruitful you will be. Time well spent in His Word and in His Work can produce a bountiful harvest.

f this post has been a blessing to you please let me know by posting your comments or by emailing. Tell a friend about what you have read, email them the article by clicking the icon below. May God bring peace and blessings to you this week.  Note: Images used on this site are used only for this non-profit blog. Credit is given to the creator of the image and a link back when available. We try not to knowingly violate any copyrights.

Photo courtesy of Jon Browning

The Effects Of TIME, part 1

It happens to everyone at some point, or in many points of life. We revisit an old home where we used to live many years ago. We hear an old song that reminds us of some fond memory. We find a fishing rod, a bowl, a ring or watch, perhaps a photograph rediscovered that brings a tear to the eye and perhaps a few moments of weeping.  When we dry our eyes and begin to fondly stare or hold that which reminds us of the past we see many things.  We remember how the old house used to look before the vines grew over it and the porch was caved in.  We can almost turn around and hear the voices of our friends long gone as we grasp what was once theirs.  We notice how the photo has faded and cracked and how surprised we were because we remember what it looked like crisp and new.  Perhaps you see yourself in the photo and how you looked 30-60 years ago.  All this brings back many emotions, but it also reminds us of one crucial truth.  Time is moving and so are we.  At this writing I am in my 30's and I can't number the times I wished I could step back in the photo or, walk downtown the way it was.  For most Americans born before the 1980s, our world was so much better than it is today.   Yet in all this whether we like it or not, we can no more bring back the past, raise the dead, or reinitialize history, we are all going forward.

What does this mean to the 21st century Christian?  

First, it should mean that we are still under the same commission we were back in the 1950's or from whenever you trusted Christ.  Though all the world has changed every moment since, HE has remained the SAME.  And in the same realization, men and women are still dying in their sins daily.  Our charge, our place, our responsibility is to win them if at all possible.  Not all of us are evangelists and preachers, and even if we are not all of us can be out preaching all the time. In fact today's society responds very little to preaching, they more respond to personal encouragement through a kind act or word.  Something they can see is different, for the good, in your life that is not in theirs.  We cannot go back or stammer at the way things were.  BUT we can build on them and see how God worked in the past and know that He still works the same way in the present.  He doesn't change.

The second meaning to the effects of time is that though we may be hindered, we are not mothballed.  When writing this I am thinking of the World War II battleship USS Missouri.  After its celebrated war career it was reactivated in the Gulf War years to serve again.  The ship was out of date yes, but her usefulness was not.  Refitted and Re-armed she served her country one more time.  You can be useful wherever you are or what age you are.  One phrase that has always stuck with me is "grow where your planted."  I don't care much for "ministers constantly on the move."  (Evangelists, relief workers, mobile ministries excluded) For some that is OK, but for me and most of us, God put us right where He did to serve right where we are.  Some folks like my Grandpa has had the physical strength to keep working hard till the day they meet the Lord, others do not.  That's OK.  God never measures our service by our strength to produce the product, but more so by the heart willing to produce the product.   He knows these bodies fail, He lived in one for 33 years. But He also knows that we, like the USS Missouri still have use left within us.  You may be "reduced" to making an encouraging telephone call or sending a spiritual note of encouragement, but I tell you that's NO reduction in God's eyes.   The older I get the more I realize the smaller the service, the lesser known the act, the more glory God can derive.  Its times people have nearly stepped into Eternity without Christ save that someone who, feels useless because of time and failing body, has called or visited and shared Christ one last time--that time has changed the other person's life forever.   

Time will take its toll on buildings, photographs, bodies, anything that exists in this world.  It is good to look back, but its better to look forward.  Its not easy, I am not saying it is, but its necessary.  One day, time will be no more, its effects will be gone.  The question is, how will the EFFECT of your Time be on others?

If this post has been a blessing to you please let me know by posting your comments or by emailing. Tell a friend about what you have read, email them the article by clicking the icon below. May God bring peace and blessings to you this week.

Note: Images used on this site are used only for this non-profit blog. Credit is given to the creator of the image and a link back when available. We try not to knowingly violate any copyrights.

Photo courtesy of Christy Russell

The Ozymandias Syndrome

Required memorization in my 12th grade English class was "Ozymandias," a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It was I thought an odd poem at the time and has just recently reentered my thinking. The poem describes a traveller who recounts from his travels an impression of a broken statue, presumably in a desert region--possibly Egypt. Shelley describes this statue as quite large and at one time representing a quite powerful leader who thought himself immortal and his kingdom invincible. Of course, nothing is remembered of him and his statue lies in ruins after centuries of sand has etched his face and features. Nothing left but two stubs of stone legs remind the traveler of the mortality of human existence.

So what does that have to do with modern day folks? Two people groups, the Christian and the unbeliever are called into consideration. First, The Ozymandias syndrome or thinking is present in the unbeliever. Man in his unregenerate mind believes that he or she dominates the world in some way. A thought, an action, a kingdom, a way of life, something will be reticent of them that surely all men and women henceforth will remember. True we know of Julius Ceasar and Alexander's kingdoms--now gone for centuries. Adolf Hitler's thousand year Reich and the Arian race supremacy buried in the pages of History books that few desire to read. No mortal man or woman no matter how great they think they are will stand to last for any span of time that the sands of forgetfulness will not erase.

The Bible plainly tells us in Psalm 37:34-36,
Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

So many people think themselves to be so great in their own conceits and pride, yet they will not look to only One who is great and everlasting. Their doom is forever sealed unless they turn to the Lord.

Now to the Christian believer. May we note that the Christian, as defined by Holy Scripture is one who has surrendered his or her soul and life to Jesus Christ by placing their faith in Him as their only Lord and Saviour. However, in our lives we still deal with Ozymandias at times. We do err and stray for a short time from God. We experience a measure of success, a bit of fame, a smattering of fortune, or a enlightened moment of learning and we can easily think ourselves great, powerful, intelligent, wise, profound, lovely, and the adjectives name themselves automatically. But for the grace of God we would continue this way. But doesn't God want me to be great and mighty and all that? The answer is simply that He can and does make us so, but only to help advance His Kingdom. His chief desire for us on planet Earth is to make us more like His Son. If you do not see the literal value of that now, you will. Compare Jesus Christ to Ozymandias. Would you rather be a forgotten wreck of crumbling stone, or a immortal glorified being with a body that neither fades, sees corruption, or knows no ending? But we must submit ourselves to Him. But He is not like and earthly Ozymandias master who cripples His servants under His heavy hand. What would be the benefit? Jesus Christ separates Himself above all earthly rulers by saying, "You're my servants yes, but also my Friends." John 15:15

Do you have the Ozymandias syndrome? Does self rule dictate your destiny? Repent and ask Christ to forgive you. If you do not have Him in your heart, consider. To follow the God who is Creator and Master of this world, or two forgotten broken legs of stone.

If this post has been a blessing to you please let me know by posting your comments or by emailing. Tell a friend about what you have read, email them the article by clicking the icon below. May God bring peace and blessings to you this week.

Note: Images used on this site are used only for this non-profit blog. Credit is given to the creator of the image and a link back when available. We try not to knowingly violate any copyrights.

Image by © Eye Ubiquitous/CORBIS

courtesy of Alexandria Public Gallery

http://picasaweb.google.com/rehaneg/EGYPT/photo#5099322687287141442

When They Ring Those IRON Bells

The Internet being worldwide it is hard to make a relative illustration that fits all cultures. However one that comes very close is the object of a bell, in this case a church bell. Not too long ago I was preaching in an open air meeting in Ohio. The setting was very rural and before our service started, I heard something familiar in the distance--a church bell, its clapper was clanging for all the countryside to know, its the Lord's day, come to His house and worship Him. There are many churches throughout the USA and Europe and other parts of the world that still use the church bell as the call to worship. I have always wanted to be a bell ringer, but never have been in a church that had a steeple or bell tower to take part in that ministry. Yes it is a ministry and a profound if not overlooked one.

The first aspect that draws me to bell ringing is to see the witness in it. Most folks may think it as an antique oddity left over from a century ago and its more entertaining than practical. However, a good sounding bell has a great message behind it. The message is simply, "Jesus is alive, we are meeting to worship and celebrate that in our lives. We want you and all who hear it to come and do the same."

The next part of this message is that by ringing the bell, its echoes are sending a clear distinct call. for hope and deliverance. Many times a weary soul that has been downtrodden with life has been reported uplifted by hearing the clear distinct peals of a bell tower. Now the bell itself gives no hope. Whether they connect it or not however, it is the place of the bell and the One who is worshipped in that place that gives them hope. For example, courthouses and schools all have had bells, these places don't produce a shred of hope. Why? Its not because they aren't a good institution but they are a worldly one. And by that I mean that Jesus Christ is not represented there. They are an institution that has no different message than any other worldly secular influence.

The third aspect of bell ringing is that the message is Loud and Clear. So much of Christianity today has been watered down and compromised to make it more of an "attractive" message. But a bell makes one tone, its deafening for it cares not who complains of its volume. The bell is not muffled but amplified in itself by the shape of its housing. We as Christians are called to be Loud in the sense of being openly vocal with the Message of Christ we are entrusted with. That message must not only be vocalized, but clear. Clarity is the heart of any messages intent. If we do not tell the whole message of Christ, then we are not doing as He asked nor are we pleasing Him. The world deals in half truths. It is looking for the whole truth. We have privilege to tell the whole truth clearly.

If by chance you are in a place that you hear church bell(s) ringing, take note of them and remember to appreciate their tolling. May we also be instruments of God's message ringing loudly and clearly across the miles of our existence the ringing of Hope found only in Jesus Christ.

For a great bell ringing video click below

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FVBh54CLbGI&feature=related

Image on this blog compliments of photographer Ian Britton and http://www.freephoto.com/

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The Faces Of Freedom

America will turn 232 years this coming 4th of July.  We are still on the world map.  We are still free.  We still produce heroes who fight to maintain this freedom.  I am most proud to be an American.  I became even more proud when I recently learned that one of my ancestors was one of the "first" Americans, those who came to the shores of Massachusetts in 1620 on the Mayflower.  But I am most proud of the photo in today's entry.  The picture is of the deck crew and officers aboard the USS Feland, APA-11 in 1943 somewhere in the Pacific theatre of World War II.  The man kneeling at the far right is my grandfather, J. Ralph Pierson, who recently was ushered into Heaven last year.  This photo is probably like ones you have in your home that a relative brought back with them.  You may not know anyone else in the photo.  It is very likely that in a group, several of the men or women died in combat not long after the photo was taken.  

No matter what war or conflict, these are the faces of our American freedom.  Freedom which does not come easily or naturally unless someone pays the sacrifice of their safety and/or in many cases, their lives that you and I may sit in comfort and ease, writing blogs, mowing the lawn, enjoying a trip or vacation, and going to worship the Lord at your church.

The embodiment of Freedom however spans far beyond what we know of in America or in the world.  This world for you and me, no matter how free or how oppressed, still ends, and it ends in eternal punishment.  Do you ever wonder what happens to a person when they die?  No maybe not.  We don't care to think about it.  But we will not only think about it one day, but experience it. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 that all men will die and when they do, comes judgement.  This sort of judgement is living in a tormented awful place called Hell.  Living there forever, with no hope of leaving is far worse than living under a Hitler, Stalin, Hussein, or any worldly tyrant. The sadness of it is that no one chooses to live in a country where a dictator's rule is life itself, but ALL men and women CHOOSE where they go when they die. The Bible plainly tells us that we were born into sin (Psalm 51:5) and the penalty for sin is eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23).  BUT

Jesus Christ, the Liberator, has made it possible for you and I to have freedom from this penalty we have.  No one or no act can do what He can do.  We as Earth dwellers have no way to negotiate or rectify anything apart from this world.  Souls of men and women are apart from this world.  People in parts of the world can sometimes buy their freedom, but we cannot buy our souls freedom.  Simply put, we don't have the right kind of payment.  It takes the sinless blood of Christ, which we don't have in and of ourselves.  By simply asking Him to pay the penalty for your sins and asking Christ to come in your heart will liberate you from the condemnation that awaits every person when they die.  He will also change your life and you will have a desire to live as He did which is far better than the slop this world dictates.  

The phrase, "Freedom Isn't Free" is correct in this world and in Eternity.  Earthly freedom costs our brave Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Aviators and all service people their lives.  Eternal freedom cost Christ His life too.  He didn't have to come and liberate us, but He chose to.  The face of Freedom is the face of Jesus Christ.  Will you make this Independence Day your new day of Freedom from what awaits you?