Beans

This came across my path this week:

Get a bag of red beans and a bag of white beans. Pinto and lima work great. Split them up between you and someone who you are trying to love better (husband and wives, brothers and sisters, friends, coworkers). Each of you will get a pile of red and white beans.

Every time you say something encouraging, complimentary, and positive to the other person they get to give you a white bean. Every time you criticize, speak negatively, or utter any discouraging word then you get a red bean. You could even do this with another couple and make a competition out of it! You will be training yourself to be "nice"...and you might learn something about yourself. "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." (Luke 6:45)

Jesus set the example in this matter. He never spoke anything that could be examined in the light and found to be worthy of a red bean. "But they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at His answer and kept silent." (Luke 20:26)

The game is afoot!

Salvation

Ephesians 2:8-10 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; [it is] the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

There is a pretty simple theology of salvation in this verse that was made stunningly clear to me this week. I have always felt overburdened by the enormity of "salvation". A friend of mine who went to Bible college spent a whole semester and read numerous dissertations concerning this core aspect of Christianity. And you would think that all professing Christians would be united in their understanding of God's salvation. But I digress...back to my moment of clarity this past week.

The above verse seems to define salvation as a 3-part process: "...by grace...through faith...unto good works..." It occurred to me that Christians adhere to one part, or a combination of parts, or place emphasis on one part over another.

Salvation starts with grace. We don't deserve it; we in fact deserve quite the opposite. This show of love from our God must remain at the forefront of our thoughts. We have to believe it. Guilt, rationality, logic, and culture will rail against our faith in God's grace. The end result of our faith in His love is a life lived doing His will. This is expressed through the good works we are so blessed to have the opportunity to do.

We don't start with works and try to earn our way to God. We don't carry on with faith devoid of action. We don't ever forget God's grace.

"...by grace...through faith...unto good works..."

Judges 18

Such a sad, sad story. The tribe of Dan is about to inherit their portion of the land given them by God. Like a child on his birthday, they are about to open God's special present to them. But from the very first they go astray; and never return to the Lord. They remain steeped in their sin until the Captivity!! They take the present from God, slap Him in the face, turn their backs on Him, and then go and adopt their own idea of God.

I, like King David in Psalm 69:18, cry out to the Lord: "Draw near to my soul, redeem it; Deliver me because of my enemies." I sure don't want to be like Dan! Yet it is amazing how easy I can.

Revelation 7 includes a specific listing of how the special 144,000 will be divided up amongst the tribes of Israel. Two tribes are omitted from this list; Dan is one (Ephraim the other). I wonder if their longstanding rebellion against God is the cause for this omission...hmmm.

Yard-works

Why do we do what we do?
I dug a hole for my new lemon tree yesterday. Fought through the thick layer of crabgrass and eventually found some moist dark soil that gave up its form quite readily. But then a snag; a rusted length of rebar was layed out across my pretty hole about a foot down. Once I wrestled it loose, a smattering of broken bottles and ceramic dishes barred my way. Eventually they too were cleared away and I was able to admire my hole; twice as wide and deep as the rootball. The tree was planted, the soil was packed and watered, and my mess cleaned up.

The motives of my heart are littered with undesirables. Most times I can rationalize or ignore them whilst pretending to have pure and noble intentions. And eventually the deeds are done and I move onto other tasks. But...will I ever dig a clean hole?

Greener Grass

There is much relief to be found in the Lord.
If I were in charge of my life I would make a lot of changes...a lot. But I am not in charge. I don't get to make the calls. I don't make the decisions. He does. And He doesn't make mistakes.
Anxiousness, worry, pain, discomfort...these conspire against me. They get my attention and plot against me. They try to get me to change course.
But God has me exactly where He wants me. What better place could I find?