The Blank revisited

Often our internal conversation is an effort to make sense of our lives. Or maybe I should say mine is. Something inside says that your life really matters, or at least ought to. There should be justice, and truth, and (oh please) mercy. Mostly we search for meaning not by writing it all down, but by talking to ourselves internally. I wake up this morning & sit here with a cup of coffee and a blank page before me.

A true picture of the day. My day is blank before me, waiting to be created. There are some things about the day that are not so much totally blank as waiting to be filled in. But the truth is that God has given us the power of choice in our lives and we decide how to fill in the blanks. My job, my home, my spouse, my church, the city I live in, the clothes in the closet, much of my life is the result of choices I have made. Choices I make today powerfully influence the range of choices I will have available to me tomorrow.

Choose well, my friends. And to myself, I say, Choose well!

The day is just beginning.

The Blank

NOTE: This was written a couple of months ago, I didn't publish it at the time but I just read it again this morning & decided maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought it was.

One thing about writing is that you start with a blank page. There are all kinds of thoughts about writer's block, getting started, how to turn a thought or idea into a written work, etc. When I started this blog it was just a way to process some of the thoughts & emotions I had. Then a friend, then another, mentioned that they had read it, and somehow that changed something for me. It was like I wanted to say something of value to whoever happened upon this blog, and a new dynamic was introduced. Gradually it seemed as if the blank page was waiting to receive words of wisdom, or insight, or whatever could be of benefit. Then it became something to do, which wasn't quite as fun as it had been to write it. So I suspect it would not be as fun to read. Not that I really expect the early morning musings of someone who's daytime identity is a CPA to be really fun anyway.



So I'm going back to the blank page. Just me and the morning. Cup o' Joe, laptop, and a few quite moments before the kids wake up & the race begins. It's quiet now. I can hear my wife upstairs, moving around quietly so as not to wake Jack. Once he's up the house is a different place. My next door neighbor is a single man, his house is no bigger than mine but I imagine it is roomy for him. With 3 active kids I am sometimes wishing for more square footage. But there are some real advantages- you do spend more time together, in part because you are physically closer together. And my kids don't seem to mind, not in the least. When Jack gets up, he climbs out of his bed & heads to the hallway. I keep his bedroom door closed for his own safety - he can open it but at least the sound wakes me up so he's not wandering around the house all by himself. He will stand at the top of the stairs with his wonderful 2 year old smile and announce: "Jack's awake!" Let the games begin. Can I make a confession? He usually watches Curious George on PBS in the mornings. It is one of the few reasons on earth he will sit still for 25 consecutive minutes. He is very curious himself and it can be disconcerting to step out of the shower to find his sister's pet frogs in the sink instead of their aquarium or to find all the silverware on the kitchen floor. Many times I've heard people talk about what a negative thing the tv is, or how horrible it is to use it to "baby sit" your kids. But I think the truth is in the middle- this is a powerful medium for good or bad. Alan Ladd would put it like this, "A tv is a tool, Marion. It's no better and no worse than the man that uses it." (A quote from the western "Shane"). If Jesus chose to physically be on the earth today, he would be on tv. Maybe he would purchase airtime to get his message out, maybe not. But he caused enough of a stir that there would be no way for Him not to be on tv.



Well, I have really enjoyed this little chat. Not sure if there is anything of value here, to tell the truth. Just some early morning ramblings of some guy waking up and considering his life. The wisest man who ever lived did that a lot, of course his writings about it are of value. So if you're looking for something of value, I would recommend the Bible. If you're just curious, thanks for taking a minute to let me ramble. And to you I say, Ramble on. Keep considering your life until it makes some sense. My page is no longer blank, and my little Jack is awake.

Not a harvest grain lost

You will hear them preaching it on tv, but you heard it here first. You will see it happen in God's people, but you'll see it here first.

How do I know? Because I see it in the Word and I believe it in my heart and I confess it with my mouth and that is the pattern God set for how things work. That is how He operates and He is teaching His people to operate like Him.

2 Kings 8 tells the story of a woman going home. She lived amoung the Philistines for 7 years because of a famine in the land of Israel. She didn't run away, she left at the word of the Lord to her. When she came home she went to see the king about getting back what was hers.

The Lord prepared the way for this woman. As she walked into the king's presence, they were talking about her! The king was speaking with Elisha's servant about the time Elisha raised her son to life. She was going to see the king, and at that moment the king was thinking about her and talking about her. Mere coincidence? Don't think so.

God prepared the way for her request to be answered, and then some. She wanted to get back her house and land. Because the Lord prepared the way for her, the king immediately answered yes to her request. He commanded that everything that belonged to her was returned. Done.

But listen to this - here is the part that flashed out at me: In addition to her house and land, the king commanded that she be given the value of any crops that had been harvested during her absence! God cares about your harvest. The Lord has not forgotten about the seed sown, and he watches over it. He wants you to have the harvest. God is a restorer of lost harvests. He is a King who knows the value of the harvest. He is the Lord of the Harvest.

In this instance, the woman's harvest was a literal, physical harvest of crops. There was no way to give her the physical harvest. What was restored to her was money, income, the equal value of her lost harvest. One reason God uses money so much is that we can understand it. God cares about our physical harvest and wants us to understand how things work. The harvest Jesus spoke to His disciples about was of people.

We are entering a season of harvest. I am prepared to receive the restoration of my lost harvest, the value of what God gave me that I was not able to receive and enjoy. What appeared to be lost or stolen is now restored! In one day, the Shunammite woman went from homeless to owning a house and lands with seven years worth of income in the bank. Our God is a God of restoration, and He is Lord of the Harvest. He wants to restore the harvests that have been lost. If you look at the king's command, not one day's worth of harvest was lost- "from the day she left until now." I am receiving the value of my harvest, because the King has declared it so.

You've got to show it

This morning I'm out the door to have coffee with one of my very good friends. We try to get together one morning a week. Doesn't always work because of our schedules, and for a while there it seemed like we were both either out of town or on the go a lot. Recently we changed from Thursday to Wednesday, but this week it's Friday. Sometimes I buy the coffee, sometimes he buys, usually we just get our own.

I usually bring my Bible, and he mostly does too, but don't necessarily open them every time. At one point in my life it would have bothered me to say that, but now it does not. The things that we discuss are things that are important in our lives- our families, our church, our work. Sometimes we discuss things that are not important at all, like all the beautiful chrome on my Harley. Sometimes he will ask me what I've been reading, which I love to do but is kind of a luxury since my children are 13, 6, and 2 years old. He and his wife don't have kids so in some ways our lives are very different.

We share a lot in common, but the main thing is I trust him. I trust his heart and I trust his head. I value what he has to say, and I know he cares. We don't always have the same perspective on everything, which is good. We all need that. He's my friend. I am thankful to say that I have been blessed with some close and supportive relationships. Many of them have been formed at the Branch Family Church.

Proverbs says that if you want friends, you've got to show yourself friendly. A friend loves at all times. There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. A friend listens. A friend tells you the truth, when it feels good and when it doesn't. A friend watches your back and supports you when you're not there. If we want to have friends like that, we've got to be a friend like that. If you want a friend, you've got to love and you've got to show it.

The Keys and a blank check

Last night something powerful happened. More on that in a minute, but first let me lay some groundwork.

Jesus told his followers, "If you ask anything in my name, I will do it." When I was in Bible college I studied Greek. I am not a Greek scholar (as Dr. Bagwell would attest) but I learned how to use the reference materials and dig into the original language. For one of my assignments I chose this particular passage in John 14. I parsed the verbs, looked for nuances in word selection, reviewed the derivation of each word for further insight, considered the verse in the context of the overall passage, and whatever else budding Greek scholars are instructed to do.

After a couple of hours with all these books spread out around me, I came to the conclusion that what Jesus really said, what He truly meant, goes something more like this: " If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it." What was Jesus saying? It sounded like Greek to me. Then I realized, He was saying what He meant!

Suddenly this familiar verse took on a life of it's own. Could Jesus really have meant that? Imagine this- your boss calls you into his office. "You're doing a good job," she says. "You know me, and you know this company and where I want it to go. You start any project you want, and I'll back you up. Make any changes or improvements you think necessary. Enter into any contracts you want, hire new people, whatever you need to get the job done. You have worked for me for a while, and I know you well enough to expect you wouldn't do anything I would be uncomfortable with." Wow. The phone rings, "Mr. Henry. Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Her Royal Highness asked me to convey to you that she has seen that your way of life and the decisions you make are having a wonderful influence on the world around you. She would like to encourage you to carry on in greater fashion so she has created an account in your name at the Bank of England. You may withdraw funds as needed to carry on the work you are doing. My office will monitor the account and deposit additional funds as needed. The Queen simply requests that you continue in the same vein that you are presently on, albeit more forcefully and on larger scale. Have a nice day."

There in my dorm room, it seemed like Jesus was saying to his followers, "Here is the checkbook of Heaven. I have updated the signatory card, and your name is on it. Don't worry about a check bouncing, I'll cover any check you write. Just make sure that you spend it on the same things I would." That idea seemed crazy, nobody gives a bunch of signed, blank checks out.

But then in John 16 Jesus tells them the same thing again! "My Father will give you whatever you ask for in my Name." At another time, Jesus told them the same thing from a different angle, "I am giving you the keys to the Kingdom."

Last night something powerful happened. God's people from The Branch gathered together for corporate prayer. Could it be true that prayer changes things? That it changes me? If it is true, then watch out because we asked for the very presence and power of God to invade our lives and the city of Charlotte! Change is on the way!

Life under The Son

I started at a new workplace this week and so of course I've spent some time thinking about what the Word says about work. The Lord does not spend time (or maybe waste it) on those philosopical sort of questions that don't really have an answer. The Bible is a practical guide for life. It seems to me that all the oppositions people have with the Bible generally are an excuse to avoid responding to its truth.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon records the greatest wisdom of the human experience. One of the key phrases of the book is "under the sun." Solomon's conclusion for life under the sun is that it is all empty or meaningless. That is the only logical conclusion, looking at the facts from the perspective of a purely physical existence.

But the Holy Spirit graciously revealed more than that to Paul. Maybe it was when he visited heaven. Okay, I'm taking some liberties here. Paul never says he visited heaven, he simply says there was a man. My opinion is that the man was him, but I'll admit I was proven wrong on at least one occasion and rumored to be wrong on several others. Whenever it was, the Holy Spirit provided Paul with a glimpse of life beyond what Solomon observed, of life lived under The Son.

Solomon said, "Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all you have, for the days are coming when you will be dead and cannot enjoy work anymore." True, if this life is all there is. Paul said to the Colossians, "Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your heart, for you know that you will receive a reward from the Lord. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Later Paul said, "If our only hope is in this life we are of all men most miserable." He admitted the same conclusions Solomon had come to, up to a point. But Paul had seen something more. If' this life is all there is, if the only basis for judgement is "under the sun", then it is all meaningless and the joke's on us. Paul's concludes that there is more to this life than meets the eye. Further, he concludes that the unseen part, the part after "under the sun," is by far the most important.

So we take heart in difficulties, knowing that our present and light affliction is working for us a far exceeding weight of eternal glory. When the battle hits close to home, it's good to remind myself that I are already have the victory in Jesus! He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

follow me

Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose follows a group of young paratroopers from bootcamp into combat during WWII. Just after D-Day, Lt. Winters is tasked with attacking an enemy artillery position with a small group of men. In the HBO produced series based on the book, he issues instructions then makes sure everyone understands. Then Lt. Winters begins moving toward the guns, calling over his shoulder "Follow me!"

Leadership is not about telling others what to do. It's about doing. I'm not going to get into what leadership is and how to do it - if you want that you have a choice of 219,317 books on Amazon.com (as of about 5:30 this morning, there are probably more by now). There are also countless videos, classes, seminars. Let me tell you, you can even google "leadership pill" and get results! (Ok, it's another book.)

This morning I wrote a note to my pastor. I wanted to tell him how much I have appreciated working with him for the last year and a half. By his choices and conduct, he has qualified himself as a leader in the Body of Christ. None of us can choose our place in the Body of Christ, God Himself determines that. We can however conduct ourselves in such a way that we become all He wants us to be.

Paul said "Follow me as I follow Christ." There are a lot of ideas about leadership, but to me this sums it up pretty well. That is the kind of leader I am willing to follow. And that is the kind of leader I want to be.