Writing your classic

Writing your classic  

                   Guest author today - Sean A. Scott

West Palm Beach, FL - Proprietor, Habatat Coffee Company

  

We get lost in the moment often- good or bad. The season we're walking through can seem endless. We can't see beyond it. It suffocates some while invigorating others.

We get lost sometimes . . .

But each season is a chapter in the story, it's not the story in itself. The characters may change, maybe even the writing style or how much you enjoy "reading" it but will you give up on the book? Will you put it down because it's shifted from a romantic novel to a bleary character drama? I hope not. Why?

Because it's about the WHOLE story not just the pages or chapters you enjoy. 

I'm sure we've all read books that we've wanted to give up on halfway, but after pushing through, we realize how that would have been such a mistake because those chapters set up an unexpected ending. Or the character you despised but eventually come to love because of a few heroic choices he makes along the way.

You get what I'm saying?
Your life is a novel. You're a character, among many, but also the author.
How are you treating your own book?
Are you committed to it even when what's coming out on paper isn't exactly what you had hoped for?
KEEP WRITING! Don't give into the temptation to roll it into a ball and throw it in the recycle bin! You're in a special place- author and character.

If you've ever taken the time to do a retrospective on your life, I'm sure you see many bumps along your road but can also see that when you made it through,everything makes sense oddly. . . or maybe it doesn't! Maybe you see a lot of dead ends due to bad choices; you see re-starts and scars, not redemption and complex beauty. But why is that? Because you or someone who was along side you quit writing the story or rushed through the writing process to achieve cheap results! They gave up- Maybe your co-author decided to go write his own novel. That's tragic because now your left with fractured content and undeveloped characters. What once was a classic is now a crappy teen fiction.

So even if your novel has more tear-soaked pages than epic sunsets, keep writing! Keep pouring into those who are making your tale as great as it is. Keep writing your classic!
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"Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. ... you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."  (Hebrews 10:32-36, NIV)  

Wise, or merely smart?

Knowing the right thing to do is not always all that easy.   For example, I am conflicted about how best to express concern for the poor. I know that I must not be selfish, nor can I ignore the plight of the needy.  But, I also know that too much ‘care’ creates perpetual dependency.  So when do I give and when do I withhold?   Then, too, there is the current debate among Christians about how to relate to people who are practicing homosexuals. On this issue, I find myself deeply conflicted!  My conviction is that the Holy Bible that places same sex intimacy, along with many other sexual practices, outside of God’s will for those who would live a holy life.  My desire to live a life of loving acceptance of all people, as Jesus taught me to do, collides head-on with that conviction. Many will say, “love the sinner, but hate the sin.”  Nice phrase, but if I voice strong disapproval of another’s actions, they’re not going to feel much love. 

At one time, life was not nearly as complex for me. Most issues were black and white. Shades of gray were beyond me.  No more! With greater love and more wisdom I know now that the choices that I make have more consequence than can be seen in the immediate future.  So I am thankful for the promise of the Word and the Spirit! James says that when I lack wisdom, the first thing to do is to ask God, humbly, for insight and He will give it liberally.  “If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”  (James 1:5 NLT)

There is a priority choice that becomes a foundation of wisdom for us. Love! Jesus said that all of God’s demands of us ultimately are founded on two commands:  Love God wholeheartedly and love others like you love yourself. He was not coming up with a brand new idea. Centuries before Him, Moses said, "Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders." (Deuteronomy 6:4-8, NLT)  Let me summarize that passage - "Love the Lord and integrate that love into your everyday life!"

Let me ask you, disciple: Are you just smart or are you truly wise?  The right thing to do, the moral choice, the God-pleasing decision requires real wisdom, not just an education or a keen intellect. We can be equipped with facts but yet be terribly lacking in wisdom!  Wisdom grows in the fertile soil of humility, in the desire to know the whole story. We cannot be ‘full of ourselves’ and full of the Spirit at the same time.

Here's a word from the Word. "I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." (Psalm 119:10-11, NIV)  "Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes." (Psalm 119:98-99, NIV)  "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." (Psalm 119:105, NIV)

_____________

Be Thou my Vision,

O Lord of my heart;

Nought be all else to me,

Save that Thou art

Thou my best thought,

By day or by night,

Waking or sleeping,

Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom,

And Thou my true Word;

I ever with Thee

And Thou with me, Lord;

Thou my great Father,

I Thy true son;

Thou in me dwelling,

And I with Thee one.

Be Thou My Vision

Hull, Eleanor / Byrne, Mary E.

© Public Domain

Between Stupid and Wicked

Between Stupid and Wicked

Over the last couple of weeks I watched a PBS documentary about the death machine created during the Second World War by the Nazis. The SS units of the Reich refined the process at Auschwitz so that thousands could be murdered and disposed of each week. The evil that conceived and executed the plan to obliterate the Jews was breathtakingly diabolical. Oppression, thievery, and murder were married to technology and system, producing mass murder and suffering on a global scale. That’s wicked!  

Then I thought of the teenagers I read about who get together for a Friday night party, raided the liquor cabinet, and in their intoxication, drove a car and killed somebody. That’s stupid! Both are sin, but yet they are different.

I have not personally known many wicked sinners, but I have known many who walk outside of the will of God through ignorance, short-sightedness, or deception. I am one of those people from time to time. Both ways of sinning are an offense to God. Both have serious consequences. But, they are met quite differently. Those who sin stupidly need to be loved, instructed, and pointed to a better way. Those who are wicked must be met with resistance, sacrifice, and Truth!

John speaks of these two kinds of sin when he writes to us: "If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him." (1 John 5:16-18, NIV)

When we observe a fellow disciple making sinful choices, just being stupid, we need not wage a war against them. Instead we pray earnestly that the Spirit will reveal to them the error of their ways. But, where wickedness is causing another to exploit, abuse, or bring death - we go beyond prayer, becoming active to stop the evil from spreading.

Wickedness is defeated in me by Christ and the Cross, the power of the Devil broken by daily surrender to the will of God. I do not kill, hate, or abuse others. But, I am sometimes willful, sometimes fail to love, sometimes choose poorly; in a sinful kind of way. In these moments, I need an Advocate who goes to the Father on my behalf and Who comes alongside of me to remind me that I can and must choose to live a holy life.

Oh, how thankful I am for the gentleness of the Spirit who whispers insistently, “Jerry, that’s not right, you can do better!”  We who would live like our Savior must learn to respond readily to the Spirit’s leading, to recognize His convicting voice and to turn from our willfully stupid sins! If we do not, we risk slipping deeper into sinfulness until we cross that line from stupid to wicked.

Be an encourager of other disciples. Look for ways to call them higher in Christ. Connect with those whose walk is wise and whole. Are you making sinful choices that are robbing you of spiritual vitality? Are you allowing little compromises to creep into your life that dim the light of Christ in you?

Here’s a word from the Word that urges us to leave the stupid sins behind. "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." (Hebrews 10:22-28, NIV)

The Tag On Your T-shirt

The tag on your shirt

Hanes markets a line of T-shirts with the trademark, Tagless.  American consumers found the little tag that was stitched into the collar seam irritating, so the company eliminated it, printing the label directly onto the shirt instead.   Such a small thing really, but we do love our comfort, don’t we?  Here’s what I wonder:  is our love of comfort hindering our ability to know and serve Christ?  He puts this challenge to us.  “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23, NIV)  Does this mean that those who are Christ’s must just learn how to put up with the tag in their shirt? Is He asking us to be a little better at dealing with life’s inconvenient situations than those who are not disciples?  If that is how you read this truth that is so central to the Gospel, you have not yet grasped the essentials of Christianity. 

Francis Chan writes about how misunderstood Jesus’ words are. “Taking up my cross has become a euphemism for getting through life’s typical burdens with a semi-good attitude. Yet, life’s typical burdens – busy schedules, bills, illnesses, hard decisions, paying for college tuition, losing jobs, houses not selling, and such – are felt by everyone, whether or not they follow the Way of Jesus.  When Jesus calls us to take up our cross, He is doing much more than calling us to endure the daily, circumstantial troubles of life. The people of Jesus’ day were very familiar with the cross. Having witnessed crucifixion, they under the commitment and sacrifice of taking up a cross. It’s a call to radical faith.  Jesus is calling us to be willing to suffer anything and forsake everything for the sake of the Gospel.” – The Forgotten God

A Cross-centered life is a way of life that dethrones Self with all its complaints about inconvenience and hard things, because it is a life centered on loving God and others, finding delight in worship and God’s gifts for each day. If we love personal convenience it is a red flag that we have not fully entered into the Cross-centered life.  Yes, if tagless t-shirts are a big deal to us, it should alert us to a spiritual malady.  More to the point, if we are short-tempered, constantly critical of those who ‘fail to meet our standards,’ and rude - Self is very much alive.  Why? Because those traits are evidence that we live with a ‘serve me’ orientation.  Jesus, our Model, "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28, NIV)  In short, His life found its true meaning in the Cross; and so will ours.

After presenting us with the characteristics of the Spirit-filled life; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentlenss, and self-control – the Word says "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." (Galatians 5:24, NIV)  The fruit of the Spirit will not grow in an orchard of Self! Only when that tree is cut down and a new one is planted, will the true life of Christ flourish. Ah, this is the Cross-centered life. Can you see how impossible it is to live such a life apart from an ongoing transformational experience of the Cross and Christ

In my meditation on these facts, I am driven to my knees in humility.  I cannot live this kind of life with any amount of determination.  No wonder the Scripture says that we must ‘die daily!’  Self is persistent, but the Spirit is greater. Do you want to honor Christ in the best and highest ways? Die to Self!  Do you want to find a life that is richest and best? Die to Self!  Here’s the word from the Word. May the Spirit bring us comprehension and grant us faith to receive it. ?  "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  (Galatians 2:20, NIV)

You're going to Hell

You’re going to Hell!

In my high school drivers education class, there was an annual ritual. You heard about it when you got to the school and waited, with a strange kind of anticipation and dread, for the day when we would see ‘the movie.’  It featured gory wrecks from the Ohio Turnpike!  Given the kind of entertainment available today, it seems rather quaint. There on the screen were scenes of mangled bodies,  flashing police lights, and sounds of sirens. These were not actors. It was footage of real fatal accidents and the effect on us was dramatic.  Kids threw up, girls cried, and boys pretended that they were above it all.  The aim of the whole thing was to impress us with the potential dangers that existed for us when we got behind the wheel.  When the lights came back on, we sat with ashen faces, wondering if we really wanted to get our driver’s licenses. A year later we were driving too fast, that fear-filled hour largely forgotten.

Fear moves people. It creates a sense of urgency, drives a person to look for safety and/or relief.  Some churches and ‘evangelism’ programs are built around it. “What would happen to you if you had to face God today?” is a question loaded with the threat of Hell. I believe that  Christians who start a presentation about Christ using fear, are placing the em-pha'-sis on the wrong syl-la'-ble!   It is religion that depends on fear and guilt as primary motivators. True Christianity doesn't!   We don't drive people to Christ Jesus.  We lead them, with a message full of promise, to Him.  The Bible says, "For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, “Be  reconciled to God!” (2 Corinthians 5:19-20, NLT)    It's hope, not fear, that is our message to a sinful world.

Fear, as a motivator, has a very short shelf life.   The fear felt in the dark of night evaporates in the morning's sunshine.  The immediate lure of temptation easily overcomes the terror of future judgment.   While a kid growing up in church,  I heard many 'Hell and damnation' sermons.  In Youth rallies the build-up to the “altar call” was long and terrifying!  When the preacher used manipulative techniques to turn up the heat, I made my way to the 'altar' and cried fearful tears begging  God to forgive my sins.  Days, sometimes even hours, later I went out and did the same things again.  Why?    Because, fear is simply too weak to restrain the rebellious and sinful heart.    When God revealed His patience to me, showed me the depths of His love, and let me know that Jesus died on the Cross to reconcile me to the Father, more than to keep me out of Hell - I was changed.   The truth proclaimed in 2 Peter 3:9 became real to me. ". . . He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent,"  and I discovered the power of transformation by love. 

Love is so much stronger than fear!  If we would see people commit their lives to Christ, it must be for love's sake alone. They must see such an irresistible grace in Him that they will repent and turn from sin to

serve Him wholeheartedly.   The Good News is not 'you're a bunch of awful sinners and you're going to Hell!'     The Gospel is  that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NIV)  In Luke 15 there are 3 stories that Jesus told about 'lost' things: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.  In each instance when the lost was found, there was a great celebration. The story of the Prodigal Son is really mis-named. It should be called the story of the Waiting Father. When His way-ward son finally comes home, broken by his own willful sinfulness, the father kisses him, restores him to the family, and celebrates his return. Jesus was telling an 'every-man' story! It is a love story that  I can never tell without becoming full of emotion.  

“You’re going to Hell” may be true, but it’s not my primary message. I am a follower of Christ because I love Him and that is because He loved me first. I follow Him, not to avoid judgment, but to find " life in all its fullness" (John 10:10, NLT) which Jesus Christ promises to me.  How about you?

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Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,

that saved a wretch like me,

I once was lost, but now I'm found,

was blind, but now I see.

T'was grace that taught my heart to fear
and grace my fears relieved,
how precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed.