Debt Trap

Most Americans are in debt.  Debt can serve a purpose, but it can also act like a virus that grows uncontrollably.  One small, poor decision can lead to subsequent larger mistakes that snowball into massive problems for individuals, families, corporations, or federal governments.  There is a similar kind of debt in relationships.  One person is in emotional debt to the other due to some imbalance in perceived power.  That imbalance, if left unchecked can lead to guilt, anger, greed and jealousy, which Andy Stanley claims are the four emotions that are the enemies of the heart.  Our small group from church will be looking at each of these enemies one at a time over the coming weeks.  We will attempt to understand them better and then learn about what we can do to combat them.  We would love for you to read along.

Simple Stories

I often struggle with sharing my faith with people.  I try to convince myself that if I just act right, I can set an example for others, and they might see something different about me.  There are a couple of problems with that.  First, I don't act right that much, so people don't see anything different about me.  Second, there are a lot of good people who don't believe, so even if I do get my act together and act right, I might not look that different.  So trying to act right isn't enough.  I have to be more intentional.  The first step is relationship.  I need to understand and care about someone else so that they might want to listen.  The second step is to speak from personal experience, not the Bible.  What the Bible says is not important to someone that doesn't believe it is truth.  Making the opportunity to tell someone what Jesus has done in my life is the best way forward.  I want to do that more.   This song does a nice job driving that point home.

Word Darts

All of us have had those moments when something slips out of our mouths unexpectedly, and we think, "wow, where did that come from?"  We can easily write it off as a lapse in judgement or just bad digestion.  In Andy Stanley's book, Enemies of the Heart, Andy explains that those unexpected outbursts shouldn't be so unexpected.  Those outbursts are almost always the product of our true heart.  The rest of the time, we are just covering them up or subduing them.  The worst part of it is, the outbursts are usually directed at those that are closest to us - our spouses, kids or closest friends.  Last night, our group spent time talking about why that is.  The truth is that those that are closest to us are the ones who have the power to hurt us the most.  If I had to name one word as the cause, it would be selfishness.  For some reason, we want to put our needs above those of others.  I believe a piece of it could be a survival instinct that is a part of all animals, but that can't be all of it.  Our arguments aren't usually life or death situations.  I don't know the answer as to why we are this way.  I do know, however, that God wants our hearts to be transformed to His, and I want to take a small step in that direction today.

Heart Surgery

Last night our small group from church met for the first time this fall.  We have a great group with 15 members this season. We are reading Andy Stanley's book, Enemies of the Heart.  Andy introduced the book by talking about a scare he had when his heart was having an unusual beat pattern.  He went to the hospital and after running a lot of tests, they finally figured out the irregular beat was caused by a steroid shot he had received to treat a reaction to poison ivy.  Of course, the book is focused on our emotional/spiritual heart, not our physical heart, but there are some interesting similarities. Many times people are prescribed medications to treat symptoms caused by heart problems, without treating the underlying problem. We do this with our spiritual hearts as well.  There are outside forces from the world that put pressure on us.  We often build walls to protect ourselves from those pressures, but eventually the underlying problems can surface or even explode - an attack of the heart. We will be spending the next 12 weeks looking at those enemies of the heart and learning how to understand them and guard against them.  Stay tuned.

Rings Stew

How many times have you heard, "that was a great movie, but it was nowhere near as good as the book"?  It seems like this is almost always true.  The level of detail that an author can add describing the character's thoughts and feelings can be impossible to recreate in a 2 hour movie.  Streaming services have made things a little easier with multi-part series giving the producers more screen time to develop characters and the story.  Amazon Prime has just released The Rings of Power based on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien.  It takes place thousands of years before the epic Lord of the Rings movies.  Many critics are skeptical that anyone can come close to capturing the artistry that Tokien displays in his writing.  There is no question the series will fall short of that.  But that is not a reason for complaining.  Pete Peterson, in his article, Forge the Ring, describes the producers of the series as sub-creators.  Tolkien was the creator of the story, and the producers will take that story and make something different.  It won't be exactly like the original story, and probably won't be as good, but it should have much of the same flavor - kind of like making a stew.  Even though you use a lot of the same ingredients, it will come out somewhat different each time.  The idea of "sub-creator" also applies to each one of us.  God is the Creator.  We are each sub-creators trying to build his kingdom on Earth.  We will never get close, but it sure can be fun trying.  Make your story great today.