New Year’s Quiz: What Kind of Fish Are You?

(By Lois Robinson)

Years ago, a counseling teacher taught me a few things about fishing. He told those of us in the class that fish are different, and they like different bait and even different types of rigs. “Hmmm”, I thought, “maybe that’s one reason I have never been very successful at the art of fishing.” My thought was, “Just get a line, put a hook on it, grab a worm, drop it in the water and I better catch something in five minutes or I’m leaving!” The old instant gratification condition won most of the time. I would still want seafood though, which was why I went fishing in the first place. So to solve my current dilemma I would spend money I didn’t have to buy it at a restaurant!

Fishing didn’t become one of my favorite things to do because it was too much work! I was more than happy to spend money in the store, or better yet a restaurant, because it was even less work!

Are you seeing a pattern here? I wanted to avoid as much work as possible. Instead, I was willing to go into debt, being a poor steward of finances, just to get what I wanted!

Let’s go back even further now; I was taught in Sunday School a wonderful little song called ‘I will make you Fishers of Men.” Wait a Minute! How does this all connect?! Well, the Gospels in the Bible tell the story of how Jesus fished for men/women/children. He carefully chose the way he would love them to build relationship in order to bring them to a better understanding of their Father’s love and purposes for their lives. 

But let’s not stop there. There is another very important truth in this fishing example we must not be ignorant to.

The bible clearly states:

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” Hosea 4:6

“Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.” Isaiah 5:13

The counseling teacher’s point in the lesson was not about fishing for people on Jesus’ behalf but how the devil himself is a fisherman as well. His purpose is to destroy us! The teacher demonstrated how the enemy sits, chooses the bait, schemes, baits the hook, drops the line at the most opportune time and desperately wants us to bite! As any real fisherman knows, the bait stays out in the water for a while usually, and the fish who are hungry smell it for miles. As the bait lingers in the water, saturating the surrounding water, the fish swim toward it. At first it may be just a “swim by,” then they come back to nibble, toying with it you could say. Not biting but dabbling. As their appetite grows for the bait.... BAM....they’re hooked and reeled in! From the shore, you can see the fisherman’s face light up. He has conquered the fish! I would encourage you to take a look at yourself as the holidays are over. Some will worship themselves by denying the birth of Jesus, some will worship debt, some will worship depression, some will worship anything or anybody but Jesus. Some will choose to Worship Jesus Fully. 

These questions are designed to help you know your bait preferences. 

1.  What kind of fish are you?

2.  What kind of bait are you attracted to? 

3. Are you just nibbling, “swimming by” with interest or ready to bite?

4. Is it Jesus bait? This gives life.

5. Is it Satan bait? This will kill you. 

6. What fisherman will be happy when you take the bait that interests you? 

Jesus our King or the father of lies?

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Things That Go Bump In The Night

Back in the day, when the world and I were young, my brother and I were the family dishwashers. This was the forties, and unless we got lucky we did the job every night after dinner. One night I washed; the next night I dried, but as soon as the food was put away we got down to our real business, which was to make the other one do more work than we did. This involved diligently searching for any tiny speck of food left on a washed plate, so the washer had to wash it twice, but the dryer only had to dry it once! Hah! One point for the dryer! Of course, the next night the situation was reversed. All this was accomplished in relative silence. This was so that we could at the same time listen to the radio. If we got into an argument, the radio got turned off. Our weary mother was a teacher, and found little patience with fractious children who ought to be getting done with the job at hand and on to their homework. So we mostly behaved, because we wanted to listen to the radio more than we wanted to fight.

There was no TV back then – I was in college when we got our first tiny TV – but every night there were radio shows! “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy!”;  “The Green Hornet”;  “ Buck Rogers”; “The Creaking Door”; “Lights Out”;  “I Love a Mystery” – all of them somehow more vivid because we could use our imagination to create the people who owned the voices. It was wonderful.  And oh, those mystery shows! Scary, scary, scary! Many were the nights I checked under my bed before I turned out the light! I didn’t know what I was afraid might be there, because I had nothing visual to apply, but I looked!

The pertinent thing is that at our young age we could only imagine what our experience and our minds could enable us to picture. We were basically protected from horror by the limits of our actual reality. How unlike some of the television shows today, which graphically illustrate every kind of depravity.  So, there are shows I simply don’t watch. I like cop shows; I like spy dramas,  I love football! But I find I cannot watch psychopathic horror shows. The images are far beyond anything I can easily dismiss. They stay there. And so I try not to clutter my mind with this degree of illustrated evil. Could I handle it? I don’t know. I choose not to. Believe me, I don’t for a minute think there is no evil lurking in my mind! My miserable sin nature is very busy luring me with all sorts of evil, which God enables me mostly to resist, but I think I surely don’t need to go looking for more. I am an adult, with a clear understanding of the reality or lack of same portrayed on the screen, but I still can be affected by what I watch.

Which brings me to our children. Can we really convince ourselves that terrible graphic images on the screen have no effect on them? That they, too, don’t somehow struggle to find a safe place to hide pictures they cannot forget? Are we carelessly burdening them awfully with concepts they aren’t even able to process? Can we believe that they’re not changed, however subtly, by these experiences? We wrap them in seat belts. We vaccinate them against disease. We teach them about dangerous strangers. We would give our lives to save them. And still, in spite of how we try, we know we cannot wrap them totally in soft cotton batting. The world as it is will indeed batter them in many ways. But could we please try our best to protect their very young minds from images God never meant for them to see or try to understand? Could we let them be innocent a little while longer?

If we were to have a – what shall we call it – a strenuous disagreement with our spouse, we would never sit our toddler down in the middle of it! You know what would happen: the little one would be frightened to tears.  So how can any sane adult assume that a small child with absolutely no life experience is able to understand the intricacies of television and know that it is all make-believe?  One of my daughters had nightmares for years after watching the Wizard of Oz, because of the Flying monkeys! Flying monkeys, for goodness’ sake! Who knew! Certainly not me! How much more frightening must be portrayal of real people doing awful things. Our babies’ minds are such precious things. We need, need, need to protect them, and do it diligently!

 Am I urging an absolute absence of television? I am not, though some choose that path. Time marches on, and so does technology. There are great programs to be found there, for children and adults alike. But just as we are careful to dress our kids appropriately for the weather, we need to filter what can reach their minds.

The truth is that God charmingly limited their understanding, placing the responsibility of caring for them upon us. The way a baby will crawl happily toward a hot surface or toward the edge of a bed is a perfect illustration of their total innocence of the consequences of going over the edge. We grab them.  

We need to be just as protective of their minds, that they not fall over the edge or be scarred by burns.  Grab them.

Norma Stockton

The Foolishness Of God

It seems to come and go faster every year, doesn't it? The Christmas season, I mean. It’s not that I don’t love it, because it never fails to fill my heart with joy. But it’s such a blur anymore that if I don’t put any effort into properly slowing down, I can fly through the advent season faster than you can say Kris Kringle. I know the stories and songs by heart, to the point that I become anesthetized to it. But that is not what I want to talk about here. Not really, anyway. 

By the time you read this, we will be inching dangerously close to the time of year when the Internet explodes with articles on New Year’s Resolutions and how you can achieve them. This is usually followed by everyone you know deciding that this is definitely the year they will finally get in shape, or start eating better, or ditch that nasty habit that never goes away. And yet, by the third or fourth week of January all is essentially forgotten, and we’re left with this hopeless sense that we are never really going to change and what’s the use? But that is not what I want to talk about here. Not really, anyway. 

If you’ll indulge me for a minute, I just want to talk about me. 

I am getting married next year. It is an unbelievable joy to write a sentence like that. Dawn and I are in the thick of marriage prep, and we’re confident that we are walking in obedience by taking this step. And yet, as we careen towards our wedding day like a rocket heading to space, I find that it becomes easier every day to be filled with fear. Where will we live? What about my job? Will we have enough money? I am compelled to worry about these to the point of obsession, because I have to be sure I can provide a safe and stable situation for us. 

Sounds wise, right?

What would you say if I told you it wasn’t?

*  *  *  *  *

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul says this: “This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25, NLT). The “plan” Paul is talking about here is God’s plan of salvation, which culminated in the birth of Christ and extended even to the Gentiles, which was practically unthinkable to first-century Jews. I love the way this translation puts it: the “foolish plan of God” that is wiser even than our best attempt at wisdom. It serves as a helpful reminder to me of who is God and who is not in our relationship. 

His thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways.  Christmas is the perfect time of year to meditate on the mystery of this. God himself incarnated was born into our dirty world, lived an uncomfortable life, died a rather unfortunate death, and is at this very moment interceding on behalf of sinners like you and me at the throne of heaven. “Practically” speaking, this had to be the most inefficient plan God could have come up with! Yet this is the option God chose, not because of its “foolishness” but because of its surpassing wisdom. 

More often than not, following God has to make sense in some very practical way for us to get on board. In other words, it has to be safe. But when we say “safe,” we really mean “comfortable.” Safety is allowing the Master to do what he wants with you and trusting Him to provide everything you need along the way. Our definition of safe turns out to be following God right up to the point that it becomes uncomfortable and begins demanding more from us than we’d like. The New Testament has a name for people who act this way. It’s “Pharisee.”

Answering practical questions is important. What’s more important is following the Master’s voice.

*  *  *  *  *

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of resolving to do the same things every year and giving up after three weeks because the shine has worn off. And I’m tired of being controlled by fear. I want to follow Jesus in 2014 by actually following Jesus: that is, taking my cue from the voice of God, regardless of how risky or “foolish” it may seem. His foolishness is wiser than my wisdom, and my hope is built on nothing less. 

Now there’s something to be joyful about.

Dominick Baruffi

The Devil's Courtroom

(By Thor Knutstad)

Satan always rushes at the mention of legal matters.  Though Revelation 12:10 says that he is "expelled from the real courtroom of God," the accuser finds himself there by the door trying to twist kernels of truth into mountains of accusation and condemnation on God's people.  The deceiver wants us to prove and defend our stance with God by performance and works.  In true essence, Satan is the most obvious and yet most subtle approval seeker.  He puts the attention on our sins (all of our sins) and he causes us to be deceived to think that we stand and fall on our own behavior.  He tries to make us think that we are alone and without advocacy – and raises questions about the extent of God’s forgiveness in Christ’s atoning work.  He (the enemy) will go so far as to make God’s people think that their moments of struggle are some abuse of liberty and license when it is not (for some it is, but more on that another time).  If I trust in myself, I live in the devil’s courtroom and hand him the gavel, which he in turn hands to me for self-judgment.   At this, I need to not hand the gavel back to the one true Judge (our merciful and satisfied God), but plead for His mercy that is already provided through the grace healing work of Christ.  Judgment is pronounced on Christ - not me.  Jesus takes it.

When I stand in His grand courtroom, I know and humbly acknowledge that my good deeds are not enough.  I put my hope FULLY in Christ.  When I am truly convicted of real sin, He points me PAST my sin, BEYOND self-condemnation and on to the beauty and purity of Christ.  His last word to me is hope.  You see, my defense is the Lord Jesus Christ.  When I trust in myself to perform, my hope is in me.  Yes, I race to repentance and accept the joy of conviction with a smile, knowing that this heart of mine testifies to Messiah and His permanent and full atonement.  And then I learn something more that God my Father has been teaching me all along – that this reality of being convicted by the Spirit of sin is very different than being in the devil’s courtroom.  In the Kingdom life of God’s courtroom, I see MORE sin – not less.  And my God welcomes me to the battle with a good judgment – “Son or daughter, because of my Son, there’s nothing you can do to make me love you less."  You see, He always delights in His sacrificial love for me.  He never decreases in love for me and His love is constant.  Sure.  Full.  Permanent. Unlimited. -- Praise Him.

“What is Man that You are Mindful of Him, and the Son of Man that You care for Him?” (Psalm 8:4)

(By Diego Cuartas)

The path began this way: On October 27 I wrote in my journal, “With digestive issues, a muscle in my left arm hurting and eyes that seem weak these days I am reminded of how fragile we are–like the grass flower that is here today but gone tomorrow.” Then on October 30 I recorded the thoughts found in Psalm 8:4, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” This same day a few things unfolded that eventually formed the diagnosis of a Bell’s palsy case. While having breakfast I noticed my tongue was somewhat strange, it felt numb on one side. I dismissed it after suspecting that I might have burnt my tongue the day before during dinner without realizing it. By 11:30am the numbness had moved down toward my chin and then up toward my right side cheek. By noon I was feeling muscles around and above my right eye acting strangely. The symptoms intensified but remained in the same locations. After taking the necessary steps to seek counsel on what to do, I was referred by my doctor to go to the emergency room. I was reluctant to go but thought it would be better to do so. Four hours later I was diagnosed and treatment had begun. I could not believe how quickly something like that could develop and impose a series of limitations on my normal functions. If you had asked me in the first days that follow to hold water in my mouth while standing in front of you, I guarantee you an unsolicited splashing would have been experienced immediately. Half of my mouth would not close! I won’t burden you with details, but I noticed that my life was placed in a situation where thoughts were being filter through these key thoughts: “Am I really fragile?” and “Is God mindfully caring about my situation?”

For the last three weeks I have been the recipient of underserved grace. As the days progressed and the uncertainty of how soon recovery would take place, I was reminded of these truths God had so kindly revealed to me before I became sick. One thing I notice is that when God speaks to me, He is being merciful in that He is delivering something I need on that moment or day. But He is also orienting me for the future. The reality is I don’t see further than 12 inches beyond my next step. How gracious of God to speak to me three things that He knew I was going to need within hours. What He spoke to me through His Word became an anchor for my soul during the 21 days of this struggle. I must admit that as I write this blog I am still experiencing a remaining 3-5% limitation due to the condition. I am thankful and doing very well. The recovery has been incremental and felt daily. Here are the three things that God used to hold me while my body was adjusting to the abnormalities:

• Humans are fragile
• I am mindful of those I have created
• I care about them

This is not how I heard these statements. The way I heard them was more personal than that. It sounded more like this:

• Diego, you are fragile; this is who you really are
• Diego, I am mindful of you
• Diego I care about you

Another observation I make is that there are times when God speaks in some general terms, and there are other times when God speaks more personally. His voice was sustenance to my soul. And in the moments when other voices were introduced into my situation, it was very helpful to anchor my soul in God’s words.

God does accomplish a lot of things in our lives through hardships, but one thing that I am learning is that hearing God speak and orient me created a space for my soul and mind to glean other fruit God had prepared for me to receive. First, he created space for me to embrace a more humble approach to life—this was emphasized to me daily as I recognized that I could not do things the same way I was used to due to the limitations produced by my new condition. Second, he reoriented my soul to consider being more merciful toward others who are undergoing their own version of suffering or the limitations they involuntarily experience today.

So, we really don’t know how much there is for us tomorrow in what God speaks to us today. Perhaps we would listen more attentively. Perhaps we would cherish His voice as the voice of One who loves us. One who whispers into our ears, “I am mindful of you and I care for you”.

• In what experiences of your life are you feeling alone? Perhaps forsaken?
• Whose or what voice influences your heart the most?
• What kind of things is God providing space for you through your present hardships?

May God share His heart with you too.

Christmas Lights in the Darkness

They were buried in the back corner of the Christmas section of the store. I had to pass all the expensive, shiny, technologically advanced decorations to get to what I sought. 

Christmas lights. Good old-fashioned cheap incandescent bulb lights. $5 per box. The price was right. I put them in the cart and passed all the pricy LED color changing lights and gigantic inflatable lawn Santas on my way out.

This is the first year I have owned my own home. It is also the first year that I am navigating the holidays, the family times of togetherness, without the center of my family universe, my mom. Money and spirit are both at low levels. Yet…I wanted a symbol of some kind that all is not lost. For me, that became a cheap set of lights.

Two days after a tough tear-filled Thanksgiving, I set out to string the lights on my small porch. I wasn’t into it at all, but I kept going. A clip here, a clip there, a plug…and there they were. They looked pretty raggedy and not at all impressive. But they were working, glowing and colorful in the growing dark. 

I started to realize what is so important about light at Christmas. Sure, I always made the connection between the darkest time of year and the need to offset that with more lights to function by. And there’s always the relationship between light and warmth in the coldest season. And yes, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World, makes light a great symbol of the Incarnation.

What I see this year is that light equals hope. When everything around is dark and cold and lifeless, light fights that. Even if it is a just a tiny candle or mini incandescent bulb, it takes away darkness in its small vicinity. It does what it can within its power to eliminate what seems to be vast and endless.

 Hope is like that. Even if it is there in the tiniest, almost non-existent way, it makes a difference in beating back the darkness of despair and sadness. Hope is powerful and the antidote to all things dark. 

I know so many people dealing with huge struggles in their lives right now. Some have had moments of deep despair where things just don’t look like they will ever improve. I myself spent a few hours on Thanksgiving sobbing uncontrollably at a situation that will not ever change here in my lifetime. Loved ones don’t come back from the grave. Reunion will be in another time and place, a wonderful one. But that can be cold comfort in a moment of missing someone so badly that your body physically aches and you don’t think you can bear the pain of grief.

But we have a Savior who was born into humanity and experienced life’s hurts and disappointments. He knows our griefs and sorrows. He knows what it is like to weep at the death of a loved one. He knows what it is like to be betrayed by those closest to him. And He promises comfort for our pains and a glorious future. That’s hope personified. 

So my little Christmas light display is my symbol of hope. Even if it is small and dim and imperfect, any little bit of hope is worth displaying in the darkness of a life at times overwhelmed with pain. Any little bit of hope shows that the Lord is holding on to us and keeping us in His grace.

Keep the lights shining this Christmas. Small or large, dull or bright, let’s keep hope alive even in dark places.

Nancy Vasquez

Confessions of a Sleepaholic

Let’s talk about sleep. More specifically, what you should know about me and sleep.

My roommates used to joke about my obsession with sleep. They’d laugh at the death threats I’d send them via text if they didn’t quiet down in the living room. They’d joke about the groggy monster I was in the morning, knocking over chairs and shoving them out of the way for a cup of coffee. I think they were using humor as a coping mechanism.

I still hold a small but potent grudge against a certain group of gentlemen who, during one of our church’s summer ministry internships, woke a group of us up at 6 am to “make us breakfast.” I’d never heard of such a cruel joke in my life. I begged the girls not to open the door. “They’ll go away eventually and we can all go back to sleep!” I cried. Breakfast smeakfast.

During my internship with UrbanPromise, a couple of my housemates woke my roommate and I up in the middle of the night with firecrackers. Again, just a harmless prank but I later wept to my best friend, asking her, “why do they hate me so much that they’d wake me up?!”

So yeah, sleep is kind of my thing.

During this week’s Sunday service as Nate talked about worshipping God fully I was honestly pretty frustrated. I wasn’t connecting to any of the examples he gave of what we worship instead of God. That’s not to say I don’t struggle with fear of money or fear of man or anything else but it just wasn’t hitting home deep in my heart. I kept saying to God, “okay I know I’m not perfect, I know I have idols, so where is the conviction I need?!” But throughout the service, I was mostly just distracted. I was sooo tired. I kept thinking about how uncomfortable I was, how exhausted, how frustrated that I had so much to get done after I left church and that I didn’t feel like doing any of it.

Then it finally hit me. That’s all I can think about? I know exactly what my idol is.

Because I’d had already hit the snooze buttons about 5 times too many and showed up to the service a half hour later because I valued sleeping more. I wasn’t paying attention to the service or meeting God because I was focused on what I wanted or thought I needed.  I was dreading making time for people throughout my time and week because I just wanted to crash in front of the TV and hibernate.

My idol is comfort. It slips past me so often because it just feels like I’m living life. It doesn’t show up in the big choices but in the smallest moments and most ordinary thoughts. But seeking my own comfort inhibits me from loving God and people every single day. Even as I confessed to only thinking about myself and what I wanted I started noticing the people around me that I wanted to talk with and bless and love. I try not to give too much credit to my emotions in moments like that, but the peace and joy I felt were unmatched by anything but what God gives. Honest to goodness freedom.

God calls me to love and worship him even in the little cracks and crevices of my heart where there’s usually no room for anyone’s desires but my own. I know to look to God in the big stuff but just like every real relationship, its about commitment in the ordinary daily stuff too. 

        Author: 

        Jessica 

         Noblett

Discipline

(By Tammy Vaughn)

I thought that I would write a blog that touches on the area of discipline – the kind of discipline that is needed to do something that you do not really want to do but need to do.  Some things that immediately come to my mind are reading the Bible, eating in a healthy way, communicating hard things to people you love, exercising and maintaining your cool when you want to blow up.  The list goes on and on.  Here are some thoughts on discipline.

Discipline takes courage – courage to change.  It really does not take much courage to stay the way you are.  It is easy to remain in the same old unhealthy patterns of life.  For me, all the signs have pointed to me being unhealthy and slowly killing myself by what I was eating. However, change felt hard and staying in the same old way that I was felt easier, more comfortable.

Discipline is countercultural – to create a discipline means denying yourself of the thing that you want.  It includes self control.  In a culture that is all about getting what you want now and putting your own needs in front of the needs of others, denying one’s self is not the norm.  The truth is that if you want to create new patterns, new norms, you have to deny yourself.  It can be such a mind game.  I often find myself thinking, “This is not working; why am I wasting my time?”  Unfortunately, I then entertain the fearful thought that if I don’t do something to change my situation, I will be worse off and even dead.

Discipline can be difficult – quite honestly I get easily frustrated when I cannot see the results of change immediately.  I recently hit a plateau in weight loss.  I had to continue to follow my eating plan even though I was not losing weight.  This went on for a couple of months.  FRUSTRATING!!!   I started to give in to temptations, little ones, but they all add up.  Pretty soon I found myself justifying the little compromises.  The little indulgences became acceptable.  “After all”, I would tell myself, “the eating plan is not working.”  I knew, however, that I had to keep at it if I ever had the hope of losing more weight. 

Well, in the center of my desire to create new disciplines in my life is the person of Jesus.  I was dying in my old patterns of thought and behaviors.  Jesus Christ has stepped into my life and helped me create new ways of thinking, new patterns of behavior.  It is like he took the Holy Spirit flashlight and shined it on areas of my life that were a mess.  While Jesus stands ready to help us, he does not overstep our free will.  This is important to realize because it challenges the thought of a quick fix.  We all generally want a quick fix – “Jesus, take this addiction.  Jesus, give me money. Jesus, heal me.  Jesus, change my marriage.”  For me, I used to pray that Jesus would just take the weight off my body.   I believe that Jesus could melt my fat off my body in the middle of the night if He wanted to, but that hasn’t happened… yet. ☺  Instead, my daily pursuit of Him as God in my eating and exercise is how my pounds are melting away.  To be more specific, I look at what I eat and ask myself, “Does this glorify God?  Is this what He wants me to eat?  How should I manage my time so that I can add in exercise and glorify God with my body.”   “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your bodies.”  I Corinthians 6:19-20 

That is deep!  I was bought with a price.  My freedom was purchased with a price,   Jesus’ very life.   And I still make the wrong choices.  HE did the work so that I could be free.  Unhealthy patterns of behavior and thought do not line up with us being more like Jesus daily.  I believe that while creating new patterns, God always meets our efforts.  I love that! In fact, what does it look like to the world when they see “Christians” stuck in unhealthy patterns of thinking leading to unhealthy patterns of behavior?  We look powerless and weak – not attractive or appealing and not a good representation of our Lord.

We serve a living God who is strong and mighty, who wants to help us as we walk in discipline and health.  As you take a personal inventory of the un-health in your life, what are the areas where God is calling you to make changes?  What is the discipline that you need to allow God to help you make so that you can be transformed to be more like Him?  How do we show the world, fellow believers as well as non-believers, the gospel in action? Discipline!