Author Archives: Rick Mauderer
Vapor and Bars
The Streetsweepers Logo
I have had the distinct pleasure and honor these past two years of visiting the Coffield prison in Tenessee Colony, Texas. I’ll never forget the first time I went. An inmate named Mickie thought he’d play a joke on the “new guy” and start to tell me about his dream he had been having about eating chickens. He made it out to be some demonic dream and then at the pinnacle of the joke he blew some white feathers he had in his hand. His intent was to try to scare me – maybe to see what I am made out of. I was a bit taken back, but what he did not know is that I am a high school assistant principal whose ability to be scared of most anything has been very much squashed, although that one was close! We all got a good laugh out of it. Mickie, as it turns out is a very Godly man, and a humble servant of Jesus. He is an elder of the church there at Coffield. Truly a blessing, and I am honored to call him a friend. While I am still looking for an opportunity to “return his favor,” I am limited as to what will pass through the search upon entering the prison.
Streetsweeper Artwork
When I was done speaking that day, a special group of men stayed behind and invited me to join them. This was a group of approximately 6-8 men who call themselves the “Streetsweepers.” They are a group of devoted Christ-followers who desire to work with the youth of our nation to try to turn back those who are wayward. They each have written their testimonies, and live a life in prison that would make many free people look less than upstanding – including me! They have daily quiet times, go to their prison jobs and work with excellence, share Christ in a loving way, disciple new followers, and help new inmates get adjusted. They are truly broken, humbled, and Christlike men. Why did they want to talk to me? They found out, after my introduction to the 600 men or so at the Chapel service, that I was a high school assistant principal, and they wanted my help in getting the gospel of Jesus out through their testimonies. I got really excited. Their leader was a man named Robert Garland. He was also the leader of the elders, and the leader of the church there at Coffield. At the age of 41 he had spent 24 years of his life behind bars. But in talking to him, you would think you were talking to a professional, high ranking business man. His demeanor was calm and mature, but valued you as a person. When he spoke in the Chapel to get the men quiet, they listened. Tall and lanky, this man had the makings of a great leader and communicator. I grew close to Robert. He recently made parole after 24 years in prison, which means that he will be released in a few months – probably December. I rejoiced that he will finally be able to live out Jesus to the world. He already has several speaking engagements lined up across the US to share his testimony in schools and churches.
James 4:13-16, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say,”If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
Robert actually mailed me his brochure he had developed for the Streetsweepers in the hopes that my technology skills could make it shine. It has well-crafted testimonies and artwork by the prisoners. Very nice indeed! I told him I would work on it. The picture above is a part of his Streetsweeper work – drawn by one of our brothers in Jesus. I went again to visit Coffield this past Friday. Robert Garland died on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 – three weeks prior to my seeing him again. He was two months away from freedom – after 24 years of prison. Yet he is freer and richer now than anybody on this planet. His Lord and Maker gave him an even higher parole. God invited Robert to His house for dinner – Word has it they were throwing a big feast. Robert had made plans to do such and such – like we all do. He stood up one day, had a brain aneurism, and fell over – dead. Life truly is a vapor. He had just led a white supremist gang member – for security reasons I will call him Vinny – to the Lord, and had been discipling him these past few months. I had the pleasure of meeting this man and hearing his testimony last week – Jesus has truly transformed his anger into joy and peace. He is going to take Robert’s place, Lord willing. This once very angry man had tears in his eyes when he spoke of Robert and the work Robert did in the lives of the men in that prison.
Coffield Unit, Tenessee Colony, TX
Today, we remember Robert Garland, and all prisoners who know Jesus and are marked by His blood, mercy and grace. Robert had no immediate family – his parents died when he was a child, so he never had visitors in prison except those who knew his ministry and who came to see him from churches. Because he had no money and no family, his body was buried in the Huntsville Prison Cemetary – but it is just an empty shell of a body. Robert is currently at the feet of his Lord and Savior Jesus, celebrating with all of his heart. Poor and rejected by this world’s standards, he was truly rich in Jesus and stored up major treasure in heaven.
The closing of his last letter to me:
Notice his excitement about his parole being granted...
Hebrews 13:1-3, Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
I challenge those who read this today to become a pen pal with a prisoner. Maybe even go visit one or two on a regular basis – whatever regular means to you. Perhaps every other month. There are state and federal prisons, county jails and city jails. There are men and women behind bars, and all of them need a mentor or at least a real friend who will walk the distance with them. They don’t need a judge, they have already seen one! They don’t need condemnation, they are already in the middle of it! They need the grace and mercy of Jesus and hope that there is a better life. That is what Jesus does for us – we who are prisoners to our own addictions, worries, struggles, sins, and besetting life patterns – he walks beside us as a friend helping and empowering those who are willing to change their lives, giving us the Hope of a better life coming.
This is a link to a movie night our church gave to the men complete with bags of popcorn. They absolutely loved it! (yes, each man in this chapel signed a release for them to be photographed – it took over 2 hours to get them all signed in so they could take their seats!) Be blessed!
http://animoto.com/play/ZndInhAMgyABCnz0yD3Z4g
Matthew 25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Sustained
...The floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty! -Psalm 93:3-4
I was in Bible college back in 1982 when I took this class on 1 Corinthians. I absolutely loved my professor, Dr. Vernon Olsen back at St. Paul Bible College. Now I have found that when you get old enough, they change the name of your college. I have been to 5 major colleges or universities, and two of them have changed their names – it is now “Crown College.” But I digress! I loved the class because he taught it not as a fountain of knowledge, but as a devotional. So, today’s message comes from that class nearly 30 years ago!It was one of his first days in the actual book of Corinthians – after all of the “historical and hermeneutical background” stuff. He had just gotten into 1 Corinthians 1:7-9, and I will never forget what he said:
“…our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Will sustain you. Who is doing the sustaining? It sure ain’t us! But it is even greater! When Dr. Olsen got into the Greek meaning for the word “sustain”, it is a word that means “earthquake-proof.” Now I have heard of bomb proof, which is pretty solid. But earthquake-proof!? We are talking some pretty serious “proofing” here! Jesus’ powerful sustaining of us goes to that extent – come what may, atomic bomb, EARTHQUAKE, you name it, He will sustain us through it.
Now I can hear some of your thoughts. Even more, I can feel some of your pain. Some of you have had to endure to incredible pain and life disappointments in your journey. This is not meant as a band-aid statement. This is real. As real as the writer of 1 Corinthians lived his life. Do you know what HE went through? He gave us a short list one time in the 2nd book of Corinthians 11:24 –
“Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak?”
He wrote that to people who were accusing him – and hence the gospel – of being fake. God is not fake. Nor is His Word. And God wants US to not be fake. Hardships tend to separate the fakers from the real deal. The sheep from the goats. But God’s promise is priceless. The Bible? $29.99 God’s promises IN the Bible? PRICELESS! He WILL sustain us – bomb proof, earthquake-proof.
Now, he does not keep us tied up on a chain – we are free to leave. But then, if we do that, we also leave the source of our strength and perspective. The fountain of healing and power. Our anchor of Hope. Why leave? Will it make the pain go away? Will it reverse the past? Where you gonna go? Like Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples once said, John 6:68,
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
God never promises to protect us from pain, or loss, or suffering. Okay, so I know that even after reading what the Bible just said, it still may not mean much – especially if you are hurting. So let me introduce you to my “friend” – Tammy Trent. Not like we are deep friends or anything, but I met her when she came and sang at church once a few years ago. I get her newsletters, and the one I just got today (talk about timing, eh?) has the perfect testimony for today. You can read it directly at this link: http://www.tammytrent.com/emaillist/September2011.html So I have copied it straight from her newsletter (with the idea that I sincerely hope she does not mind my sharing a little of her story here!). Her story is real, and is a great example of what I am talking about. She had to stand one day as they brought her newlywed husband’s dead body from the ocean. I still remember Tammy’s emotions as she related the story to us at church that day years ago. 10 years ago. What else happened 10 years ago? 9/11. Here is what she so beautifully wrote today that I believe is so applicable to today’s message:
“I’ve been shaken to the core and still I stand with my fist held high proclaiming that I am unshakeable in this moment. But that’s just it. Sometimes we go from moment to moment, day-to-day, season to season. Even in chaotic uncertain times we can be assured that our very lives are in the grip of a loving God. We can completely rest in His love and presence, but also His unending attention, commitment and faithfulness to us.
“When I stood on the edge of the water 10 years ago I could hardly breathe…I was overwhelmed with grief and loss…I’ll never forget crying out to God to come rescue this broken heart and scoop me up in His arms because I couldn’t stand on my own. As the scriptures say it best, He was close to the broken-hearted and He saved me, whose spirit had been crushed. (Psalm 34:18) I once again realized my great dependence upon God and just how very real He is.
“Many of our moments, days and seasons have been shaken, but today I am a woman speaking over my life AND yours if you feel like you’re being shaken at this very moment … Our hope and our refuge is firm because of Jesus! (Psalm 92:2) We are heirs of everlasting life! He is in full control when life seems out of control.”
Wow. Well written Tammy! May the Lord continue to bless you and heal you and touch many women and men through you! To all of my readers – May you be blessed this day, and know that come what may, you really are bomb proof – in fact, EARTHQUAKE proof! Now, if you will indulge me…please look at this final picture taken just before the picture on the top. See the man in the doorway? The lighthouse is protecting them from these waves, much like God is our refuge and sustainer in the storms of life, like King David said in Psalm 124:2-8,
“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side…then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters. Blessed be the Lord…Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Lord, You Are Mightier than the Waves!
FYI, these pictures are just two of hundreds taken by Jean Guichard who photographs Lighthouses. he is one of my favorites! Here is his site: http://www.jean-guichard.com/ Amazing stuff there!
Testing the Waters
I have spent many years as a lifeguard whether at lake beaches, pools, or cliffs. One of my favorite rituals to watch is the “testing of the water.” Someone will walk up to where the water is, dip their toe in it, and by that little exercise decide if they will jump in or not. Yet, I have NEVER seen a person stay OUT of the water based upon that little test! They always get in! And they always have fun!
There was a day much like that back in Numbers 13, but they chose not to have fun. God had brought the nation of Israel up to the edge of the promised land, and was ready to bring them in! I am sure the people were much like the person dipping their toe in the water – “It would be nice to see what we are getting into!” God understood that. He is not unreasonable.
Numbers 13:1, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.”
So Moses did. When the spies got back , their worldly lenses kicked into gear, and things went south fast.
Numbers 13:26 -29, They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”
Remember God’s promise to them?
Exodus 3:8, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…”
God was not about to leave them all stand high and dry. He told them “way back” that He was going to bring them to a good land. That’s how God is. He is good, and will not rip us off. The parallel is still this: that this new life in Christ is also a good life, flowing with His goodness and grace. But how quickly we forget this! And how quickly the people of Israel forgot this when they took the words from the spies “as-is.” Just like the Israelites, our worldly lenses get in the way sometimes! Our outlook on life – our attitude filters begin to run amuck. Look where it got Israel:
Numbers 13:30-33, “But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
At least Caleb had the fortitude and courage to see with God’s lenses – “All things are possible!” (Phil. 4:13). But like many of us who would rather sit around and argue with God about what He is and is not able to do through us, to us and for us, the Israelites argued with Caleb, and by default, God. The key phrase, “We are not able…” With that kind of attitude, they are right, they will NEVER overcome! With that kind of attitude, they also inflame God’s anger! General Colin Powell is quoted as saying, “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”–Colin Powell, former U.S. secretary of state, as quoted in USA Today (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051031/31powell.htm). These people did not know the power of that idea. They preferred grumbling and complaining.
But what happens next is amazing. Caleb and Joshua again try to address their people through God’s lenses of promise and love for His people. Number 14 records it, and it changes the course of human history.
Numbers 14:7 “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
God’s people are so rejecting of God’s word, that they are ready to actually kill God’s messengers! God Himself has to show up to protect His messengers! I wonder how many times we believers do this? Maybe not so outwardly, but inside we let worry and anxiety rule our hearts, instead of remembering that God has told us that HE has come to give us LIFE, and life ABUNDANT. He will not let us fall, He will never leave us nor forsake us. He provides a way of escape. He blesses those who obey Him. He heals us of our diseases. He gives us each spiritual gifts to use to benefit the body. Yet, we rebel, and persist in living a life of “disbelief” (disbelief = faithlessness = rebellion). God’s response is not one of blessing. He intends to give the people what they desire and focus on.
Number 14:32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the Lord, have spoken.
Pretty strong words – consequences for our actions. Notice that they affect our children. Let’s be like Caleb – “We CAN…” Why? Because God told us! Trust and obedience to God is a “Blessing multiplier”!
The 1st Parallel
When I was a new Christian back in high school (back in the “ancient” days, as a former student just
posted on my Facebook page!), I remember a time when the Lord spoke so very clearly to me out of His Word. I would take my Bible to school daily and read before school started because the bus dumped me off there about 45 minutes before classes started. I remember reading in Exodus, where God spoke to me so many times,
Exodus 3:8, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out
of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey….”
God said, “Rick that is a parallel of the new Christian life!” I thought to myself, “Brilliant! As God delivered Israel, God’s beloved people, out of the bondage of Egypt, so has He delivered all new Christians out of the bondage of the world and of Satan – who runs this world.” But if you extend that parallel, what does it say about our new life? “Flowing with milk and honey…” Sustenance fills the Christian life. Richness. Water is one thing – it keeps us alive. But milk has nutrition to help us grow.
God says our new Christian life flows with nutrition to help us grow. Now if God were angry with us, why would He do that? The answer is: He NOT angry with us. He loves us to the point that our daily existence is marked with daily nutrition to grow and mature. He loves us to bless us!
Honey. Did you know that honey is a food that is hard to spoil? Most all bacteria cannot grow in honey for its lack of water. But, you do not give honey to babies because the one type of bacterial spores that can grow in honey – rare – can be unhealthy for a baby. So, milk is for new Christians, but not Honey.
1 Peter 2:2, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation…”
But like the old saying goes, “A baby is safe in a cradle, but that’s not where it is meant to stay” If we just feed on milk, we will not progress far enough…Honey provides energy. Energy is for doing – it is ACTION oriented.
Hebrews 5:12-14, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
So, we all need to grow up at some point. Some people are on different trajectories than others. Kinda like school. Some kids are early bloomers, while there are some who get to high school without puberty hitting them yet. Life is tough for those kids! Spiritually, we have a choice to grow or not to grow!
Honey is for the more mature Christians. Did you know honey does not freeze? It remains an amorphous type of substance way down to minus 60 degrees F at which point it will shatter if you drop it. Pretty durable! My grandfather used to harvest honey from bees. I was always amazed at how they would never sting him! Honey is formed from a honey bee that was drawn to a flower, experienced nectar from that flower, brought it back to the hive, and regurgitated it to the others. Refreshing, eh? I know you want to just rush right out and get some! BUT WAIT! Fear not! It’s not that bad. Bees have an extra stomach just for honey! It does not mix with the “other stuff.” So, the honey has been transported in a sort of honey tanker with wings…it finds the nectar, gathers it up, brings it back to the hive, and pours it into the honeycomb. I think that is how we grow as Christians. A Christian will experience things, and bring it “back to the hive” to share with others in the body in the light of God’s Word. This is the “Doing” part of the Christian life that the Hebrews passage talks about above. We do life, we do God’s Word, and we share the results of those things with others to help them grow. But we have to have the Word of God in us first so that our experiences are interpreted in light of His Word, or all we have achieved is existential confusion.
Are you growing IN CHRIST? Sure, we all experience things, but are they being regurgitated in the light of God’s Word? Are your powers of discernment increasing as a result of this? Remember, the Land God is leading you into is a life…and it really is flowing with Milk AND with Honey!
Be blessed this day!
Momma Kitty
Trust took 3 years to get here!
We had this stray cat come around our house a few years ago that was obviously starving…skin and bones. Many people hate cats – especially stray cats. They try to kill them, shoot them, poison them, etc. Basically stray cats are objects of peoples’ wrath. We set food out for it and it ate it. All of it. Quickly. As this became a daily ritual I decided to see if I could touch it – it was skin and bones, but it had a beautiful coat. I leaned around the corner of our garage where we had its food and scratched the back of its neck as it ate. She pulled away for a quick second, but then she resumed eating. Her need for food overruled her perceived need for running away from this stranger who was touching her. Over time, she grew used to our scratching her neck while she ate. We were concerned that she would become pregnant – which would not be ideal for a litter of kittens in this situation. Since she would never let us touch if she was not eating, let alone pick her up, we trapped her. We took her to a veterinarian who did charity “fixes” on stray cats. We were too late – she was “with kittens.” The doc took the kittens, and then de-wormed her, de-fleaed her, and then, interestingly, when the vet was done, he clipped one of her ears as a sign to Animal Control that it was a stray cat who had been fixed so that they would not pick “her strayness” up to euthanize her.
We decided that after all of this effort, we would take her home and let her become our second “indoor cat.” We called her momma kitty. This is because the other kitty we had at home was still a kitten – dropped off at our front door. Momma kitty, though she had no kittens, would still lactate for a while. Oddly enough, they became “mother and daughter” and younger kitty actually nursed from momma kitty. Funny how God even cares for and meets the needs of two cats!
I was curious to know if she would ever warm up to us. My first few attempts to try to pet her were met with rejection. I did not want to scare her, so I just left her be. The day came when she rubbed against my leg like cats do. I reached down to scratch her neck like the old days, and she let me. Progress! I could not, however, pick her up as her claws would dig in and she would be gone! She really liked being scratched behind the neck. She especially liked when I scratched her clipped ear. It seemed almost euphoric to her. If I ignored her when she rubbed against my legs for her daily scratch, she would meow.
After several weeks, I tried something. I totally ignored her. After several minutes of her trying to get my attention, she jumped on the edge of the couch next to me to meow. I looked at her and told (as if she could understand me!) “Look, if you want me to scratch your neck, then I want some reciprocity!” She actually walked over to my lap and let me scratch her neck while on my lap. That was over two years ago. Now it is a daily routine where I come home, sit in the easy chair, and she jumps up on my lap and I scratch her neck, her ears, and then she rolls over and I scratch her belly. She lets me hold her and even turn her upside down like holding a baby – but she can only take that for so long! Amazing how far her trust has come – but it has taken 3-4 years!
God is like that too. He doesn’t rush us. He is patient.
Isaiah 30:18, “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.”
2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you…”
Like Momma Kitty had her ear clipped to show the world that she was different, God put His mark in us to show the world that we, too, are different:
Ephesians 1:12-14, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
His grace is awesome! His grace has two parts. 1) the transfer part, and 2) the transform part. He has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness where we were, by nature, objects of wrath just like momma kitty was before she came to our house. In the kingdom of darkness, things were not going so well for us….
Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
To be clear, we were not objects of God’s wrath, we were objects of Satan’s wrath. The author of abuse was loving what he was doing to us! Now the second part of grace is the transformational part. This is the part we tend to not like. Change takes work. We are used to our habits! Our depression was familiar to us! Our anger was a nice fixture on our walls! Living in the shadows was fun! Nobody told us what to do! (Really?) But God loves us too much to leave us that way! We are transformed from what the world wanted us to be, to what God created and redeemed us to be. Our job is to work that transformational grace out into all parts of our lives.
2 Corinthians 3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
Philippians 2:12, “Therefore, my beloved…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…”
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Ephesians 4:20-24, “But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Go in His transformational grace this day! Stop being an object of wrath, and join a new Kingdom! If you would like to know how, just contact me!
Lenses and God’s Working
I am always amazed at who God uses. “Who’d a thunk” God would choose Gideon? It was really simple: God was going to deliver Israel from some bad people. He chose Gideon. We’ve all heard of Gideon – powerful guy, right? Well….
Judges 6:15 – And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you…”
Okay, stop right there! Anytime the Lord says “I will be with you” it should be a slam dunk! But when you’ve been beat down as much as Gideon has, you don’t think so big any more! Here is why –
Judges 6:2-6 – “And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.”
In God’s style, He answers, and puts His plan into motion. But He uses Gideon. Gideon was tired of the Midianites. They were like the bully in the neighborhood. You will do everything in your power to avoid the bully. If you see them in the distance, you immediately go into stealth mode. Do not make waves! That is what Gideon was doing that day. He was so tired of the Midianites stealing their wheat after he had harvested it, that he did it in secret. Winepresses were dug out into the ground – kinda like a deep ditch – hard for people to see from ground level. The Bible says that “Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.” I do not sense a warrior’s spirit in him. I sense a “I’m tired of being beat down” spirit in him. So who does God use? Beat down ol’ Gideon!
Have you ever noticed that when God shows up, amazing things begin to happen? So God actually appears to Gideon, does some miraculous things, and then the plan begins. God wants to do an introductory assault on the bad guys. He tells Gideon – who is ALL ears at this point…
Judges 6: 25-27 – “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.”
Did you catch that? His family had already given in! The altar to Baal – the false god – was THEIRS! Gideon was not only against the bad guys, he was against his own FAMILY! This is more than just a high school prank, this is an assault on the leadership of the enemy! (which needed to happen by the way!). So he pulls down the altar to Baal, and puts one to God in its place, and then leaves the dead bull on it! Now he has poked the bear! The people of the town were in arms. They find out it is Gideon who is behind it all, and a “hit” is issued for Gideon. Meek, little Gideon who was tired of being beat down. Wimpy kid. Napolean Dynamite. You get the picture. But something amazing happens. Remember God said He would be with Gideon? Those same exact words were also shared with other great heroes of the Bible, like Moses (Ex. 3:12), Joshua (Josh. 1:5, 9), and later on, David and Solomon (1 Kings 11:38). The bible says that suddenly, “…the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet…” much like in the Lord of the Rings when they light the torch summoning all of the other nations to help them in their fight against evil.
So, more than just a town lynch mob, entire nations are summoned against Gideon and – because Gideon represents Israel – against Israel. But a funny thing happens. Next thing you know, Gideon has 32,000 men with him ready to fight. No more “beat down!” But God, in His typical style, is going to really make us rely on faith instead of human might to do gain the victory. God tells Gideon he has too many men to fight. He sends 22,000 men home. Huh? Again, God says, “Giddy! still too many people!” So he sends home another 10,000 or so until all he has left is 300 men. But with 300 men, Gideon defeats – I mean, GOD defeats – the enemies.
God had to change Gideon’s lens – his beliefs in himself – before He could lead Gideon into action. God has made us with common sense. We are not going to do something we know for a fact is outside of our skill set. If we don’t believe we can do something, we will not even try. But, in our beliefs, God needs to become more common in our senses! Those who believe they can – are right. Those who believe they cannot – are also right! We do what we believe we can, with God.
Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
May the Spirit of God clothe you! Rise up in the Name of God! Be blessed this day!
Windows to the Soul
I was sitting at Rosas’s Cafe the other day for “Taco Tuesday” with my son and found myself looking into the window. The reflection was a bit distorted due to the tension in the glass. Yet, when I looked at things directly, I could see them clearly for who or what they were – without distortion. It made me realize that in life, everything we see is seen through a lens, and that lens distorts everything we see – maybe a little, maybe a lot. The lens is our belief system. Our belief systems filter EVERYTHING we see, and eventually can lead us to do really good things, or really stupid things. They can bring us a lot of joy, or a lot of sadness. They draw us close to God, or push us away from Him. We would like to think that our great and powerful “intellect” makes us believe – or not – in God. Truth is, it is an emotional thing, a belief thing. In all of the atheists I have ever met, every one is angry at God, or angry at Christians, or at the church. And in their great “intellectual capacity” they deduce that since they had a bad experience with Joe, who claims to be a Christian, then God must not exist. Do you see the logic (or lack thereof) in that statement? It is like saying, “well, I have had a really bad experience with Interstate 35. In fact I hit a large pothole doing 65! Therefore it must be true that the entity which made I-35 must not really exist. It is clear that it just evolved. Because surely, if the entity DID exist, they would have FIXED that stupid road.” I know, clearly an unreal example – entirely made up! 🙂
Powerful little thing these beliefs are. I knew a guy one time who believed his life was no longer able to be lived. So he believed he had to self-terminate. And he did. Do you think our lenses are powerful? What about the woman who was convinced she could swim the English Channel? She trained, and even had a boat that accompanied her on her swim in case anything bad happened. As she got within two or three miles of the other side of the Channel, a dense fog set in, and made it very difficult to see clearly. As she swam, she had the distinct impression she was swimming in circles. She was nearly out of energy, and felt lost and directionless. She panicked. With her last little remaining effort, she climbed inside of the boat, feeling defeated. Little did she know that the shore was only a few hundred yards away – her final destination. What a waste to know she was THAT close when she made her choice – but she believed she was not going to make it – therefore she didn’t! A year later, she tried again, and like before, a fog bank set in, but this time, she kept to her course – having learned from her prior experience – and made it to her goal. She believed – in spite of the circumstances – having learned from a prior belief that proved wrong. And she made it to her goal! Beliefs are indeed powerful things!
Here is what is really ironic. Ever had something fly at or close to your eye? Did you experience a “jerking” reflex to protect your eye? I’ll bet you reacted very swiftly and effectively to protect your eyes. We do that with our vision. It is one of the most important things we have. We have a built-in reflex to protect our vision. Same is true spiritually – we naturally protect the way we see things. Here is where it gets dangerous and life altering: Our beliefs about God are formed by our life experiences before we can really even reason formally. So you have gone to church all your life, or perhaps you are not a church goer. Here is my question: Has biblical Christianity really formed your worldview – your belief system – your lens? Or is your belief system a result of your life experiences and emotions, the lenses by which you filter everything else? Life is hard, but God is good, and your beliefs will be formed by the hard life, or the GOod God – your choice. Like the lady who learned not to give up when the fog rolled in.
Does God do miracles? Is God intricately involved in every detail of our lives? That depends on your lens. Is God aloof? IS God angry at you? Does He love you? Or does He just put up with you? What does God say about His love?
Deuteronomy 7:8 – It is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:15 – Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring [you!] after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
Romans 11:29 – For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable [that means nothing you could ever do could EVER change that!]. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. [Awesome passage! God WANTS to show mercy to all!]
The other day I was driving down I-35 and was going around a curve on one of those high ramps. I caught a powerful sight: The traffic barriers lining the high curve had all kinds of tire marks on them from people who were actually were going to go straight when in fact they were indeed on a curve! That meant that while reality said there was curve in the road, some people failed to see it soon enough – their lens was wrong, or perhaps clouded by poor judgement or alcohol. We do that in life sometimes. Life will often contain a “curve ahead” yet we continue to plow straight ahead, and hit a barrier. Our beliefs often differ from reality, and it is NOT our belief that wins out I am afraid! We need to correct our vision then our beliefs. The ones given by the world are very ineffectual. The beliefs in God’s Word are very powerful, but some assembly is required to put them all together! Do you know which beliefs are biblical and which are just experiential?
God tells us about this in Romans 12:2,
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by he renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Don’t put on the world’s lens, but let God’s word renew your lens because in doing to we get to figure out what God’s will is. It says it right there in black and white (or whatever color your lenses see!) that His will is good. He plans are acceptable. Let this passage about Jesus affect your lens:
“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…” Hebrews 1:3
Want to know God? Look at Jesus. Jesus never abandoned his disciples, though they abandoned Him. Jesus healed EVERY body who came to Him, though very few actually came to Him. He made some promises to us also, though few of them are actually known by people:
He will send a Comforter (not the cloth kind!). He has already overcome the world. He will never leave us nor forsake us. His burden is light. His truth WILL set us free. He calls us his friend. No one can snatch us out of His hand. And how about this one:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it…” John 14:12-13
He meant it when He said it! Get to know Him really good – and watch your prayer life be transformed. It is not about getting answers, it is about asking the right things. Watch God start to move across your life and the lives of those near you. Find a prayer partner you can pray with often. Watch your lenses be cleared up and corrected. Watch your soul be transformed!
Have a blessed day!
Diamonds on the Plane
Never did see the movie “Snakes on a Plane.” It was the summer between my Junior and Senior year. This summer job was an interesting one. At the time I lived in Minnesota and attended (and eventually graduated!) from Mound Westonka High School – same city that was home to the Tonka Toys factory. We lived pretty close to Lake Minnetonka, a large and very popular lake west of the Minneapolis area. I really miss it! Anyway…
His name was Kenny Cronstrom – founder of Cronstrom Heating and Air Conditioning, a large industry in the Minneapolis area. Like most people who lived on lake Minnetonka, Kenny was pretty wealthy. He owned about a quarter of a mile of prime lakeshore property with docks for his boats, and large rocks that lined the rest of his shoreline. He paid me pretty good for a high school kid back in 1979. My job? I was his “lawn boy.” On Mondays and Tuesdays I mowed his lawns. It easily took two days using riding lawnmowers, push mowers, and then edging around the trees and quarter-mile of large rocks along the shore. Wednesdays -Fridays was odd jobs, which primarily consisted of cleaning the seaweed off the rocks along his shoreline. This meant I got into the water, turned over each rock, cleaned it with a brush, and threw the seaweed onto the shore to come back and pick it up after it dried that afternoon. You would never think that sunfish are carnivorous aquatic rodents that try to feed on your legs. In packs. It is a strange feeling, especially after watching Jaws! Yes, backbreaking work. But I loved it. Hard work cleanses the soul. I actually rode my 12-speed bike to work each day, around 10 miles or so. Then rode it home again. Loved the workout! It was a time I listened to the Christian radio station (KTIS?) while I cleaned my rocks. I learned and grew a lot that summer as a fairly new Christian. The music was pretty old, but I loved the preacher guys and always looked forward to the dramatized book they featured each afternoon. I still remember some of them like it was yesterday. John Bunyan’s story. Jim Elliot’s story. Just me and the radio and God. What a blessing Christian radio was to me!
But I will never forget this particular Friday. I got paid on Fridays, and I normally found Kenny, probably in his 60s or 70s by this time in his life, in his metal shop “puttsing around.” He had told me that he would teach me how to work with copper tooling and brass tooling when I had some free time. He had jokes. Anyway, this particular Friday he was not in his shop. His vehicles were there, so I approached the house and heard a lot of yelling and screaming. The voice was too high to be Kenny, so I deduced it was his wife. I hesitated to ring the doorbell for my paycheck, but I really needed it this weekend! I rang. A frail and aged and teary faced Mrs. Cronstrom answered the door with the check in her hand. Not wanting to be nosy, but concerned that everything was alright, I asked if she was okay. She immediately went into her tirade about why she was so upset. Ooops! Did I ask for this? Yep! Put your listening hat on!
She proceeded to tell me how they were going down to Florida the next week. Kenny had just bought her a $70,000 diamond ring, BUT he did not want her to wear it on the plane as they were travelling to Florida because if the plane went down, he would be out $70,000! I had to do a double take. Did I hear that correctly? “Mr. Cronstrom is going to be on the plan as well?” I asked.
“Well of course he is!” was her reply.”And he cares more about that _____ ring than he does about ME!”
I had a lot of things going through my mind at the time, but didn’t say any of them. I merely said “I am so sorry Mrs. Cronstrom…” She said something else then handed me my check. I told her thank you and that I was very sorry to bother her. She said something about being a sweet boy and then told me to have a good weekend. As I rode my bike home that afternoon, I did a lot of reflecting.
1 Timothy 6:9-12 says, “…People who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.”
I am sad to say I have never had to struggle with the hardship of riches. But if I do, I believe the lessons God will invite me to the table with have taught me well. Here are some lessons I have learned:
- Riches and even your ability to earn them come from God (Deut. 8:14-18)
- Honor God with the first fruits of your earnings. The FIRST thing I do with every check is give to the Lord (Prov. 3:9-10). It is an act of worship.
- Be a blessing to others (Prov 3:27, Zech 8:13).
- God wants more than money, he wants our time and our lives as well (Romans 12:1-2).
I pray you be blessed this day with not only the riches of this world but the riches of His grace!
Why? or Who? or What?
I was involved in pretty conservative churches since I became a Christian at age 16. Always zealous for fellowship and spiritual growth, one day after football practice in 11th grade I rode my bike all the way from the school to the church. I knew I would be sweating and so decided I would sit away from people. I just wanted to hear from God. When I got there, the pastor was at the door meeting people and he looked at me and said, “Sorry Rick – no shorts in church.” I looked at him at first thinking he was joking with me. I soon realized that there was apparently something more important than worshipping God and Fellowship – dress code. Though I have yet to find this in scripture to this day, what I DID find was that we are to submit to our authorities and the pastor was one of my authorities. Now I did not understand any of that as a new Christian. All I did understood was to say “yes sir” and rode my bike home. Little did I know just HOW FAR away from people I would be sitting! 🙂
I say all of that to say that the church was very conservative. When it came to spiritual gifts, they believed that some were still in use today, and others were no longer needed. I heard the pastor say that. While, again, I have never found that idea anywhere in scripture, it gave me a definite prejudice about the gifts. To go to a class on “healing” would absolutely ludicrous. People are not healed anymore these days, that was for “way back then” to show us examples of His miracles. When it does happen today, it is just a fluke.
Please understand I have several degrees, including a BS in Chemistry, minors in biology, physics and math – initially, I was going to do pre-med. A Master’s degree in Administration, and nearly completed a PhD in C&I with a minor in Statistics, so I do not park my brain at the door when I go to church. SO, when I say I have been going to an 8 week long healing class that has been transforming my life and theology, you know that it is not out of ignorance that I do such.
One thing I DO know is that information never healed anybody. Not once did anybody ever go to Jesus for healing that Jesus went into a seminar on pride or sin or anything else. Also, not once did anybody EVER go to Jesus for healing that Jesus turned them away, saying “I am sorry, it is not God’s will that you be healed. You have this ailment for a reason, now go figure out why that is!” Yet that is what I was raised to say everytime I prayed for healing for somebody! So we go back to the familiar saying of “It is not WHAT you know, but WHO you know” because we need a person – Jesus – not knowledge about Him. When we ask the question “Why” it is an empty question. “Why” is a great question when it comes to academics – and believe me, I am a professional at asking “why.” It is the “Who” that we need to ask – “Who can heal us?” “Who can fix us?” “Who do we turn to?” The answer is Jesus for all three, and more!
But there is another question we need to ask. When I buried my mom at a young age due to lung cancer when she never smoked a day ion her life, I was tempted to ask “Why?” But the answer to that question will do nothing for me. And Jesus never once told his followers – those who were healed – why their ailment happened. But he ALWAYS told them what to do next. “Go show your self to the priest” “Do not tell anyone what happened” “Go..” So, our question should also be “What next Lord?” We may not be healed, but our question should always be “What next?” because those things that happen to us are for His glory when we are submitted to Him and for our good. That is what scripture says:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28
I think we are often like the kitten who chases the laser light on the floor…it is cruelly funny to watch them tear the place up trying to get to the light. Yet they never look up at the source of the light. Much like that kitten, we focus too much on the blessing, or the healing, that we forget the Blesser – the Healer. HE is Who we need. HE is Who brings life. Blessing and healing do not bring life. So, it is not “Why, but Who and What. Be Blessed!
Hebrews 12:1-2 – Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…
Tires
I was not raised in a Christian family. My mother took me to a Methodist Vacation Bible School when I was very small, and my grandmother and grandfather would take me with them as well, but that was all I can remember. My dad was quite angry with God. When his sister was coming home from the hospital with her newborn baby, a train hit and killed them, and my dad never let God off the hook for that one.
So it came as quite a surprise to all in my family when I became a Christian in 10th grade (1977). How that happened is the subject of another entry perhaps, but suffice it to say that I was so zealous for Jesus that my dad was convinced I had gotten involved in some sort of cult. Which means that the foolishness of youth coupled with a passion for my newfound faith paved the way for some mistakes on my part! I am glad the Grace of God covers a lot of foolishness too! Anyway, that bought me a ticket to counseling. Just so happened the guy was a Jew and had no friendliness towards Christianity, or faith of any kind. So when he asked me how things were at home, I made them sound pretty bad. After all, all things are pretty terrible when you are 16, right? When Ralph told me it was okay if I left home until things got better my dad took issue with that. I didn’t have to go to counseling anymore.
So, in the summer of 1978 I had a job working in downtown Minneapolis. I lived 45 minutes away on a farm in Maple Plain with my dad and step mom. I remember the Monday or Tuesday when one of my tires developed this “flump” sound (new SAT word!) as I drove. I stopped to see what it was and was surprised to see this bulge coming out of my tire. I remember thinking to myself, “What the heck?! I never seen that kind of thing before! This cannot be good!” I knew the tire would not last long (they were all getting pretty old!) but I could not get new tires until I was paid on Friday. All I could do was pray, “Lord, please hold these tires together until I can get new ones! You are the only One who can do it!” That was all I could do.
My dad was concerned about my driving the car in that condition. He was especially angry that I could have gotten tires right away but had given some money to church that Sunday (tithe). When I told him that God would hold it together until I got paid again, I could almost hear his angry thoughts – “Well, God sure didn’t protect my sister from that train!” He thought I was so irresponisble. There was nothing I could tell my dad. I had no easy answers. All I knew was that God was good, and that somehow I didn’t think that the accident was God’s fault, but that He allowed it for some reason.
Pretty soon my dad saw some tires for sale complete with rims from somebody selling them in the paper. I remember they were just $100. I thought that was a pretty good deal with rims. Only problem was I had to wait until Friday to ge them. It was rather unnerving driving all those miles with that bulge hitting the pavement every time the wheel did one rotation. It was like hitting a balloon on the pavement hoping it would not break. Looking back, I calculated that if I drove 50 miles round trip each day to work and back, that tire (assuming a 24″ diameter) with the bulge hit the pavement over 21,000 times each day – on hot summer pavement. Over a 3 day period that is over 60,000 times the grace of God covered me! Romans 5:20 tells us that “…where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…” Thank you for your goodness Lord!
Friday afternoon I picked them up and took them home and my dad helped me change the tires. I will never forget the look on his face when he took the tire with the bulge off the car and laid it down. As he laid it down, the tire immediately started hissing like somebody was letting the air out of it. It went all the way flat. He had this look on his face of “You have GOT to be kidding…that is incredible!” I had this urge to say, “I told you so!” but didn’t want to get hit! God had held them together like I asked Him to. It was also a testimony to my dad of God’s goodness. Not that God was trying to be let off the hook – God does not need letting off of any hooks. In fact, he purposefully stayed hooked on the cross for all of us – dying in our place so that we might live.
I remember that story today because I read this passage this morning:
Psalm 20:7-8 – “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.”
Not that chariots or horses are bad, but they can mask the person really behind the victory – God. It is not good tires that get me to work – it is God, though God may choose to use the tires. It is not my hand that makes my money, though God may choose to use the skill in my hands or the knowledge in my head, I acknowledge that all good things come from God. And for that reason, I praise and worship a God who is good. And He IS good – all the time.
Rick Mauderer 