Blog Archives

WAKING UP GRUMPY

1/9/2017

waking up grumpy

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Eph 4:29-32)

Calvary Christian Bookstore had a decorative pillow that said: “Sometimes, I wake up grumpy. And sometimes, I just let him sleep.” Obviously, being grumpy is not a Christian virtue. But, sometimes don’t you sort of feel like being a little grumpy…at least a wee-bit? You notice that the number five bird in the picture is not singing. He’s not a full-fledged grump, but he doesn’t feel up to singing with the others.

Sometimes it’s our body chemistry, or the gout, or a cold virus is moving in and we just don’t feel like singing. And, we don’t like it much when somebody else feels like singing. But, aside from coming down with a virus, some folks just seem to be born out of sorts and others are nice some days and drift into the “grump” attitude on other days. It starts in kindergarten, the disposition thing. And others seem to have an appetite for strife and contention as a way of life.

In the New Testament, we don’t have a big detailed list of things to do and not do. The New Testament deals more with attitude than with action. But, it does insist on moral restraint, moral structure, and some of it is “do and don’t” just like the Old Testament. More often, we call it “living the Christian life.” Since much of our living involves actions between people, our first order of good behavior is the management of our tongues. An unholy tongue grieves the Holy Spirit and aggravates people around us. We are told that …the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (Jas 3:8)

Jesus said: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. (Luk 6:45) And…
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:34-35)

Someone has said that the tongue is located in a slippery place and we should be careful how we turn it loose without a handrail. Gathering up careless words is like gathering up feathers that have been shaken into the wind. Careless words turn into cruel words and words probably destroy more homes and cripple the lives of more children than alcohol and drugs. That’s a strong statement but I believe it is a true statement. Managing our tongues is a serious responsibility before men and before God.

The word “mouth” occurs 424 times in the King James Bible and the word “tongue” occurs 129 times. It’s not all about speaking but a lot of it is. That doesn’t cover the plural forms of the words. If we want to know what God thinks and what our duty is, looking up these two words in the all the places they occur in the Bible can provide a lot of cloth for making a godly garment.

Thirty years ago, when Barbara and I married, I said: “I may get grumpy when we turn eighty.” She replied, “You better not.” About everyone knows what being grumpy is and I’ve never heard anyone say: “Oh! I just love being around grumpy people!”

Our text today is, I believe, the abbreviated encyclopedia of Christian living. There are other sins of murder and adultery and stealing, etc. But nothing is as handy and easy to engage in as complaining and whining and seeing everything through a dirty window. Unholy talk grieves the Spirit of God, as our text today declares. No corrupt communication. That about covers it. James said it this way: For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. (Jas 3:2) Of course, the control our mouths and tongues comes from deep within: from the heart.

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psa 139:23-24) Ω

READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
JANUARY 10, 2017 – TUESDAY
A.M. Genesis 25-26 P.M. Matthew 9:1-17
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Mixed Quartet: Power in the Name of the Lord (Breath of Life Quartet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLEZgtk4SiU

(Wait several seconds. You may have to delete an ad.)

0 Comments

Plenty Good Room

1/8/2017

0 Comments

Plenty Good Room…
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (Joh 14:2-3)

Have you ever gone through a time when you felt like there was not enough room for you, that you were not wanted? For me, it was when I was almost six and school would start soon. My Aunt Esther (mother’s sister) was taking me from Medlock Hollow to visit with her and Uncle Ed in Nashville, TN for two weeks. It was a plush trip in her black, smooth, quiet, six cylinder ‘36 Dodge.

I was accustomed to nothing more elaborate than Grandpa’s ’29 Model A Ford that was built to get you from Point A to Point B on four cylinders… decent but not so smooth. Dad liked better cars than this but had lost his nice V/8 Ford coupe in a bank swoop during the Great Depression that relieved us of our sawmill, steam boiler, lumber truck, and Dad’s prize Ford V/8.

We had plenty to eat but Medlock had none of the niceties of electric lights, refrigerator, or turn a knob stove in the kitchen. I was going to Nashville where there was…everything! They could pick up the phone receiver and order me a popsicle that would be delivered by a Harley tricycle equipped with a dry-ice compartment for ice cream. Movies? They even had movies in the park after dark. Swimming pool? They had the big Cascade Plunge where you could wet your toes or dive from ten feet high at the deep end. At not quite six, I was still “a toe man” at the water’s edge.

But, on our way to “glory land,” I was in the back seat and the conversation in the front seat between Aunt Esther and my cousin, Anna Price was waay over my head. My futile efforts to break into the conversation got nowhere and suddenly I realized with great force: “they don’t really care anything about me; they don’t even know I’m with them, and I’ve got two weeks of being ignored like this. I am in sad shape. I should have stayed in Medlock Hollow where I belong and let them go on home to Nashville where they belong in that strange place. They don’t have a horse or a dog. I was…. home sick! And it wasn’t even dark yet. It doesn’t take a six-year-old long to lose it all.

Since that day, feeling lonely dredges up the afternoon in the back seat of that ’36 Dodge. So much of life is based on how you were shaped in your first six years. I later read about it in the psychology books that made it official. Feeling left out is a real thing with a lot of people. The good side of the “Dodge incident” was the lesson that sometimes the answer is to: “get outta Dodge.” I got tonsillitis and asked Aunt Esther how much longer before I could go home. Another week. “If I could find my way out of here I would just walk home.” (125 miles) Aunt Esther was amused. I wasn’t amused. I decided that in this life I would not hang around where I’m not wanted. It’s their bad luck if they don’t know how wonderful I am. (Later, I learned that I was petted to death and got an undue amount of attention in Medlock. There were other people in the world besides me, but that was a later lesson.)

God knows about our longing for home and writes about it in His book. In our verses for today, Jesus says He’s going to fix the problem. “Home” is a wonderful word that goes deep. Even dogs, cats and birds know about home. At night, the chickens that have roamed loose all day, come home to roost. Jesus said: …The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Mat 8:20)

We need breath and we need home. The homeless people in our streets usually don’t move around from day to day. They stake out a place and go there at night. If it’s under a bridge, they will make a nest of sort and claim it, defend it against intrusion. The few belongings they have will be stashed there. If they are sick, they will die there. It’s “the place” that’s so important. Jesus said He would prepare a place for us. We will not be roaming all over Heaven when we get there. We will have our place in Heaven. Jesus has been working on our place in Heaven for two thousand years. It must be a good place and prepared just right. We won’t be disappointed.

We will have a place and we will have a person, His Person. He will receive us there unto Himself. Jehovah God said: Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his Saints. (Psa 116:15). He sees every sparrow that falls and are we not worth as much to Him as a sparrow? God’s invitation is to all. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Mat 11:28) And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mar 16:15)

When we have been aggravated or rejected by someone we’ve invited to be saved, we must say to ourselves: “Be patient with this man. He’s one of the creatures we’re supposed to preach the gospel to.” An inner voice says: “Be patient. I died for this person. This one is precious to me.” There’s plenty good room in our Father’s House. Ω

READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
JANUARY 9, 2017 – MONDAY
A.M. Genesis 23-24
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+23-24&version=KJV
P.M. Matthew 8
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+8&version=KJV
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

MEMORY VERSE THIS MONTH: And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deu 6:6-7

VERSES OF THE WEEK: Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; (Deu 4:9)

Acapella Mixed Quartet: Plenty Good Room (Breath of Life Quartet 1975)
(This is extra good quality, close harmony. Internationally known black singing group.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2op1n9Mr6A
(Wait several seconds. You may have to delete an ad.)

(I learned this song from the Eureka Jubilee Singers at Highland Park Baptist Church about 1955)
Dan Carr

0 Comments

Our Fatherless Nation

1/7/2017

0 Comments

Our Fatherless Nation
And he (John the Baptist) shall go before him (ahead of or before the coming Messiah) in the spirit and power of Elias, (Elijah) to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Luke 1:17)

Competent experts who study the fabric of our society have been warning us for many years that our nation is suffering a great wound of division and anger among young people because of the absence of fathers in the home. In our large inner cities, the absence of fathers contributes heavily to the formation of gangs and gang wars and killing such as Chicago is experiencing. A nation at war always suffers from the absence of the fathers who have left home to fight in the war. When the population is mobile and lacks geographical stability, homes lose the presence of fathers.

A mortgage company told me that the average length of a home mortgage in America is less than seven years. Another mortgage company gave me the same answer to that question over fifty years ago. When the father is absent from the home, the bonding between the father and children is either weakened or non-existent. To me, it is striking that the greatest effect of the ministry of John the Baptist is the turning of the hearts of the fathers to the children. (Luke 1:17)

When I was the principal of a high school in Florida, one day a young lady who had been a student at our school came by my office to visit for a few minutes. I could feel the hunger in her heart to talk so I listened. She was twisting a little key chain in her hand as she leaned against the jam of the door. I knew the keys were to a new car her daddy had given her recently. I asked her about the car and suddenly the tears began to course down her cheeks and her lips trembled as she blurted out: “But I don’t care anything about a new car or all the new clothes my daddy gives me to get rid of me! I just want my daddy! I just want him to have time for me! He has money and he buys me things but that’s not what I want. I want my daddy!” I never got over that conversation to this day. It still moves me after forty years.

In America, I believe the greatest need is for us to turn our hearts to the Lord. And right after that, the greatest need is for the fathers to turn their hearts to their children. “Let us understand clearly that although John the Baptist went forth in the spirit and power of Elijah, he was not Elijah. John would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. He was to bridge the generation gap. Our problem today is not so much that there is a gap between the adults and youth but that there is a gap between adults and God. If adults had a proper relationship with God, they would not have the problem with young people that exists.” (McGee) “

To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children - In the time of John the Jews were divided into a number of different sects. They were opposed violently to each other, and pursued their opposition with great animosity. It was impossible but that this opposition should find its way into families, and divide parents and children from each other. John came that he might allay these animosities and produce better feeling. By directing them all to “one Master,” the Messiah, he would divert their attention from the causes of their difference and bring them to union. He would restore peace to their families, and reconcile those parents and children who had chosen different sects, and who had suffered their attachment “to sect” to interrupt the harmony of their households.

"The effect of true religion on a family will always be to produce harmony. It attaches all the family to “one” great Master, and by attachment to him all minor causes of difference are forgotten. “And the disobedient to the wisdom of the just - The “disobedient” here are the unbelieving, and hence the impious, the wicked. These he would turn to the wisdom of the just, or to such wisdom as the “just” or pious manifest - that is, to true wisdom. To make ready a people ... - To prepare them for his coming by announcing that the Messiah was about to appear, and by calling them to repentance.

"God has always required people to be pure in a special manner when he was about to appear among them. Thus, the Israelites were required to purify themselves for three days when he was about to come down on Mount Sinai, Exo 19:14-15. And so, when God the Son was about to appear as the Redeemer, he required that people should “prepare” themselves for his coming. So in view of the future judgment - the second coming of the Son of man - he requires that people should repent, believe, and be pure, 1Pe 4:7; 2Pe 3:11-12. (Albert Barnes)

In my listening to the stories of many troubled people, the absence of the father is obvious. When I say, “Talk to me about your father and mother,” we begin to get closer to the problem at hand. There is no substitute for a loving, Godly mother and there is no substitute for a loving, Godly father. Some people have trouble thinking of God as a loving Heavenly Father because they had an abusive father or they never had a father at all. John the Baptist would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. A fatherless nation is a troubled nation that cannot be healed so easily. The solution is what God told His people centuries ago: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2Ch 7:14) Ω

READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR JANUARY 5, 2017 – THURSDAY
A.M. Genesis 12-14
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+12-14&version=KJV
P.M. Matthew 5:1-26
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A1-26&version=KJV

(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

MEMORY VERSE THIS MONTH: And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deu 6:6-7 Verses of the week: Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; (Deu 4:9)

Huge Youth Choir & Orchestra: Come Thou Fount (Dan Sage 6:30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUhU0HgTq94&index=11&list=PLT1vrQX09gh3 mRm2JpQpNfss1NvCNbv3D (Wait several seconds. You may have to delete an ad.)

0 Comments

WAKING UP GRUMPY

waking up grumpy

Plenty Good Room

Our Fatherless Nation

Author

Archives

Categories