When your basket is empty
and the harvest is far away
despair is all your heart recalls
and you can’t bear another day
call on the Lord of the harvest
He will hear you when you pray
In times of great tribulation
your faith the Lord is growing
His perfect and pleasing will
is what He desires your knowing
He will deliver harvest aplenty
fill your basket to overflowing
* * * * *
In the book of Ruth, Naomi finds herself with an empty basket, an empty life. After traveling to a foreign land, her husband dies and then her two sons die. She is left with only her two foreign daughters-in-law. Her life is bitter and barren. But then she returns, with her daughter-in-law Ruth, to her homeland in Bethlehem just at the beginning of the barley harvest. By the end of the story the Lord has refilled her basket with many blessings. During our group discussion of chapter 1 last Monday evening the idea for this poem was born.
Great presidents of these United States
Washington and Lincoln we honor on this day
May their words of wisdom
Bless and keep us on our way
Of all the dispositions and habits
which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable support.¹
May we never forget that
It is impossible to rightly
govern the world
without God and the Bible.¹ In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say,
it is the best gift God has given to man.
All the good the Savior gave to the world
was communicated through this book.²
As we face violence and economic crisis
remind us, O Lord, that at its core,
It is the eternal struggle between these
two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world.
They are the two principles that have stood
face to face from the beginning of time;
and will ever continue to struggle.² Let us raise a standard to which
the wise and honest can repair;
the rest is in the hands of God.¹
Help us, O Lord, to not forget what history
and the wisdom of experience teach.
Let us with caution indulge the supposition
that morality can be maintained without religion.
Reason and experience both forbid us
to expect that national morality can prevail
in exclusion of religious principle.¹
Teach us, O Lord, to emulate our forefathers and say, I have been driven many times upon my knees
by the overwhelming conviction that I had
nowhere else to go.
My own wisdom and that of all about me
seemed insufficient for that day.²
This “found” poem is based on quotes from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as indicated by the footnotes to italicized words as follows:
I read this quote by Nelson Mandela posted on Facebook the other day:
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
At first glance this quote seems right and a wonderful sentiment. And it is partly true — people can be taught to love and the objects of hatred are often taught. But I’m not sure I agree with the idea that no one is born hating. If no human being was ever born hating then who taught mankind to hate? It had to start somewhere.
In Genesis we see Cain expressing hatred for his brother Abel — hatred so strong it led him to commit the first murder. If Cain was not born with that propensity to hate, then who taught him to hate his brother? Surely it wasn’t his parents, Adam and Eve. What did they know of hatred? Only what they had learned from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but I doubt they would have taught that knowledge to Cain and suggest that it was the better course.
After several generations had passed after that first act of hatred by Cain, the Bible tells us, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5 (NIV). Nothing has changed since that time.
I believe that envy, jealousy, selfishness, and pride, which lead to hatred, are all more natural to the human heart than love. I know that when I once looked into my own heart, this is what I saw. Even now there are times when those feelings can so easily rear their ugly head. I doubt that I am so different from other people in this regard, and yet so many fail to see the defects in their own hearts but want to believe that love comes more naturally to them.
Not only can we be taught to love, we must be taught to love. “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 (NIV). Apart from God, and the knowledge of His great love and mercy, the inclinations of the human heart continue to be towards evil. Love flourishes in the human heart and overcomes hatred and selfishness only where love is taught.
Thankfully, “God is love,” 1 John 4:8 (NIV), and He is willing to change the human heart that trusts in Him.
I am always amazed at the things people will believe and repost on Facebook. Here are just a few examples:
Once again the “fact” that the coming month has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays, and that this won’t happen again for 823 years, has been going around. The shared post usually says that if you pass it on you will have good luck or come into some money. It’s fairly easy to debunk this claim by looking an online perpetual calendar, which will reveal that any 31 day month that starts on a Friday will have this 5 Friday, 5 Saturday, and 5 Sunday pattern. And yet people keep falling for this.
A well-meaning warning has been circulating again of a new “trick” of car-jackers. The story is that the car-jackers put a piece of paper on the back window of a car in a mall parking lot and then lay in wait for the owner. When the owner gets in and starts the car, they notice the piece of paper in their back window, and jump out with the car running to see what it is. The would-be car-jacker then jumps in the car and drives off. There are apparently no reported cases of this actually happening in all the years it has been circulating via email and now on Facebook.
During the recent election season a post about how members of Congress do not pay into Social Security and all draw salaries equal to their salaries in office for the rest of their lives regardless of how long they were in Congress. A simple search on www.snopes.com will reveal the truth about the retirement options of members of Congress. And yet people continue to repost this, calling for change.
Since it is the Christmas season, the post attributing a long monologue to Ben Stein has been going around. The first few paragraphs are part of a commentary Stein gave on TV several years ago. But then tacked on the end are some blurbs about Madeleine O’Hare, prayer in schools, and several other topics about how our government is anti-Christian, all of which have been circulating in some form or another for years, and are not in any way attributable to Stein. The mere fact that these things have circulated forever should be enough to make anyone be skeptical. And yet people keep reposting it.
It seems that just because something is posted in a nicely formatted box or comes with a picture of a celebrity people are willing to believe and repost without checking the source of the information. People can be so gullible about the stupidest things.
And yet these same people will often refuse to believe the miracles of God. Even though we have eye-witness accounts of many of these miracles—from the shepherds telling of the angels announcing the birth of Jesus to the post-crucifixion appearance of the resurrected Christ to over 500—people refuse to believe. It is unfathomable that the One who created the world and all that is in it would come to us as the child of a virgin, would live His relatively short life mostly in obscurity, then would die a horrible and brutal death, and be raised from the dead to walk again among the living. It is unfathomable—unless one is willing to believe in the miracle of love and grace.
The apostle John summed up the eye-witness accounts of the authors of the New Testament when he wrote: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”
Some argue that the eye-witness testimony of the New Testament is not reliable because we can’t really know if the Bible as we currently know it is an accurate representation of what was originally written. However, both the quantity and quality of available early manuscripts of the New Testament books, as well as the short time span between the available manuscripts and the events they cover, all point to the reliability of the New Testament. As compared to other accepted writings of ancient philosophers, the New Testament is unparalleled in its reliability. Here is part of a chart from I’m Glad You Asked by Ken Boa and Larry Moody, pg. 93, comparing the New Testament to other writings:
Author
Date Written
Earliest Copy
Time Span
Number of Copies
Accuracy
Homer
ca. 850 B.C.
——
——
643
95%
Plato
ca. 380 B.C.
ca. A.D. 900
1,300 years
7
Not enough copies to reconstruct original
Aristotle
ca. 350 B.C.
ca. A.D. 1100
1,400 years
5
Caesar
ca. 60 B.C.
ca. A.D. 900
950 years
10
Tacitus
ca. A.D. 100
ca. A.D. 1100
1,000 years
20
New Testament
ca. A.D. 60
ca. A.D. 130
100 years
14,000
99.5%
The Bible makes some incredible claims about Jesus and the means of salvation. But when you check the source of this information, the reliability of its eye-witness accounts, and the internal consistency of the promises of God contained in this wonderful book, it doesn’t require gullibility to believe. It only requires an open mind to believe in miracles.
If you are interested in exploring the reliability of this Good News further, I highly recommend Boa and Moody’s book.
The election is finally over! My hope is now that the insulting posts on Facebook will cease just as the political ads will. I don’t think I posted a single political cartoon or joke on Facebook during this election season, and I was very disheartened by how many of my friends did, on both sides of the aisle. Here are just two representative posts shared by some of my Facebook friends yesterday:
As I was reading my Bible this morning before my prayer time, I came across this verse in which Paul is instructing the church in Ephesus how they should conduct themselves: “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” Ephesians 5:4 (NIV). Unfortunately, this has not been heeded this election season (and it’s been a long season!).
The type of coarse joking and foolish talk represented by these two posts is not Godly and it is not helpful for those who post or those who read. This type of rhetoric serves only to divide and belittle. It reduces serious issues to often inaccurate sound bites. Republicans, as a general rule, are not in favor of rape because they are pro-life; Democrats, as a general rule, are not unemployed freeloaders. But those are the messages these posts send and I personally find them incredibly insulting.
My hope and prayer is that going forward we can set aside the extreme rhetoric and work towards the common goals of freedom and justice that this country was founded on. My saving grace is that in spite of it all Jesus is still my King.
The other day I was listening to Creed in my car and one of my favorite songs came on. The song is called What If? It asks the very important question about what happens if we take vengeance on those who hurt us. The chorus says:
What if you did?
What if you lied?
What if I avenge?
What if eye for an eye?
I thought of what is going on in the news in the Middle East and Northern Africa in response to an anti-Islamic movie that was recently released. It is a perfect example of the end result of eye-for-an-eye mentality.
I have not seen the movie, or even the trailer, and I have no intention of doing so. I am not interested in watching a movie that purposely insults or degrades other humans or their religious beliefs. But I fail to understand how the violent protests that have erupted are a reasonable response to a movie. As insulting as this movie might be, it hasn’t hurt anyone. What if someone made this movie and perhaps even lied about Islam? What if those lied about avenge that injury? The result is violence and death.
This is certainly an extreme example of eye-for-an-eye mentality, and is not indicative of the mentality of all Muslims at all.
But unfortunately we see this mentality on a smaller scale in our everyday lives. When we are hurt we want those who hurt us to pay; we want vengeance.
Many people think eye for an eye is Biblical, and there is certainly some of this mentality exhibited among people in the Old Testament. But God does not call us to such an attitude. In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul reminds us to trust God for justice:
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. ”But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:17-21 (NASB).
My favorite part of the song What if? is the bridge at the end that says:
I know that I can’t
hold the hate inside my mind
‘Cause what consumes your thoughts
controls your life
If we cling to hatred and our “right” not to be insulted by others, then hatred will control our lives. I prefer to cling to God’s love and let that love control my life.
One last thing, a warning of sorts: If you don’t like hard rock you might not want to listen to this song. It’s pretty rockin’!
For the past 3 months I’ve been reading through Psalms one at a time at the beginning of my morning prayer time. I’m up to Psalm 65 today. As I came to verse 7 of this beautiful Psalm I paused and reread it, then thought to myself, “There You are, Jesus!”
I love finding Jesus in the Old Testament and seeing how the Old and New Testaments are so intimately connected. Here is Psalm 65:7 in the New King James Version that I was reading:
You who still the noise of the seas,
The noise of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
This verse reminded me of the story of Jesus in the boat with His disciples as recorded in Matthew 8:
Jesus Calms the Storm
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
What kind of a man, indeed. Psalm 65 answers this question. He is the Living God, the God of our salvation.
This afternoon I attended a session at the ACLEA conference I am at that was titled “Put Your Oxygen Mask on First.” It was all about taking care of oneself so that we reduce our stress and can then be available to accomplish those things we are called to do and to care for those people we are called to care for. This requires some sort of balance in one’s life.
With audience input, we came up with a definition of balance: “Prioritize things that matter most. Live according to your priorities.”
At the beginning of the session the speaker asked what movies, songs, quotes, or other things people used to reduce their stress. My answer, which he asked me to repeat into the microphone, was to remember Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, bring your requests to God.” This is my go-to quote when I feel stressed.
For me, my priorities are spending time with God and in the Word, spending time with and taking care of my family, taking care of my dog, giving my best when I am at work (but leaving work at the office), giving back to others the blessings that I have received, and staying healthy so I can do all of those things.
As I pondered the goal the speaker set before us—to do one thing differently—I actually came up with several things that I want to do in order to live according to my priorities.
Almost two years ago, I decided I wanted to read the entire Bible again, but in the New Living Translation this time. As I survey in my mind the checklist of verses to be read in a year, realizing it’s been almost two since I vowed to read His Word each day, I see there are many checkmarks but there are also many chapters remaining to read tomorrow and each day. One thing I could do differently is to get back on track with my daily reading schedule.
Something that always makes me feel better is to take my little dog Roman for a walk. It’s good exercise for both of us. I often see him nose his leash and I see the tennis balls lined up on the windowsill where he looks out onto the world. But I seldom take him for a walk. One thing I could do differently is to take Roman for a walk every day after work, even if it’s just a short walk.
There are some songs that just make me want to dance, and I do love to dance, but I don’t do it very often. It is great exercise and always lifts my spirits. When I was younger I used to dance all the time. One thing I could do differently is to turn on music and dance a little while I’m making dinner several times per week.
At work, my office is on the third floor. I know it’s only two flights of stairs to get there, but for some reason in the morning I’ve developed the habit of taking the elevator (even though it drives me nuts when it is so slow). I use the excuse that I’m carrying things, but it’s not really a very good reason to ride the elevator instead of climbing the stairs. Considering I sit most of the day for my job, taking the stairs in the morning would be really good for me. One thing I could do differently is to take the stairs up to my office each morning even if it does leave me out of breath.
So there are, not just one, but four things that I could do differently to reduce my stress level and help me live my priorities without feeling burned out by all that I have to do. What are your priorities and what could you do differently to live your priorities?
