Shout!

In 1959, the musical group, The Isley Brothers, released a song which has never stopped being a hit. That song is “Shout!”. It has been recorded by several artists since then and it is almost impossible to go to a dance featuring rock music without hearing it and dancing to it at least once. Here are the first few lines:

You know you make me want to (Shout)

Kick my heels up and (Shout)

Throw my hands up and (Shout)

Throw my head back and (Shout)

Come on now (Shout)

That is probably the way your soul felt when you first found God, the first time you let Jesus into your life. You were full of celebration, of joy, full of life. Maybe you are very demonstrative, very vocal and couldn’t wait to tell everyone what you found. Or, maybe you are quiet, internal, and felt the thrill of discovery fill you up like a cup filled to the brink of running over.

The knowledge and love of God, of his son, Jesus, may make you want to share it. I’m not talking about standing on some street corner, buttonholing every passerby, to tell them your story. Such a thing would be counterproductive in the extreme. (Just think how you would feel if you were the accostee!) Instead, be God’s instrument and let him guide you to those who need to hear what you have to say. Let him do the choosing, you do the telling. In this way, you can serve him, leading others to what you have found, what you have made a part of your life.

Psalm 100:1-5 starts put this way:

“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands.” (NKJV)

Let the way you live your life be your shout. Let the joy of your love for God, for his son, be integrated into what you do, what you are, so that it attracts those whom he wants you to bring his way.

Homecoming

Back during the last Christmas season, every time I turned on the radio I was treated to an unending stream of Christmas songs. Whenever I walked into a store, it was the same thing, Christmas music from the ceiling speakers. While there was a lot of variety, I could count on hearing Gene Autry spin the tale about Rudolph and listen to Bing Crosby sing about his memories and longing for a White Christmas. Among all of the selections, I could count on hearing those two at least once per day, and often more.

Now, I like Gene Autry. He made a lot of low budget western movies and a TV series back in the 1950’s. As for Bing, he had a very long and successful music career. However, after a while, I maxed out on Gene, Bing, the Chipmunks, and all of the other Christmas fare and went searching for something else.

One of the places I went was to YouTube. I have gone there quite often when I was trying to do something or fix something, like the time I replaced the headlights on my wife’s car, repaired the leaf blower and figured out why the refrigerator was leaking water. There is also a lot of music and music videos out there, too. This time I went looking for different Christmas music and I found some. What I stumbled across was the United States Navy Band Christmas Concert 2018. If you have never listened to them before, check them out because they are absolutely top drawer professionals. Besides the main band, there is a country music band and a couple of choirs. Great music!. Anyway, interspersed between some of the songs were videos of sailors and marines with recorded Christmas greeting for the family and friends back home. Then there were videos of homecomings, when the deployed members returned home after a deployment and were reunited with their families. As expected, there were spouses and kids running to their sailors. One video was of a daddy who walked into his daughter’s classroom and she was stunned! - and then leaped into his arms. Joyous reunions among the joyous songs.

Joy-filled reunions. There is the bible story we all know about the prodigal son who finally came home and his father running down the road to welcome him back home. There was also the story of the lost sheep and how the shepherd rejoiced and celebrated when he found it.

Sometimes we also lose our way, we get separated from God for whatever reason. We go our own way and end up in a place and set of circumstances which keep us away. God will always welcome us back when we return, when we see where and how we are, and turn back to him. He is always there, waiting with open arms, welcoming us back with great joy. Sometimes he will send a messenger to try to point us in the right direction. It may be a family member, friend, a minister, or even a stranger we just “accidently” run into one day. Sometimes it may even be a movie, TV program or a book that catches our attention. Whatever it takes, in whatever form, God is waiting for us and he wants us to return to him. And then there is that final welcoming, when we leave this life behind and join him for eternity.

How about you? Hopefully, you are one of those who have followed him throughout your life and know you will be welcomed home. If, on the other hand, you are one of the lost sheep, then you need to stop and hear the call and return to his earthly home, whether a church or elsewhere, so you can be ready for that final welcoming. Take a look at yourself and see where you are, and fit yourself into his plans. You can do it. Happy Homecoming!

Think It, Be It!

Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (NKJV)

A more modern version of that quote is, “You are what you think you are.” You have an incredibly
powerful tool at your fingertips, figuratively speaking. Actually, it is located between your ears. It is
your brain; it houses your mind, that very complex three-pound tool that runs your body and your life.  Once upon a time, it was a known “fact” that no one could run a mile faster than four minutes. A man named Roger Bannister didn’t believe it and on May 6, 1954, he ran the first sub-four minute mile.  History books and record books are full of stories of people who did not agree with a popular belief, either about themselves as individuals or as part of a group. In the last few years there have been two movies about the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of African-American fighter pilots in World War II who, as the 332nd Fighter Group, amassed a tremendous record. They proved beyond any doubts that an official Army study which stated African-Americans did not have the brain power, physical ability and aggressiveness to become fighter pilots was completely wrong. They saw themselves differently and proved it in the skies over Europe.

That power that God gave us to control our own life, our destiny, is one of His greatest gifts to us. He
has given us the ability to change our lives, our behavior, in such a way that it benefits us, our family,
and God. It also has the unbridled ability to do just the opposite. Our thoughts can raise us up above
the expectations of anyone else, or they can sink us to the lowest depths. Our lives, within the
limitations of our physical bodies, can accomplish almost anything we can imagine.

So, who is in control of the way we act, speak, or think? We are. No one can control us except God, and He has given us the free will to choose. We choose. One more time: WE choose. It is a natural
tendency to blame someone else for our poor behavior. How many times have you told someone, “You make me SO ANGRY!”? Really? Just how did they do that? Did they take over the control of your mind?  For you Star Trek fans, did someone do the Vulcan Mind Meld and force their thoughts into your mind and control you? Nope. It didn’t happen. Someone else may have done something or said something you didn’t like, but you made a choice to get angry, even to the point of physical violence. There was a comedian many years ago whose catch-phrase was, “The devil made me do it.” Not even the devil has that much power. He can tempt you and you can follow that path, but it is still your decision.

We also make a choice to be happy. There is so much focus on the negative aspects of choice that this
needs to be said as well. Life’s events are neutral. How we react to them is the choice we make. When we engage in certain activities, see certain people, observe something or someone, we choose our reaction. When we judge that as something good, we choose to be happy. It may not be a conscious choice; it may be a matter of acting or thinking or feeling that we have done before and now repeat.

All too often, a relationship starts out smoothly. Whether it is with a spouse, child, parent, friend, or
work associate. What happens when one of them starts to have a problem with the other? What may
happen is that a choice is made to cause damage to the relationship, one that should not be made. Or, a choice may be made to work on it, to not allow damage to happen. One person CHOOSES to take that path. Any relationship is tough by anyone’s definition and making it a successful one is not for the fainthearted.How do you see yourself in your relationships? Do you see yourself as being strong in it, willing to be a partner, to compromise when necessary, to help and support and defend? Or, do you see yourself as having one foot out the door, as being willing to “try” to make the relationship a success, but in reality ready to quit at the first difficulty, to cause relationship-ending damage? As the Proverb above says, the way you see yourself, the way you see your part in any relationship, is how it is going to be, because that is the way that you are going to make it be.

No one likes to take the blame for their own actions or words. We all like to blame someone else for our failures and, conversely, take the credit for our successes. Like the student who takes the credit for the top grade and then blames the teacher for the poor one, we are the sum of our choices in this life and the product of how we see ourselves. We are also responsible for where we spend the next life. If you choose to follow the guidance that God has given to all of us, then you will get to be one of those who spend eternity with Him. If you choose to ignore His guidance, then you have chosen to spend eternity someplace else, in a place that is infinitely unpleasant.

Think about what you choose to be. Do you see yourself as one who chooses to believe in God, to
follow him and his son, Jesus Christ, to allow the Holy Spirit enter into your life? Or, do you see yourself as one who denies all of that? The scripture quote at the top is not just some catch phrase, it is an absolute truth.

Life and the afterlife are all within your control. You get to choose. It is how you see yourself that will determine your ultimate destination. So, what is your vision?

Oil And Water

It is a well-known cliche' that oil and water do not mix. It doesn't matter how hard you stir or shake it, when you finish, it will separate back to two distinct layers of oil and water. However, if you add some soap to the mix, then the two can become one liquid which is neither oil nor water but something else entirely.

The same is true of another saying that you cannot mix fire and ice because one will destroy the other. However, if you do put them together what you will get is warm water, again something that is a combination of the two.

People are the same as either of the above or any other set of opposites you can imagine. Each brings particular characteristics to the relationship that may not seem to mix well with the other. It is what they do with the differences that make the difference. The differences can continue on for years as each tries to maintain their individuality. What is needed is a substance like the soap that is added to the oil and water. That is not a "what" but a "who". The best "who" for this is God. It takes more than just his presence, but rather the willingness of the two individuals to allow him into the relationship and to follow what he teaches us about the way he wants us to live.

The bible is certainly the primary source for that, but there many books that have been written on the subject and priests, ministers and rabbis who are there to teach us and lead us. On top of that, there are counselors who have been trained to guide people, not just according to the guidelines of psychology, but also in God's way.

Are you the oil or the water? Are you the fire or the ice? Are you sticking with what you are or are you open to change? If you are in a relationship and you are insisting on keeping your identity, then you cannot become something new. Do you reject the soap that can change you into something new and exciting? Are you avoiding the proximity of the other so you cannot change into something warm and comforting? If so, then you are avoiding the plan that God has laid out for us. It was never in his plan for us to be alone, ever since the first couple trod the land. Are you afraid of the change, that you will lose yourself? In a sense you may. You will lose part of yourself in the other person and, and at the same time, gain a part of them to make a whole new being, a new life force. Remember what it says in his book, that a man will leave his mother and a woman leave her home and the two shall become one.

That is the plan God laid out for us from the very beginning. Since it is his design, it is one of perfection. How can you go wrong with a perfect plan?