You're not thinking that are you?

Here is a post from one of my yesteryears...

There it was, it call was clear and loud.
 

I passed it by and thought well of myself, only to find my mind running back to its location.

 

What's a man to do, after all I'm only human.

 

I can stand up to this, truly, I can! No Bill, don't, Bill, stop, BILL!!!

 

I lost, there in my hand was the Payday bar. Not just any Payday bar but the AVALANCHE Chocolate Payday bar. How was I to resist, it's aroma was leaking through the outer wrapper and well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, so I bought it.

All the way to the register my taste buds were crying out DON'T WAIT, but the penalty would be more than the sugar rush and possible weight addition, if I opened it and consumed, I may get to visit those nice young men in their wonderful uniforms.

 

As the sign in one of the stores said... Those who shoplift get a free taxi ride downtown in a police car. Well I've been to Chicago and survived that cab ride, I didn't want to take my chances on the one that stopped at the Three hots And A Cot Hotel. I did my time in jail.... As a chaplain, stop worrying.

 

Well enough running off at the stupid words side of life, have you found yourself in a situation where it was more than a Payday bar?

What's the one thing satan can use to get you off track?

 

What little whisper or colorful image does he employ to get your mind off the straight and narrow and begin to drown you in a sea of regret?

 

Well my friend, no matter what it is, your not alone. All of us have something that if others knew about it, we'd be horrified for life.

 

Let's talk about you how to begin to face this monster of Temptation...

 

First, admit it, I mean it. This is not some coy use of words. Find someone you can really trust and TELL THEM. The enemy's number one tool to keep you shame filled and defeated is worry about the judgmental attitude he tells you others will have. The power of a dirty secret is that it's a secret. I have found that I have 1 or 2 people in my life that I can come clean with (great phrase if you truly want to clean up your act). This is not a guarantee that you won't face it again, but when you do, you have somewhere to run and tell. A friend of mine has a great phrase he shares regularly, A burden shared is a burden cut in half.

 

Second, quit the blame game. I don't know your story and I am not trying to minimize your pain, but it's your turn now. You can make a choice, it's the way God made us, it's called free will. You see, once you know it's wrong and you know to blame it on whoever victimized you, you are now aware of both sides of the issue. Now it's your turn. Make the choice, do the thing you wanted the person who hurt you to do. Stop the cycle, quit the blame game.

 

Third, remember you've got an ally. Jesus was tempted like we were (Hebrews 4:15-16) but won the victory over the satan's attacks. One of my favorite verses to recall when I get my wits about me in a tempting situation ( I wish my wits would show up more often, don't you? I mean your wits no mine!) is I Corinthians 10:13. Listen to it's words and let them sink in...

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

I Corinthians 10:13 NKJV

Broken down it looks like this...

...Sex, Drugs, Bad Music (Country can be as bad as Rock), Greed, Power Hunger, Rage, jealousy, Violence, Stealing, Adultery, Booze, Etc, I could go on and on. ALL BEEN TRIED BEFORE AND WITH THE SAME RESULTS!!! The person either gave in or not. But you're not the first to struggle with what you have going on in your melon.

...Since Jesus understands this, he is willing to help you get the victory over it.

...When you get the upper hand with His help, you're actually picking up strength for the next time the chump comes calling.

Can't find anyone to talk to? Tell Me! I've heard a lot of things, yours can't be too far from the one I heard during my time in jail. Or if you think that's bad, I ran youth camps for 5 years, now that trumps the jail. At least in jail I had bars between me and the most violent ones!

Hey, I'm serious, don't let satan dim your light, Tell someone (become accountable), Quit pointing fingers (there's more pointing back at you when you do), and Put your hand in the hand of the man Who stilled the water, Put your hand in the hand of the man Who calmed the sea, Take a look at yourself And you can look at others differently, Put your hand in the hand of the man From Galilee (yes it's an old song, but the words fit).

 

You're Not Alone, take a look at the picture again, see whose in the ray of SONshine...

Easy? I should say not...

I sit here staring at a keyboard and realize that you may or may not have read the previous three posts on this topic….

First was, “I Love Complicated”, what a crazy thing to say about wanting to know how to find God…

Next, I wanted you to see that inside of you is a compass that points to things we all, in spite of our background,  says that we know what is right, even if it is skewed…. A Good Hard Kick In The Shin...

Then we visited the front page of the newspaper Dating Jesus?...

Now, let’s stagger into another thought along this path of fuzzy ramblings…

Let me say this before I ramble on… I am sorry for the times I’ve personally complicated life for those within as well as those without the faith.  I can only say that I was sincere and believed that I WAS leading others in the right way.  And despite my failings, God has been faithful, I am so thankful and blessed by this fact.

Now, onto deeper waters (well as deep as a short man can go).

What would you say if I told you that if you want to go to heaven you must learn to juggle to go to heaven?  If you can’t learn to juggle or are without the means physically, then you will just have to find some way to enjoy hell.  Did I really say that, enjoy hell?

Let me use these two thoughts as a spring board to begin our quest for deeper water.

First, no one, and I mean no one, will, if they make hell, enjoy themselves.  The other simple thought is that those who talk of such things like having parties in hell, have no concept of what total chaos, pain and confusion are.  Add these and other things I have no idea how to describe and put them in a glass and no one would even take a sip, let alone guzzle it.  One touch of a hot piece of metal against your flesh and you would be crying out to momma.  Hell, even if I am wrong about the fire, is a place described as torment.  I’ve gotten a glimpse of torment as I watched a cancer patients struggle so hard to breath that their facial expression was crushed by their all out effort to gain one more sip of air for their fluid filled collapsing lungs.  The face was gruesome but it does not hold a lamp to the things hinted at in hell by writers much more skilled than I.

You may think me archaic to talk of hell, but despite the fact that I don’t like the topic doesn’t make it any less a reality.  As a matter of fact, I don’t like roller coasters, I have an aversion to them even though my younger days were filled with rides, smiles and screams of joy.  Today I only shutter and nearly fall over dizzy when watching one at an IMAX theatre.  I just don’t want to pass along false information.  To borrow one of my favorite writers’ book titles, “Hell is Real: But I Hate to Admit It.”

Moving on, let’s get back to juggling…

Can you juggle?  Well, imagine as I said earlier, what if God required you to in order to enter heaven and you couldn’t juggle.  No matter how much you tried you didn’t have a chance. What would you say to that requirement?   Then, just for laughs sake there came along a messenger, he/she told you that you could choose any professional juggler to do your juggling for you and you would be admitted into heaven based on that juggler’s ability.  To the first you may say “foul”, but the second you might breathe a sigh of relief.  I was sitting here realizing it has been nearly 20 years since I juggled, I was never great and would not have had a career doing it, but it was amusing to the attendees at the local ball parks where I was an umpire.  It occurred to me when I started typing this juggling illustration I have used many times that if I was to face God, I now would be disqualified because I am “out of practice”.

Hmmmm… that bothers me.  Does that bother you?

Let’s do a little thinking, just for the sake of my comfort if not yours.  I think down deep inside, all of us want to go to a “better place”, we want our loved ones to go to a “better place”, but what does it take to go to a  better place?  In other words, what do you think God requires for you and I to be admitted into heaven?  God says about himself “I am holy” (recorded by Peter, the one called St. Peter, but I am not sure he’s at the gate though).  Peter proceeded this phrase by one of comparison, “be holy…” then “for I am holy.”  Wow, holy.  Websters defines “holy” as “religious and morally good”.

Again, I say…  hmmmm… that bothers me.  I wonder again, does that bother you?

Morally good, that is something that you and I can identify with and most of us have done a good job, we’ve probably kept most of the rules.  But have we kept them all?  Did we always do what mom and dad wanted?  Did we ever stretch the truth (lie) before?  Not a blatant everyone gets hurt lie, but you know, just one to keep things calm in a tense situation.  I could go down the list of possibilities, but it’s futile if you think about it, we know we’re not perfect morally.  Maybe good, really good, but not perfect, you see all of us have an idea of morally good, but compared to God, who is perfect, we fall short of his “holiness”.

Now, you may already see my line of reasoning and are all set to counter it with “you’re just trying to trick me/us.”  But what if I’m not trying to trick you?  Truly what good would it do me to guilt you or shame you into following something or someone.  You’ve been down that road, maybe it was a preacher or some TV evangelist or maybe your goody-two-shoes neighbor.  It may have been a date, a girlfriend/boyfriend, salesman or multilevel marketing program.  Regardless, if it feels like you’ve been taken down the road it doesn’t feel good.  I’ve been taken, and I don’t like it any more than you.

Do what you wish with what I am about to write, i really care about you and I don’t need any more enemies than I already have.  So don’t take my word for what I am about to share and for certain don’t shoot the messenger.

Holiness = juggling.  Professional juggler = Jesus.  Not being perfect = sin (that is God’s term, not mine).  

And the answer to the dilemma?  Be willing to admit you’re not perfect, Jesus was, his death on the cross was the ultimate payment for your sin and ask him to forgive you and give you heaven in exchange for your limited life here on earth.  One second after you leave here (die) you will be glad you did, even eternally grateful.

Don’t complicate things any more than you have to, it’s relatively simple (or at least I think it is), this way of getting to heaven is the most fair, most complete and the most reliable.  Jesus said it himself, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father (God) except by me”

You see…

Christianity, Jesus is truly the fairest option…

...Everybody is welcome (no matter who you are, what you believed, where you were born or what you’ve done)

...Everybody gets in the same way (there are no “elitists” or “more spiritual” way with secret doors chants or rituals)

...Everybody can meet the requirement (Jesus makes you righteous when you simply ask him to forgive you)

One last thought, this one if from a murderer who met Jesus on a trip, it was his own transformation that he was explaining and inviting others to share, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.   As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”    Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.  For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

His name was Paul, you may know him by his religious name of St. Paul.  By the way, he hung with that other “saint” guy, Peter, as a matter of fact, they both believed the same thing….

Till next time….