"Place, Not Replace"

 

“Place, Not Replace”

 

As I pen these words in late May most churches have reopened for in person services but have continued to Live Stream or otherwise provide for remote worship. Had the COVID-19 pandemic occurred a generation ago we’d have been far more isolated from those we’d been with regularly at church activities so we see the value of contemporary technology for keeping us connected, albeit in a more limited way than usual. Karen and I have enjoyed catching up with friends as people become more comfortable with face-to-face interaction (while maintaining “social distancing”), especially now that most have been fully vaccinated,

Attending “The Church of the Lay-Z-Boy” (aka “The Church of the Living Room Couch”) has had its place and still does during such times as illness, bad weather or (until the end of March) my hospital on-call weekends. But it wasn’t intended to replace gathering with God’s people. The temptation to stay in our comfortable home surroundings can be strong—we’ve had to fight it more than once—but it’s nothing new. Around 67 AD an unknown servant of God cautioned, “…Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of (Christ’s) coming is drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:25, NLT). This letter was written during a time of persecution when Nero was Roman Emperor so some may have felt safer in their own homes. (This is likely still true today in places where Christians are suffering for their faith.) But the experience of many, including us, says we’re missing the best God has for us if we choose our own convenience rather than His desires for us.

During our 1997 visit to Sequoia National Park Karen and I saw how the redwoods stood strong in groups but many isolated ones had fallen. (See “Safety in Numbers”, an early posting, to learn the reason this happens.) To my knowledge the Scriptures never condone believers’ isolating themselves from their brothers and sisters—in fact, Paul assumes they’ll meet as the body of Christ (“…when you come together….”—1 Corinthians 11:33, emphasis added). May we as God’s people understand our place with one another and not replace it with anything that may compromise God’s intentions and wishes for us.

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan

"Dailyness"

 

“Dailyness”

 

Years ago I heard Karen say, “Life is so daily.” What does this mean to you? “Same ol’, same ol’”? “Same stuff, different day”? Being in a rut? Dullness and boredom? Maybe all of the above. But dare we call it routine when God has given us each new day? An anonymous psalmist says no—“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24, emphasis added). (For another take on this subject look back at “A ‘Routine’ Day?”)

Most of us have responsibilities and other matters we must attend to every day (e.g. eating, work, household chores). These can become habits which we may do without thinking and become discombobulated if the routine varies. But if we keep Paul’s admonition in mind, “…Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus….” (Colossians 3:17, emphasis added)) we can avoid this pitfall.

Scripture gives us a number of daily practices which God would have us observe (emphasis added in each case):

*Praise (“Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever.”—Psalm 145:2).

*Read God’s Word (“{Ezra} read from the book of the law of God daily….”—Nehemiah 8:18, NASB).

*Closely examine Scripture (“…The Bereans…examined the Scriptures every day….”—Acts 17:11).

*Pray (“…Anna…worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.”—Luke 2:36-37).

*Bear Jesus’ cross (“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must shoulder your cross daily, and follow me.”—Luke 9:23).

*Seek godly wisdom (“Blessed the man, blessed the woman, who listens to {God’s wisdom}, awake and ready for me each morning….”—Proverbs 8:34, TM).

*Renewal (“…Our spirits are being renewed every day.”—2 Corinthians 4:16, NLT).

We’d likely agree that we ought to act on each of these on an everyday basis and “someday” we intend to do so. But note what our Lord’s brother tells us: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22, emphasis added). What better time to start our daily obedience than today? In the words of another of Israel’s songwriters, “Whoever is wise, let (him or her) heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord, (Psalm 107:43).

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan

"Protected"

 

“Protected”

 

In April we had a new water heater installed. That probably doesn’t sound too earth-shaking, especially since it replaced the one originally put in the house when it was built in 1990, but the way it came about shows God’s loving hand over us and our property.

A couple of days before we acquired our new appliance Karen had gone into the garage to take something out of the freezer. She smelled something strange and as she looked round she saw smoke coming from cracks in the heater wall and a few seconds later fire broke out. She called me, I turned off the circuit breaker and put the flames out with a home fire extinguisher we never thought we’d have to use, Karen called 911 and the Fire Department showed up a few minutes later, cooled the affected area down and made sure there were no other issues, Meanwhile several neighbors gathered and (with us) were relieved that all was OK. We thanked the firefighters and later in the afternoon dropped off Karen’s homemade chocolate chip cookies at the fire station (minus a few she left at home). To quote the “Bard”, “All’s well that ends well”.

Here’s the rest of the story. The incident took place when we were home. An hour before we were out running errands. And it occurred during the day, not at night when we could have been injured or killed. Besides these, we were scheduled for a ten day trip two weeks later and could have lost our house before the fire was discovered. A verse (paraphrased) from God’s Word comes to mind: “”…He who watches over Jim and Karen will neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:4).

Why God chose to protect our home from burning down and why He allowed my cousins Murry and Vicky to lose theirs during the Louisiana floods in 2016 I don’t know (see the posting “In the Midst of the Storm”) and likely never will this side of Heaven. What’s our responsibility in return? Again let me adapt Scripture: “Your love, God, is our song, and we’ll sing it! We’ll forever tell everyone how faithful you are.” (Psalm 89:1, TM).

We have no way of knowing how God has protected us from auto accidents, critters like snakes and gators, storms, COVID and many other possible tragedies. We can only thank God that (in my words) “…He has not treated us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:10). To cite a line from an old gospel song, “What mercy, what love and what grace”.

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan (with helpful input from Karen)

"Professor Hawk"

 

“Professor Hawk”

 

One morning this past spring Karen saw a hawk perched on the corner of our neighbor’s roof while we were eating breakfast. As we admired this stately bird two blue jays kept buzzing it and returning to a nearby tree. Since hawks are predatory by nature our guess was they were warning their enemy to stay away from their nest and in so doing safeguarding their young.

As we discussed this “God hug” we saw two spiritual lessons. Interestingly, one puts the hawk in a positive light while the other a negative one. In Scripture one name for Christ is “…The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David….” (Revelation 5:5) but a lion is also used as a picture of Satan (“Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion….”—1 Peter 5:8) and ravens are classified as unclean birds (Deuteronomy 14:14) which were used of God to feed His prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17:4,6) so this shouldn’t be seen as conflicting. On the one hand, the hawk stood fast while the blue jays were doing their thing. Sometimes our archenemy tries to distract and entice us to do his bidding but we must remain resolute and not lose our focus. Paul called on his readers to “…stand firm. Let nothing move you.” (1 Corinthians 15:58) “…so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.” (Ephesians 6:13). Only as we are “…strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” (Ephesians 6:10) can we “…stand against the devil’s schemes.” (Ephesians 6:11).

The other way we looked at our fine feathered teacher was that Satan is always waiting for an opportunity to besiege us in our times and conditions of weakness. Those blue jay eggs were defenseless without the protection of their parents. (Several years ago a hawk destroyed a gourd in our yard to get at the wren eggs inside while the adult birds were gone.) When Cain was angry that his offering had been rejected God warned him, “…If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door….” (Genesis 4:7), suggesting a picture of an animal waiting to attack its prey when it was most vulnerable. How can we protect ourselves? “Resist (the devil), standing firm in the faith….” (1 Peter 5:9, emphasis added). To do so we must know God’s Word (Jesus used it during His temptation) as well as the tactics the evil one is apt to use and “…not (be) unaware of his schemes.” (2 Corinthians 2:11).

God can use any person, object or activity to teach us His truth, including animals (see the earlier article “Professor Gus”). Who (or what) might be your professor today?

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim and Karen McMillan