Our Spiritual Blackberry

I have a confession.  I'm addicted to my Blackberry.  If you don't have one you may not identify but trust me, it's addictive.  Maybe that's why some affectionately call it the "Crack" berry.  It's like a drug. Now, I know there are those of you out there with your I-phones and your Droids that would beg to differ. Yes, you have more apps, bigger touch screens, cooler graphics...I get all that. But my Blackberry has one thing that sets it apart.  A little blinking red light.  Yep. For me that's what blows all of the competition out of the water.  


I guess I'm not really addicted to the Blackberry as much as I am to that little blinking light.  Whenever I get a text or someone sends me an email, that little red light on the top right corner of the phone blinks to let me know I have something waiting. And I have to admit, I've developed a bit of a co-dependent relationship with it. It needs me to keep it's battery charged, and I need it for the sense of belonging it gives me.   It blinks to say someone cares, someone needs me. It reminds me that I'm important to someone out there.  It provides me with a sense of connectedness, like a guiding beacon, a lifeline.  If I go too long without seeing the little red light I begin to feel, well, isolated, lonely. Okay, maybe I need an intervention.  Is there a Blackberry 12 step program?


You know, I wish there was a little red blinking light on the top corner of my Bible. A light letting me know when God has something He wants me to hear.  A blinking light alerting me to just the right scripture I need at the right time for the particular circumstance or trial I'm going through.  Wouldn't that be awesome?!  Kind of a spiritual Blackberry if you will. I want one of those, don't you? 


Wait a minute, in a way it already exists.  In fact, David owned one. Talk about a man ahead of his times! In Psalms 43, David writes:


"Oh, send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me: let them bring me to Your holy hill, and to your tabernacle." - Psalms 43:3


David wasn't asking for a spiritual Blackberry, he had one.  In a sense, it was as if he was holding it in his hands waiting, asking, pleading for the light to start blinking.  His focus was glued there. You might say he was a little addicted to it, a little dependent on it. It brought him a sense of connection, a sense of being in relationship with God.  It was a guiding beacon in his life when everything around him was in turmoil. 


Jesus came that you and I could have access to our own spiritual Blackberry.  In John 16, He told His disciples, 


“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you."  - John 16:12 - 14


In sending His Holy Spirit, He gave us a powerful blinking light to guide us into all truth.  To connect us to Him. To be our Comforter, our Teacher. To bring us into remembrance of all that He has taught us in His word, when we need it the most.  His spirit is the blinking red light of our spiritual Blackberries. And if we just get in tune with it; allow ourselves to become dependent on it; let it be our guiding beacon; let it be our lifeline - we'll never feel isolated or alone. 


So maybe my love for the little red blinking light on my Blackberry is a bit unhealthy. I'll work on it.  But, I think you'll agree, being dependent on the guiding light of our spiritual Blackberry is a healthy addiction worth feeding the rest of our lives.  


"Send out your light and truth! Let them lead me to your holy hill..."
Translation: C'mon light, start blinking!

Love is a Decision

Written by Tony Stith

My son got his first job yesterday.  He'll be working the morning shift at a small restaurant in a Fitness club near where he attends school.  He's very excited.  He called me at work during the middle of the day. The timing of his call was ironic.  I was bogged down in the middle of a never ending project, clicking away at the computer, willing the clock to move just a little faster so I could pack up my lunch bag and my laptop and go home.   Not that every day is like this. As with any job there are good days and bad, ups and downs, successes and failures. His call started me reflecting.  There was a time when I loved this job. There were new challenges, new opportunities, and excitement about the contribution I could make.  Some of that excitement, that promise had faded.  Was this now just a job, mindless labor?  Was I just going through the motions just to collect a paycheck?  And, if I am going through the motions, what's the point?

Warning: Spiritual segway

Cut to the Sabbath.  Finally, the long work week is over.  Time to do what I want to do.  Sleep in, read a good book, maybe see a movie with the family, ride my bike, take it easy.  Oh yeah, then there's that church thing. Gotta do that. Oh, and maybe a little extra time (emphasis on "little") Bible Study and Prayer.  Hmmm....

There was a time when that church thing, that Bible Study and prayer thing, would have ranked a little higher, no, a lot higher on my list of desirable things to do "on my own time."   I guess some of the excitement, some of the enthusiasm for those things has waned over the years.  Had my faith simply become my religion?  Had my first love become my 4th, 5th or 6th obligation?  Was I just going through the motions, because that's what people who call themselves Christians are supposed to do, mark off our "spiritual to-do lists so we can get on guilt free with the things we really want to do with our free time?  Has my faith become like going to work?  Ughh...I wish my son hadn't gotten so excited about getting that job!


In Revelation 2:1 - 5 Jesus, through the apostle John, says to the Ephesian church, after praising them for their labour in the faith, tells them: "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love."

The Ephesus church was getting some things right, doing a lot of the right things, but there was something missing, they were just going through the motions.  What should have been a labor of love, had become just labor.

Jesus, loving as He is, doesn't just leave them hanging with no solutions.  He provides a two step solution...

"Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent."

Step 1: Remember.  I guess that's what my sons phone call at work had done for me.  Caused me to begin remembering. Remembering what an awesome blessing it is to know Him. Remember that, of all the firsts I have ever experience or will ever experience, this first love is by far the greatest.  If I truly appreciate it for the blessing it is, my excitement for it should never be allowed to wane.

Step 2: Repent and do the first works.   My wife and I read a book by Gary Smalley when we were first married.  It was called Love is a Decision. I highly recommend it for any new couple. Basically, the message of the book is that Love between a husband and wife is not simply an emotional sense of well being, a feeling.  Love, true love, is a conscious decision we make, to love the other person through good times and bad, when we feel like it and when we don't because, as anyone who has been married for more than five years will tell you, sometimes you just don't. Love that is based on emotion will be shallow, inconsistent, and disillusioning.  Love based on a decision, in contrast, will grow richer and deeper over time. It will see its way through the hard times, the mundane times, the hurtful times. The highs will be higher and the lows will be not so low.

I think that is what Jesus is telling the Ephesians and us by extension.  He's saying in effect, "So you just don't feel the same excitement about Me as you once did? So what! My relationship with you isn't based on your feeling. Make a decision to Love Me like you did when our relationship first began. Put your faith, put Me first.  Do the first works."  You know what, over time, your love for Me will grow richer and deeper. It will survive the tests and trials. The good times and the bad. The disappointments.  The lows won't be quite so low and the highs....well, you can't even imagine!

Hmmm....
Suddenly I'm even more excited the Sabbath has arrived.  Time to invest in that decision.

Maybe I'll pick up the pace on that project at work next week, too.

All that Glitters

Written by Tony Stith

Awhile ago I read an article about the California gold rush of 1848. That winter, people from all walks of life set out for the west coast state. Many pawned their possessions to get there. The gold seekers, also known as Forty-Niners or Argonauts, joined the rush from as far off as Europe and Australia. Many Chinese also flocked to San Francisco to join in the gold rush.
Now some of these gold seekers didn’t know the first thing about mining or gold. A lot of them found, instead of gold, a look-alike called pyrite, or fools gold. It looks like gold, but it’s worthless. The problem is, there was a lot more of it than the real thing, so a lot of people fell for it. But there is a discernible difference. Pyrite tends to more brittle than gold, it tends to fall apart; it doesn’t last, while gold is soft and malleable. Gold also doesn’t tarnish; its value and its beauty don't fade. Also, pyrite tends to be plentiful…it’s common, while gold is precious, a rare commodity.
Many of the Forty-Niners would stumble on some of this stuff and think they were finding great riches. Others fell prey to crooks who would pawn this worthless substance off as the real thing.
The Forty-Niners weren't the only people to ever fall for an impostor. There are plenty of things in this world that glitter that aren't gold. But did you know that people can fall prey to the same type of delusion when they begin digging around for God? In their quest to find God, some fall for what looks like the real deal, feels like the real deal, but is really just fools gold.
The reason some fall into this trap is that they really don't know what they are looking for in the first place. They seek a God who they believe will meet some emotional or physical need; failing to understand that physical blessings, a fulfilled life, a sense of personal purpose, a feeling of acceptance... although they sparkle like gold, are not the real deal.
The fact is that nowhere in the Bible does God promise that if we follow Him we will have the best career, the nicest house, the happiest marriage, or the most fulfilling life. Nowhere does he promise that we will never get sick, never have bad things happen. To enter into a relationship with Him expecting these to result is setting ourselves up for disillusionment. It won’t be long before you’ll realize that Christians have problems. They get sick, they get in accidents, they die, they have marriage problems, lose jobs...just like non-Christians.
Make no mistake; the Christian life is not the easy route to take. Rather than having a charmed life, God says that your life will be more difficult. It will be filled with tests and trials. The inevitable realization that what they thought was gold was really just a bag of worthless rocks can be profoundly discouraging to some. Rather than resume their search for the real thing, sadly some chuck it all and walk away.
It doesn't have to be that way if we understand what the real gold looks like in the first place. Colossians 1:19-21 "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled."
The person who truly seeks a relationship with God will do so, not because having it will bring some kind of emotional fulfillment or physical reward, but rather, because of a heart-felt desire for connection with Him. They have come to understand that they are sinners who have been alienated from Him and are in need of forgiveness. Their desire for connection, for reconciliation, motivates their search for Him.
1 John 3:1-2 tells us, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Once reconciled to God; once brought into relationship with Him; they become His children. They become members of His eternal Family. And that awesome understanding, my friends, provides wealth beyond comprehension.
Matthew 6:19 tells us to lay up our treasure in Heaven, not on this earth. God is less interested in what we get out of this life…than how he’s using the events and circumstances in our lives now to help us recognize our need for Him and to prepare us for our future role as members of His Family. There ain't no substitutes. Being reconciled to Him; gaining eternal entrance into His Family; that's the gold He has to offer…and it’s the real deal.