Eating Words…Joy!

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Robert Franklin

[picapp src=”4/c/b/7/Sweet_Ration_f304.jpg?adImageId=5521209&imageId=4796190″ width=”234″ height=”177″ /]It is never a small thing to have to eat words; I have had to do so far too many times in my life.  For me, there will be even more words to eat in the future.  I do have a choice of which words to eat, though.  I may have to chew and swallow the bitter weeds of nouns and verbs thoughtlessly harvested from my own pitiable mental garden.  I know what these words taste like and they are awful.  Every time I see a plate full of my words demanding consumption, I wonder at myself.  Is is not possible for a Holy Spirit indwelled man to just keep his mouth shut?  The answer is “Yes, it is possible.”  Quiet is a discipline I am still learning.  In the meantime I find that exchanging my “weeds” for God’s sweetness is the best alternative.

“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.” (Jeremiah 15:16, ESV)

When Jeremiah spoke on God’s behalf, he suffered.  Sometimes Jeremiah suffered a lot.  Yet, for Jeremiah, the presence of God’s word in his heart and the privilege of sharing the nouns and the verbs of God were joy.

It is the deep desire of my heart to be like Jeremiah.  If I suffer over words, I want the suffering to be for the cause of Christ and the glory of the I AM, the God of the heaven’s armies.

Oh for the wicked and the righteous to agree regarding me, “He is called by the name of His God; by the words of his lips this is known.”

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God and Politics

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Robert Franklin

I have a nasty little secret:  God is involved in politics!  This day in which self-proclaimed sophistication abounds, we often forget that there is a Sovereign over all sovereigns.  We fuss and boo and hiss if our personal and particular agenda is somehow not being advanced in the “halls of power.”  We fret and wring our hands and say all sorts of things that ought not to be said when an unpalatable or evil piece of legislation becomes law.  Some even go so far as to align God with one political movement or another as if God’s will may only be accomplished if “his people” are in power.   Do we really think God is regularly defeated at the polling place?
[picapp src=”0/9/8/7/Priceless_Stolen_Timepieces_0e68.jpg?adImageId=5401075&imageId=1421853″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]

“…and the king hearkened not unto the people, for the revolution was from Jehovah, in order to establish His word that Jehovah spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam son of Nebat.” (1 Kings 12:15, YLT)

Nonsense!  The God who is central in the pages of Scripture effortlessly determines the actions of kings, moves nations as a whole, declares an end to entire cultures.  Many think that when disagreeable things happen in the body politic, God must be sleeping or at least busied somewhere else.  We are even so arrogant as to think that the Will of the Heavens is somehow subjugated to the fickle winds of the elected.

I would like to propose an alternative to this perpetual disappointment: join the worldwide Revolution.  This Revolution is two thousand years old and has changed the face of cultures, driven the discoveries of science, established justice in places where the wicked once judged.  This Revolution cannot be contained in a building, nor confined to a capital city.  This Revolution is pan-national, pan-cultural, and is not subject to the whims of the mob.

The Revolution commands its participants to pray for those who rule and to bless even those who persecute.  The Revolution is guaranteed to end in eternal peace and to fulfill every promise made to its constituents.  Best of all the cost of the Revolution is already paid and those who join do so penniless but debt free.

Interested?

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I Am Dirt

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Robert Franklin

Kids_Get_Dirty_7b2dNobel peace prize, a new grand-mama, stepped up violence in Pakistan, a new treaty for the European Union…and then there is always football (or the endless baseball season) to divert those who wish to be diverted. For my part, I am contemplating dirt these days. “Ignoramus!” some may say. I don’t mind, really. There is plenty about dirt I would like to know, blame it on my high school science teacher, Mr. Haas.

Jesus called me dirt once. I really didn’t mind because I just assumed that he thought me “good dirt.” “Good dirt” is the kind of dirt in which any plant will grow and thrive. If I have to be dirt, might as well be the best!

Then I began to examine my life and I started to wonder if I fell into the “good dirt” category at all. Good dirt, according to Jesus, hosts plants that boast a lot of fruit. I look around; I check under the leaves…not so much fruit. So I check my “dirt.” Weeds, lots of weeds, some even prickly weeds, ouch!

“And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.” (Luke 8:15, NLT)

This week at Main Street we will be considering the finer points of dirt this week. Would love to think dirt with you too!

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Faithful Intimacy

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Robert Franklin
 

 

 

Peas in a Pod...that's intimacy!

Peas in a Pod...that's intimacy!

I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. (John 17:23, NLT)

 

God is faithful to me even when I allow circumstance to cause me to be unfaithful to him. It is so easy to get involved in attempting to fix my house (which God provided) and do the work of the pastorate (that God provided) and to neglect my personal devotions (God invited). When I have less than communion with God in Christ, there is no hope for me to have any sense of unity with my Christian family. Hurts and offenses become paramount and I nurse all the reasons I should be able to be “left alone.” When I withdraw, the world cannot see Jesus in me and I negate my purpose for being here.

How blessed is his enduring love that sees to my needs even when I do not see to them myself. I am today reminded of the intimacy of communion we have opportunity to experience with our Savior. It is so easy to “preach” at those who are promiscuous with their bodies, those who do not know the joy of intimacy with a covenant partner and yet be completely hypocritical by being equally promiscuous with my drives and desires for the things of this world. When I long for this world’s “offerings” and reject the call or leading of the Holy Spirit, I miss out on so much.

God calls all of us to far deeper intimacy with him: intimacy that will result in our unity with Him, our spouses, and our spiritual siblings. God originally designed us to experience this sort of intimacy with Him, and then He paid the ultimate price so intimacy could be restored. Jesus sacrificed all to deliver this to us and yet so few ever attempt to enjoy the presence of our Faithful Intimate.

Father, forgive me for I know better–I cannot even claim that “I know not what I do,” for that would be deceit. Help me to long for the freshness of your indwelling each day and to do what is required for that refreshing of intimacy with you so I may be truly intimate with others.

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Where Geoffrey Went Wrong

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Robert Franklin

geoffreySo put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:1-3, ESV)

Sometimes the simplest phrases have the most profound impact. Peter does not use many words in this short passage, yet what is said is phenomenal. The translation may read, “Therefore having
put aside…” Those who are in Christ are given the authority to put malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander out of their lives; to make these things part of an irretrievable past.

The problem is that we rarely do so. It is too much “fun” to involve the body of Christ in such evil things and so we spend our energies engaging in that which ought to only be addressed in the rear view mirror. The things we discarded at the last “life stop.” We taste the kindness of the Lord and call it “sweet” only to return to the soured swill of sin.

The Scripture literally says “grow up to salvation.” We as “newborns” must be about the business of growing up. We already leave the day of the diaper, the day of the lidded cup, the day of the hand-hold, the day of the supervised visit, the day of the chaperoned driver, the day of the curfew, so we may be adults.

I want to grow up, I don’t want to stay a kid, for the Lord is good and his goodness should be reflected in a maturing me.

May it be so.

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The Changing of Seasons

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Robert Franklin

And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. (Ezekiel 34.26)fall-foliage-01-g

I really enjoy the changing of seasons. I have lived places where there is really not much difference between summer and winter and I prefer to experience the diversity of the rainy, sunny, dry and cold, snowy and cold. The change of seasons is one of the few things in life I have not found reason to complain about, unless seasons apply to my daily life. I think I am more of an “equator” kind of guy when it comes to life: just give me the consistency of ease and everything is ok!

Life doesn’t work that way.

What is my season? Am I due showers of blessing? Has the rain ever stopped? Must the rain stop lest the ground of my life and heart become saturated, and floods commence destruction? O how much I need sustaining grace! I am not sufficient, my plans are not sufficient, my hopes and drives are not sufficient. I am not sufficient!

God help me to receive your grace, to pray for your grace, to live for your grace and to live in your grace.  In every season.

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