Enjoy a Peaceful Smoky Mountain Retreat

If you are contemplating a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains, please consider visiting our lovely three-bedroom rental cottage, Rocky Top, located in the Hidden Mountain Resort in Sevierville, Tennessee.

If God Be for Us… And He Is! Part Two

Romans 8: 31

God’s Word gives reason for being encouraged.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

“Hey,” comes the response, “I can give you a long list.”

Observe virtually any secular entertainment program and you will see a philosophy that opposes virtually every Christian virtue.

Listen to an interview on MTV with Queen Latifah as she is asked about the sin of pride. “Pride is a sin?” she responds, “I wasn’t aware of that.”

Former actress Kirstie Alley adds, “Some idiot must have made that up.”

Pride, the original sin of Satan, is considered the standard for today. Scripture says, “The Lord detests the proud of heart” (Proverbs 16: 5).

The text does not imply there will not be personal opposition in life. A better understanding is gained from a modern translation which renders it: “If God be for us what does it matter who may be against us?” (Norlie Translation) Thus, those in Christ are depicted as being in a no lose position. It does not imply we won’t be opposed, resented, disliked, or even attacked. We will, but if everything is alright between us and the Lord what does it matter who opposes us?

Living proof of this was enacted by five Baptist missionaries in Tanzania as they knelt, praying, and holding hands. Their kidnappers delayed their execution arguing whether to shoot them together or separately. One of the missionaries, David Moreland said, “I thought I was holding my wife’s hand for the last time.”

Ten-year-old Joanna Giddens said, “I wasn’t scared…because I knew that with God everything would be alright.”

Sandra Harrington said Romans 8: 31 kept running through her head: “Nothing can separate us from the love of God — not even death.”

Upon hearing their prayers the kidnappers decided to drug them and leave them rather than kill them. They awoke 18 hours later to the sound of a rescue plane. Harrington said, “We could be dead — and God would be great, but He intervened, and I am very grateful to Him.”

Even when the opposition pulls the trigger God is still great. Even when we are faced with formidable opposition we can’t be separated from the love of God. 

If they could apply God’s word in such dire circumstances you, by relying on God and His Word and find peace and gain power to carry on. Why not do it?

There is no exemption from problems and no immunity from challenges for the believer. Even they have a part of life.

“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you” (I Peter 5: 10). “After” we have suffered a while, the ultimate is glory.

If God Be for Us… And He Is! Part One

Romans 8: 31

Jesus is someone with whom everyone can relate.

Descriptively the prophet Isaiah spoke of Him: “He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (Isaiah 53:3).

Yet, He was so winsome that little children flocked to Him.

He was so joyous His detractors accused Him of being drunk.

He was so optimistic and insightful that masses gathered to hear Him speak.

In your highs and in your lows Jesus is able to deal with the diverse issues of your life. There are those who are personally celebrating the fact life is good and their cup is running over. Conversely there are those who feel like even though they have asked God to fill their cup, instead someone has come along and eaten their lunch. In between are the masses alternating between these two moods.  Regardless of where you are presently on the scale you have been at virtually every other point and likely will continue to slide up and down the scale. Therefore it is expedient to store up spiritual resources to equip you for every phase of life.

Life inflicts about the same setbacks and tragedies on Christians and non-believers, optimists as on pessimists. No one has more reason for optimism than a Christian. We have reason to bounce back from setbacks as a result of two things. One is a resource of biblical principles which when applied give reason for optimism. The other is lessons learned from our practical experiences. The text noted above comes out of the experiences of the penman.

Recently my wife and I went fishing for silver salmon on the Kenai River in Alaska. It is a scenic setting. One bank was the home of fishing bears, the other was roamed by caribou. Seals bobbed up and down in the water looking for lunch. Boats were anchored all along the way as people awaited a big catch. There is a sonar device in the river that counts the thousands of fish going up-stream. Suddenly I saw something amazing. It was a fish going downstream. Then I realized this one was dead. The obvious lesson is that any dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to fight its way up-stream.

Persons alive in Jesus often go upstream against the current of popular opinion, but they are going the right direction.

The Christian life is more than a frolic; it’s a fight. It is not a playground; it is a battleground.

Reassuringly God’s Word encourages us with great truths such as: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”  (Romans 8:28).

If you are a person of faith the text noted above assures you God is very busy in all things to bring the good from them. Relax in His grace and unconditional love.

This World Is Not My Home

History is a marvelous mentor. There is no better teacher regarding money than the following. It comes from the lives of some of the wealthiest men of a past era, 1928. Consider the men who were:

President of the largest steel company.

President of the largest gas company.

President of the New York Stock Exchange.

Greatest wheat speculator.

President of the Bank of International Settlement.

Greatest Bear on Wall Street.

These men were considered some of the world’s most wealthy and powerful.

History’s pages have been turned long enough for us to learn from their lives. Consider their end.

The president of the largest steel company, Charles Schwab, died a pauper.

The president of the largest gas company, Edward Hopson, went insane.

The president of the NYSE, Richard Whitney, was released from prison and died at home.

The greatest wheat speculator, Arthur Cooge, died abroad penniless.

The president of the Bank of International Settlement shot himself.

The greatest bear on Wall Street, Cosabee Livermore, also committed suicide.

However in the same year, 1923, the PGA Champion and the winner of the most important golf tournament, the US Open, was Gene Sarazen. What became of him? He played golf until the age of 92, died in 1999 at the age of 95. He was financially secure at the time of his death.

Moral of the story: Play golf instead!

Better still is the Scripture which advocated, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6: 19 – 21).

There is an old hymn that sets that truth to music, “This World in Not My Home”:   

“This world is not my home I’m just passing through
my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
the angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door
and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore

O Lord you know I have no friend like you
if Heaven’s not my home then Lord what will I do?
the angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door
and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

Our Transforming God

If you would you like a summary mantra for life, try these verses:

“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name” I Chronicles 29: 11 – 13.

Pause and ask yourself if this is descriptive of the God you profess to believe in. If so, act like it when things seem to go wrong. That kind of God can control things good and bad. Relax and rejoice. When you respond to Him as one  having such traits and resources then alacrity replaces anxiety.

An illustration of His willingness and ability is illustrated by author and artist John Ruskin in his book entitled “Modern Painters” he tells of a footprint in a manufacturing town. It was the personification of impurity. It is composed of four elements: clay mixed with soot, a little sand, and water. If the four left to follow their own instinctive qualities of unity would become clear and hard. They gathered light in splendid ways. Gathering only the blue rays of the sun they produced a sapphire.

The sand arranges itself in a mysterious way and infinitely fine particles which when properly aligned reflect the blue, green, purple, and red rays in their greatest beauty called an opal.

The soot becomes one of the hardest substances in the world and is transformed from its blackness into a substance reflecting all the rays of the sun at once. The vivid blaze of reflected light from the solid substance is called a diamond.

The purified water becomes a dew drop or a crystalline star of snow.

If God can refine and redefine the impurities of a footprint surely He can transform the vilest of sinners, and meet the needs of the most disadvantaged of people.

There is a line from an old hymn with the appeal to  “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” The relief does not come from taking the burden to the Lord, but in leaving it there.

You may be facing a challenge that suggests a hopeless end. The God who awaits to help you offers endless hope. It is boundless.

His transforming power is available to meet your personal challenges. Your puddle of mud can be transformed into an assortment of attributes.

The concluding verse from the Lord’s Prayer is a summary of this passage. “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.” (Matthew 6:13).

Now go back and read once more the paragraph opening this post. Read it as to the Lord.

Give Your Best in All Things

“Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beats the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (I Cor. 9: 24 – 27)

William Mervin Mills, also known as Tamakoce Te’Hila, was an Oglala Lakota native on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His is perhaps the most underrated performance in the history of Olympic sports. As a  Native American he experienced rejection on and off the reservation. He was given little attention as he entered the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. His rejections were many, but he remembered his dad said, “It takes a dream to heal a broken soul.”  He wrote down his dream to heal his broken soul: “Gold medal, Olympic 10,000-meter run.”

The sun hung low in the late afternoon sky. It’s October 14, 1964, National Olympic Stadium, Tokyo. The runners toe the line for the 10,000-meter race. No American had ever won this race.

Mills was lightly considered in the games by virtue of the several world class athletes entered in the 10,000 meters race. This race belongs to Ron Clarke, an Australian who holds a world record in this event. An announcer puts it plainly about Billy’s chances: “Billy Mills of the United States is in there — a man no one expects to win this particular event.”

As the race progressed he was shuffled around and given unsettling elbows as he maneuvered for position. Working his way into fourth position his teammates were amazed and proud, finishing fourth would be remarkable, they thought. They became amazed at what they beheld. With this long race nearing an end, underdog Mills sprinted unbelievably fast to move to the front and win the Gold Medal in what is considered one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history.

“It takes a dream,” do you have one? That is, what do you envision as to what the Lord wants to use you to achieve. Remember, God doesn’t expect you to be the best at anything.  He expects you to be your best at everything.

It is a dream to be your best at even the most menial task. In all things:

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” (Philippians 3: 12)

Don’t allow yourself to develop an “I have attained” mentality, but maintain an “I press on” outlook.

An infant is a human being, but not yet fully developed. Set your dream and press on to become the mature Christian Jesus created you with the capacity to be.

Some Christians know, and even rejoice that Jesus has laid hold of them, but fail to realize there is a reason for which Jesus has also laid hold of them.

Find and fulfill your dream and that will heal even the most broken spirit.

Resolve, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14) Dream it! Make it a lifelong process of pressing.