Are You as Frustrated as a Bird Looking for a Worm in Astroturf? Part One
Luke 21: 25 – 28
Jesus spoke of a time when there would be “distress among nations, with perplexity…” and of “men’s hearts failing them.”
This summarily speaks of a time of great frustration. Perhaps you personally are facing a time of frustration. Certainly, it appears a broad segment of our nation is experiencing an epidemic of frustration. You know frustration!
Words such as stressed-out, uptight, and burnout spatter our conversations. We are a generation of high-strung temperaments with short fuses that cause explosions.
Frustration is an emotion fathered by anger. It causes our blood pressure to rise, our breathing to accelerate, the pitch and volume of our voice to heighten.
Frustration results from us reacting against seemingly impossible circumstances.
One country comic said, “It makes me so mad I could eat a goatburger!” That’s frustration.
A little boy going fishing with his dad asked the man from whom he was buying .25 worth of worms, “Mister, how many worms do you get for .25?” The man replied, “Son, I will do right by you. Life is too short to spend time counting worms.”
Life is too short to live frustrated. Yet, many people spend most of their life as frustrated as a bird looking for a worm in astroturf. You don’t have to!
Frustration is the fruit of our failure to succeed and achieve. It is the outgrowth of our inability to reach a goal. It occurs when our hopes fade and our dreams die.
Frustration is a Ulysses on his odyssey coming to a rain-swollen river which he must cross and, finding it flooded, wades out into it waist-deep and beats it with a chain. Such a frustrated response does no good. How many times have you found your stream flooded at the wrong time and you flogged it with a chain?
Frustration is a little boy who has beat on a locked door until exhausted and finally sits down and cries. Have you been there? Sure, all of us have been.
When that which promises to be exhilarating proves to be exasperating, we end up frustrated.
Your Divine Umpire
Many people seem to still be singing along with U2, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” The reason is they have looked in all the wrong places.
You have got to know what is basic if you are going to get back to basics. Therefore, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another…” (Col. 3: 15, 16).
The information barrage has led to a nation of people who feel culturally naked, personally disconnected, professionally perplexed, spiritually undernourished, and emotionally uninspired. Although we have the machines and means to grind our reams of information, we have little grasp of how to humanly interpret data and wisely apply accumulated knowledge represented in the ocean of facts readily accessible. Inner strength is missing because of uncertainty resulting from not having a well defined set of core values.
We are to let “the peace of God rule” in our hearts. The word translated rule can be translated as “arbiter.” An arbiter is one that makes the rules. The word translated “rule” came from athletic jargon and is the equivalent of “umpire.” Let the peace of God umpire in your heart.
Our hearts are arenas of conflict and competition. All sorts of feelings compete for our devotion. Cynicism and goodwill, indifference and concern, fear and hope, jealousy and trust all need an arbiter. It is the peace of God based on the Word of God that is to call the plays for us.
Dramatic change has contributed to making us a nation of insecure and uncertain worriers. A divine arbiter is needed.
The first step to becoming confident and content is to allow Christ’s peace, instead of Satan’s fears, to rule in our hearts.
Spin doctors and cultural therapists are at work to modify your moral values. However, some values never change. Regardless of how sophisticated the formula for putting humans in space there are still 16 ounces per pound and 12 inches to a foot. A ball is still a ball and a strike is still a strike. Let the Lord help you know the difference.
Certain moral and spiritual laws are just as inflexible. As William Penn observed, “Right is right though all men be against it, and wrong is wrong though all be for it.”
Establish as your divine standards such principles as these:
I believe in the eternal loving God who sent His Son, Jesus, to seek and to save.
I believe the Bible is the divine revelation of the mind of this loving God.
I believe the Holy Spirit to be a supernatural invisible companion Who abides with me as an on board guidance system.
I believe I am eternal and immortal and have two and only two options open to me regarding my eternal state.
I believe in “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever more.”
Happy Halloween
Ghosts, goblins, demons, and vampires celebrate their day Halloween. Are they real? Let me qualify the answer a moment. First, a reality.
Behind them all are demons. Different demons have different capacities. One is to speak though individuals. A very extremely rare reality. We had a worship service in which a man came forward and asked to testify. Another voice came from him as he began to use profanity and vulgarity. I got right in his face and in a loud voice said, “By the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ I command you to shut up.” Immediately he went silent and limp. He was escorted out.
Another form is to physically manifest themselves as people. Both are deceptive.
In the White House there is a demon who presents himself as the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. Though he represents himself as Lincoln, he is not Lincoln. Lincoln is in heaven or hell, not on earth.
As a guest in the Lincoln bedroom in the White House, I was told of the ghost of Lincoln while sitting on the Lincoln bed. Across the hall from the bedroom is the Queen’s bedroom. My host said the doors of both bedrooms across the hall from each were open. As the Queen sat on her bed and looked up Lincoln came and sat on the bed where I was. President Kennedy allegedly saw the ghost in the hall of the living quarters. There have been five other appearances.
That was not Abraham Lincoln, nor the spirit of any other deceased person. On earth with Lincoln during his lifetime there were demons. As we are unaware of demons in our life sphere doubtless Lincoln was unaware of them. They however observed him, his appearance, style, his total persona. They would have known how to best be his doppelgänger, lookalike. A satanic ploy to confuse persons such a demon does occasionally manifest himself. What better place or person to fraudulently represent. One reason is to spread fear and support false doctrine.
Not all thought to be demon possession is. Some other conditions prevail. Demon obsession is when a person is obsessed with the subject. Halloween stimulates this. A third factor is demon oppression involving demons causing oppressions. Got it: demon possession, demon obsessing, and demon oppression.
Here is our manual of defense in the Lord and in the power of His might. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6: 10 – 17)
Origin of Halloween
The seismic social change in our society is seen in the celebration of Halloween. For years it was a minor event participated in innocently by little children with little public attention given the spiritual significance. It comes the day before a long held Christian celebration of paying tribute to dead loved ones by putting flowers on their graves. The day is called All Saints Day. The latter was given a lot of attention and proved to be a good day for florists. Now little attention is given All Saints Day and Halloween is one of the five most celebrated days of the year.
Halloween has its roots dating back before the time of Christ. The ancient Druids in Britain, France, Germany, and the Celtic countries had a celebration honoring some fo their deities. A primary one was Samhain, Lord of the Dead. Reputedly Samhain called together all souls of those who had died during the last twelve months and had them condemned to inhabit animal bodies. It was a celebration of the dead conducted on the first day of the Celtic new year, the last day of October.
Trick-or-Treat grew out of the belief all souls of the dead returned to their former homes on this night to be entertained by the living. If acceptable food and drink was not provided for these evil spirits, they would cast a spell causing havoc and terror. Trick-or-Treat!
Around 100 AD the Christian community began imperceptible to identify indirectly with the event. About this time Roman Emperor Hadrian built the Roman Pantheon as a temple to the goddess Cybele and other deities. Romans gathered there to pray for the dead. When the pagans sacked Rome, the Pantheon fell into disrepair. When Emperor Phocas recaptured Rome in 607 AD, he gave the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV. Boniface did not want to offend those who esteemed the Pantheon as a place to pray for the dead. To “Christianize” the place Boniface reconsecrated the Pantheon to the Virgin Mary and urged Catholics to gather there to pray for the dead. The mass initially celebrated in May each year on a day called All Saints Day was called “Allhallowsmas.”
In 834 AD the holiday was moved to the October date to coincide with the Druids celebration of the dead, which was being transformed into a Christian holiday. It eventually became known as Halloween.
There is a tendency to interpret an event in light of our experience with it. Most adults were reared in a time when it was safe to go door to door and enjoy neighbors giving them candy, a fun innocent event. Not so now.
Because of what the day has become, many parents are replacing it with a “Fall Festival Party” or an “All Saints Party” and having children costume like “good guys” and not evil demented characters. Such events have little Christian inclusion, but provide a good alternative to the preoccupation with ghouls and ghosts. Games and goodies are a vital part of such events.
As a safety feature some churches are providing “Trunk-or-Treat.” Persons put treats that might normally be given out at homes in their trunks and park in the church parking lot. It provides a much safer environment than going door to door.
Me-Firstology
A striking young successful man expressed a selfish idea to his mother which was his nature. His mom quoted from “It’s Not About Me,” by Max Lucado, the popular line saying, “Remember, it’s not about me.”
Sarcastically he replied, “But it is about me.” That framed his life. He meant it and he lived it.
He became exhibit A of a me-ite personality. His wife divorced him. His daughters renounced his faux faith, dropped out of school and became social outcasts. He became a loner whose friends were so few they could not play a game of solitaire.
It is about me is another way of saying what a person of such a mentality would never admit: “I am a selfish narcissist.” It is another way of saying my world circles around me and it is a small orb. At the core of such a life is sin. You cannot be the Christian you were saved to be if you are selfish. Jesus said it plainly, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16: 24)
Selfish people are unable to love others.
Selfishness can be defined as the trait that leads people to frequently act in their own interest without any regard for how their actions could impact others.
Some people act selfishly on occasion. Some are at their core selfish.
In Greek mythology there lived a beautiful young nymph. One day he observed his beauty reflected in a pool and became so enraptured he fell in and drowned.
His name was Narcissus’. Such inordinate self-love bears his name. Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) involves a pattern of self-centered, arrogant thinking and behavior, a lack of empathy and consideration for other people, and an excessive need for admiration. Others often describe such people as cocky, manipulative, selfish, patronizing, and demanding.
The issue of living a “selfie” life is addressed in Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
This point is driven home in Hebrews 10:24-25 — “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.”
Lest the point not be understood, Scripture repeats the concept. “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2: 3,4)