Stress Management – Part Two

How well are you dealing with the stress causing things in your life? Indications are that most people aren’t doing so well.

Industrialists estimate that annually $75 million is lost due to stress-related illness, injuries, or absenteeism.

Jesus urged us to “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”  (Luke 12:27).

Instead we tend to see the glass half empty instead of half full. Instead of speaking of traffic lights we call them “red lights.” In reality they are very often green, but we never refer to them as “green lights.”

I Corinthians 10: 13 speaks of “the way of escape.” It is a nautical term. It depicted a ship in a storm. In order for it to ride out the storm, the crew had to throw some things overboard. Inventory your life and see what you need to throw overboard. Ask God to help you relieve the stress by unloading what you should.

II Corinthians 4: 8, 9 notes states of which we experience various ones.

Are you ever “perplexed?”  We all face circumstances when human wisdom isn’t sufficient. Often our minds aren’t sufficient to solve all our problems. You may be at a loss, but that doesn’t mean you have lost out.

Are you at times “persecuted?” Which means to be singled out for a personal attack is brutalizing. This may be verbal, social, emotional, or physical.

When those who would persecute us are in control, everything seems lost. However, note that little expression “not forsaken.”

Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Have you ever been “knocked down but not knocked out.”  Many fights have been won by persons who were repetitiously knocked down but who got up to fight on and win. The same is true in the spiritual realm.

The Bible is replete with accounts of people knocked down but not out.

See Jonah in the belly of the great fish. He was down, but soon came up to prove he wasn’t out.

Observe Jeremiah in the pit. If ever a man seemed to be down he was, but he wasn’t knocked out.

Samson, blind and bound, appeared to be down. Placed between the posts of the temple he proved he wasn’t knocked out.

Joseph in Pharaoh’s prison seemed out. His ascension to the office of Prime Minister of Egypt proved he wasn’t knocked out.

The classic of all classics is Christ. Look at the tomb and you see Him knocked down. Look three days later and you see He wasn’t knocked out.  You too can overcome your knock downs.

For what do we remember about these persons? It is that they got up. If they had never been knocked down, they would never have gotten up to become the persons we remember with admiration.

Stress Management – Part One

Luke 12: 22 – 29

Jesus said don’t “have an anxious mind” (Luke 12: 29).

Is that your personal profile?  Are you stressed out?

If so, welcome to the human race where everyone seems to lose.  Speaking here in America, the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health of England said, “The whole Western world is under stress. It is one of the fastest growing diseases in the world.”

We must learn to live with it. Fortunately we can.

If you can’t flee it or fight it you must learn to flow with it.

Stress is a good God-given ability. Normal stress is motivating. It is a stimulus. If it were not for stress your heart wouldn’t keep beating overnight. You wouldn’t even wake up in the morning. Stress does that.    

Dr. Hans Selye, director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Surgery at the University of Montreal and the father of some of the most extensive research on stress said: “Stress is the spice of life.”  Stress is what keeps your heart beating, your lungs breathing, and your stomach digesting while you sleep. He adds, “Complete freedom from stress is death.”

Stress is good. It becomes bad when it develops into distress. The load in life is good. It is the overload that is bad. The overload can cause anxiety, depression, migraine headaches, peptic ulcers, strokes, and heart attacks.

It is essential to know how to handle stress.

Jesus said, “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?”  (Luke 12:24).

Rudyard Kipling in writing about the ship “Dimbula.” Kipling wrote as though the ship had a personality. After 16 days of a stormy voyage this statement was made by “Dimbula” observed, “Now we have a great ship.”

“My master has taken me through the rough spots in which everything seemed to be coming apart, and I have become what I have been made to be.”  This conclusion follows.

“Because I have a master, I am a ship.”

When you have Jesus as your Master and obey Him then and only then you can become the ship you were made to be. Then you can enjoy the benefits of stress while evading the distress.

Physically Jesus calmed the storm for His disciples. He can oo the same for you. He said don’t “have an anxious mind”(Luke 12: 29).

Death Is No Respecter of Anyone

We all suffer the grief resulting from the death of a loved one. Please tolerate me the fact of my loss. This is a tribute and an exhortation. 

My brother Bob died last week. All the things he was going to do will remain undone. All the places he was going to go will remain unvisited. All the things he was going to say will remain unsaid. All the love he was going to share will go unexpressed. All his hopes and dreams will remain in their own silent tomb unfulfilled. These are reminders that whether in the twilight years or the opportunistic years of youth we should in our own time “Gitter done.”

Death, the final arbiter has in God’s good time called his name.  

In the shadow of a giant Mississippi oak his grave is marked by a head stone shared by his wife Jean, adjacent to our revered parents Sibert and Genevieve Price, and his honored grandparents Charley and Fanny Dykes. They are together again. I will never join them there for we are now Georgians. A green plot on a Georgian hill awaits us.

Bob burst the boundaries that held us in our little home town and became a scholar in the School of Pharmacy at his beloved Ole Miss.  Upon graduation he practiced his craft in a store adjacent to the campus of the primary rival of his alma mater, LSU.

Miss him, sure, we talked twice a week. No one with whom we share the intimacy of childhood goes by without emotion trailing. Archived in the annals of time is this ageless truth: “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.” 

We pastured cows and herded goats in the nearby acreage. We drank from the cool spring waters where the Indian maiden Osyka and her tribe drank. We walked the railroad track together to see which one could walk the farthest without falling off.

Francis Bacon said, “It is as natural to die as to be born.” Yet, facing our own death can be distressing if we are not prepared for it. Being prepared for it is necessary for no one gets out alive, and there is much more to come. To attain the better, much better, of the two options is life everlasting.

Perhaps the person who said we have responses to birth and death reversed is right. He suggested that we weep at the time of birth knowing the hardships ahead, and that we should be joyous at the time of death knowing the blessings awaiting.

Etched in my memory are the words learned in youth by which Bob (and I) sought guidance: “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2: 8, 9.

From youth we shared an uplifting faith. Everyone thought one of the Price boys would be a preacher, but not this one.  

Within sight of his grave is the stately old triple gabled Nineteenth Century house in which we grew up together. Near the polished bannister down which we often slid  hangs a tapestry with a life influencing message we read daily: “Only one life, Twill soon be passed, Only what’s done for Christ will last.” I add my Amen.

How to Be Saved

First, a summary then the details.

SUMMARY
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” Ephesians 2: 8. 9.

Grace is God’s unmerited favor. It is God providing what we don’t deserve.

It is “the gift of God.” A gift is given because of the regard the giver has for the recipient. God loves you and “God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him” I John 4: 9.

It is “through faith, and that not of yourselves.” It is through faith in Jesus Christ, not any deeds of our own.

It is “not of works, lest any man should boast.” If it were by our work some might boast they have done more and better work than others.

NOW THE DETAILS
Perhaps you feel unworthy of salvation. Good, that is a starting point for “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3: 23.

“There is none righteous, no, not one….” Romans 3: 10.

Here is the good news. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5: 8.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3: 16.

The word “believes” does not mean simply to have academic knowledge, but to “trust.”

This trust means to rely on Him in His forgiveness of sin and in His offer of eternal life. To fully trust Him means to ask for His forgiveness of sin and to commit to Him as Lord. 

Salvation faith involves an act of commitment and trust, in which you commit your life to Jesus Christ and trust Him alone as your Savior and Lord.

To initiate such commitment pray, don’t just say, a prayer like this:  

“Jesus, right now, I ask you to become Lord of my life. You are my Savior and I thank You for the sacrifice You made on the cross. I receive Your grace and confidently believe that my life is forever changed.”

FOLLOWUP
Ephesians 2: 10 follows the initial verses noted herein. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Salvation involves a complete spiritual makeover. In followup commit your new life to serve Him. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved to do good works.

Therefore, set as your standard Colossians 3: 23 “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men….”

To strengthen your new faith and find His will in your life, set a time when you read Scripture and pray. For starters begin by reading from the Bible books of Philippians, John, James, I and II Timothy.

What Is Your Opinion?

“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
I John 2:3

We, that is all of us, tend to be opinionated. From atoms to asteroids, from viruses to volcanos, from chrysalis to the cosmos, from Mickey Mouse to Albert Einstein we have opinions.

There seems to be only one exemption about which we tend to have no opinion. Ask a person their opinion of himself and he will demure and dodge the issue.

With His last night with His apostles Jesus charged them with a challenge we each need to accept as personal when He said, “Let a man examine himself….” That, of course, relates specifically to the Lord’s supper, but it has a general application to all of life.

        “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged”. (I Corinthians 11: 31

There is an entire book in the Bible written to help us determine whether we are “in the faith.”  I John is the book designed to help us determine if we are in the faith. Since there is no issue more vital than determining whether we are in the faith, let’s begin with the exciting challenge of self-examination.

One’s self-examination can achieve a lot. In doing so it is important to be honest and truthful, not self-deceptive or self-delusional. 

“Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 26: 12) That is, the person who has a false opinion of himself is unwise.

Socrates said, “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”    

“Research suggests that when we see ourselves clearly, we are more confident and more creative. We make sounder decisions, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively,” wrote Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist.

Are you a Christian? Can others tell it by your life? If not, you can change. It has been said the greatest discovery of the Twentieth Century is that a man can change his life by changing his mind. If you resolve to change your life to be more like Jesus, and you take the great Supernatural Transformer as your guide to do so, you can. 

It is not enough just to know the language, you must live the life. Apart from the Lord that is impossible. With His help all things are possible.      

The psalmist offers an example, “I considered my ways And turned my feet to Your testimonies.” (Psalm 119:59)