Breath of Fresh Air

late-night philosophy

Funny how as the hours wane on, you can come up with some seemingly brilliant ideas, then wake up the next morning with no idea what you were talking about.

So I've started philosophizing with my laptop. I recorded the following in the foggy hours just before dawn this morning...

A recent thought: in regards to our path to salvation, grace v. works is like this: God has built a bridge a certain proportion of the way across the Grand Canyon. Did He leave it 18 feet short? 16 feet short?

The point: no matter how much we attribute to God in this illustration, we never get it. Because we are still either walking on the bridge that is built all the way across, or we are jumping with all our might to make up the gap. We're still responsible for some portion of our salvation. This is a false view.

The truth of the matter:

We spend so much time trying to figure out how much we have to do, we end up doing nothing. Do we earn salvation? No. Do works demonstrate faith? Yes. So what is the balance?

WHO CARES?

Get out there and get to work. God will supply the messages in due time. You will learn the lesson effortlessly. You will never learn the lesson by academic study.

Spark to Life

Ever think about that idiom "leap of faith?"

How about activation energy? (Read more)

"Unstable" chemicals (e.g., methane, oxygen, other highly reactive chemicals) have what scientists call a high potential energy - they have the potential to give off a lot of energy. I call these chemicals "unhappy."

"Stable" chemicals (e.g., water, carbon dioxide, other chemicals that are not very reactive) have a low potential energy, and no motivation to react to form other chemicals. I call these chemicals "happy."

When you burn methane, it produces carbon dioxide and water - like this:

methane + oxygen --> carbon dioxide + water vapor
CH4 + 2(O2) --> CO2 + 2(H2O)

So we go from unhappy chemicals to happy chemicals.

However, if you mix methane and oxygen in a tank, you can shake them all day, and the unhappy chemicals will never get happy. You'll just have two well-shaken unhappy chemicals all mixed-up.

In order to get that burning reaction, you have to provide a spark. Then, everybody's happy. I call that spark a "leap of faith." It's the little push that gets things going, and in the end, everybody's happier.

What will it take to activate you today, so that you can be on your road to stability and happiness?

Neglect

I'm hoping to spark this website back to life.  I have neglected it - possibly because I have not been inspiring lately. 

When a person says they have not "been inspired" lately, really they are implying that they are not inspiring.  There is no question where the blame lies.  The air is freely available for all to breathe - it's the same way with the Word of God.  Can you imagine???  A free ticket to eternal life, just waiting to be inhaled by those who want it? 

I WANT IT!!!  But in these days, we seem to be suffering from extremely bad air pollution.  I'm having trouble breathing.  Or maybe it's spiritual emphyzema due to my continual inspiration of spiritual cigarettes, which are all-too-addictive. 

Regardless, it's time to breathe that fresh air again.  A wonderful thing I recently spoke on:  "THERE IS NOTHING NEW."  You hear this phrase, and people even abuse it, stifling the creativity, imagination, and potential good work of today's believers.  It's a misapplication to apply this phrase to the household of God.  BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW!  IF ANY MAN IS IN CHRIST, BEHOLD HE IS A NEW CREATION! 

I bring this up because each day brings a new beginning.  What a gracious Heavenly Father to give us a sunrise each day, by which we might feel a renewed sense of hope!!!  Can you imagine the same day droning on and on and on and on and on???  Thankfully, each day ends, and tomorrow brings a wide range of possibilities. 

Be sure to wake up tomorrow morning, breathing God's breath again, for the very first time of the day, and focus on inspiring His messages.  I know I will try my best again tomorrow!

Do you get excited when you're wrong?

Jesus' twelve apostles were dead wrong.  He had told them quite clearly that He would suffer and rise again the third day, yet they were in denial.  When I read the letters of Peter, James (not an apostle, but the same holds true for this half-brother of Jesus - he didn't respect his brother as the future king of the world, either), and John, I like to read them through the perspective of someone who was dead wrong.

Because I know the same possibility exists for me.  I try, like they tried, to be right all the time.  I look at all the evidence I've been given, and I try to map it all out and stack it all up, to figure out how I should act in any given situation.  So did they, and they were WRONG.  Was that a bad thing?

Apparently not, in the big scheme of things.  It allowed them to be humbled (a positive), to be more excited about the end result than they otherwise might have been (another positive), and to learn to tolerate others' shortcomings a whole lot better (maybe I'm inferring a little there, but you would think that's a positive).

Maybe one point that comes out of this is that the Pharisees, who were equally wrong, never accepted or learned from that fact.  Most of them continued in their abominable wrongness, even in the face of new evidence. 

These men were all wrong in their understanding; what about those who behave in a wrong manner?  People who just don't get it?  We know that sometimes people act right without knowing it; we can assume that others act wrong without knowing it.  Through God's justice, people that act wrong when they know it are punished; David is an illustration of that rule in action - he was punished, although not FORSAKEN by Yahweh.  Certainly he knew that his sin with Bathsheba was wrong - yet God showed him through Nathan the wrongness of his action, and on he lived. 

Was he excited that he had been wrong?  Was he excited that his Merciful God showed him the wrongness of his actions and allowed him to continue?  Does this lend any additional understanding as to why angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner that accepts a call to repentance?

Do you think there will be an opportunity to be wrong, similar to this one faced by the Pharisees and apostles, just before Jesus' return? What will our reaction be?

Get TO it!

You know that verse - "wait, I say, on the Lord" (KJV).  It's from Psalm 27, verse 14. 

I was reminded of that verse when I was reading through a forwarded e-mail from a co-worker - one which said I should stop being serious, and which was filled with strange but true sayings. #18 was:

18. For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism.

This is the hard thing about being a person of action. You will be constantly criticized. The beauty of "waiting" on the Lord is this - just like a waiter in a restaurant (thanks to Dave Estey for this thought), we can constantly watch the needs of our patron, or "master," and provide the service when needed. Look around, and if you see something that needs to be done, DO IT! We can only have a positive impact by being people of action!

Inspiration

Don't be inspired today - INSPIRE!  How do you go about being an 'inspiration' to those around you?  You have to inspire.  Interesting concept that formed the foundation of this blog.  To understand the word 'inspire,' it helps to put it next to it's evil twin - 'expire.'  This gives you a 'breathe in-breathe out' image.  So you breathe in the Word of God (which He has breathed out to all men - II Tim 3:16), and you can't hold it in forever (II Cor 4:13), so you breathe out (II Tim 4:2). 

Men have long appreciated that our breath is in God's hand (Job 12:10, Dan 5:23).  So sitting where you are, take a deep breath, then look up the verses above, and maybe the ones below, and see if you're left a little more inspired than when you got here.

I pray you will be.

Gen 2:7, II Sam 22:16, Job 4:9, Job 34:14-15, Job 37:9-10, Ps 18:15, Ps 33:6, Ps 104:29, Is 2:22, Is 42 (all of it!), Ez 37:1-14, Acts 17:24-28