Following Jesus Son of God …

Monday, Monday … an opera morning on Pandora.

Monday mornings after a four day weekend are sometimes a struggle, and maybe more so today as I am discouraged anyway.

Of course I don’t understand a word they are saying. Must be the outpouring of emotion, the passion of their story.

But here is the funny part.

Not understanding the words allows them to “tell my story.”

They are putting my emotions and discouragement to music, my ups and downs following the trail of my thoughts.

And beautiful music indeed.

Sometimes I find myself impressed with the software I am using, and I think – “I should mention these on the blog.”

So here’s the list at the moment with links.

• Skitch (FREE but Mac only)

Fast, excellent and versatile screen-capture program.

• Snag-It (Mac and PC but costs money)

Excellent program for screen-capture; more tools than Skitch but does cost.  There is a trial version.  I love Snag-It; have used for years.

• Evernote (FREE for most users; Multi-Platform)

Our goal at Evernote is to give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they find most convenient, and then to make all of that information easy to find.

And we’ve done just that. From creating text and ink notes, to snapshots of whiteboards and wine labels, to clips of webpages, Evernote users can capture anything from their real and digital lives and find it all anytime.

Evernote is free and excellent for capturing, saving and organizing info across multiple devices.

• Intaglio (Costs money; Mac only)

Powerful vector drawing program. Makes quick work of excellent graphics and text for web and many other uses.

• Serif Photo Plus (FREE and costs money; Windows only)

This is the graphics program I used for several years before switching to Mac.  Photoshop-like power at fraction of price or free.

Serif Photo Plus version 9 for $9.99 (click link above) is one of the best deals ever for Windows software.

The last few mornings I have had the luxury of “sleeping in” which is quite nice considering I normally begin dragging myself from under the covers before 5:00 a.m. almost every other morning.

So to be able to relax and sip coffee until six or seven o’clock is quite nice indeed.

But it is more than that.

The world I wake up to is the realm of Jesus Christ, Sovereign Lord of the universe.

True.  I have my issues and worries, and at times I see a dark cloud in the distance and sometimes near.

But every care and need I have I can roll off my shoulders to the care of my Sovereign Lord as I bow before him to begin my day.

• 1 Peter 5.6-7
  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

“I am your servant David.”

Those were my words as I walked into the throne room of my King.

“I am your servant David.”

Just a thought, a reflection I had early this morning as this idea of being a servant of the king continues to occupy a bit of my mental landscape.

The honor of serving faithfully in the harsh conditions of a fallen world. I’m all in on this adventure of grace.

“I am your servant David.”

(BBE) 2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all whose purpose is to be living in the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, will be cruelly attacked.

Do we shrink from this tremendous privilege and opportunity for fear of attack?

We can’t. We just can’t allow the enemy’s threats of harm detour us from devotion to our Savior.

Lord Jesus, to you we commit our lives and trust you for courage to stand in honor.

Turf wars in the name of Jesus.

Posted … NO TRESPASSING!

Posted … NOT WELCOME!

We wouldn’t do that, would we?  I mean, would we put up signs like that?

As good, caring Christian people surely not?

But we do, and sometimes we do it in the name of Jesus.

The message within the message …

Here is what sparked these thoughts … this time.

My best friend received a phone call recently like all of us have received at one time or another.  A phone call in which you have to try to decipher the message within the message.  The happy, courteous voice that in a nice sort of way seems determined to manipulate us.

Christian-speak with an edge.

What had happened was my friend had inadvertently and very innocently crossed the boundary lines into this other person’s territory in a social setting.

Of course she didn’t realize this because the boundary markers were virtually invisible except to the turf defender.  In fact, my friend didn’t even at first know that the turf defender existed.

But how could a person, especially a good, Christian person be so mean?
By not following the basic principles of “Caring for Others 101” per King Jesus for the people in our immediate circle of influence.

Let me share some thoughts of mine from a few years ago that may help explain.

——————-

June 26, 2005

Hi. I’m Dave Scott. Welcome to Living by the Words of God.

(Matthew 5:47 CEV) If you greet only your friends, what’s so great about that? Don’t even unbelievers do that?

We have all approached a group of people and gotten the message, haven’t we? “No room for you in our lives; no red carpet; no vacancies here.”

And so I wonder and ask. How many withheld greetings does it take before someone is convinced that she is not even welcome on the planet? How many times will she be denied entrance into the lives of those around her before she comes to the conclusion that there is no warm place of welcome, no shelter from the world’s storm for her? From her home to the coffee shop to the gas station to work, the only message communicated is “not welcome here.”

Jesus steps into our lives with these words and calls us to an opportunity to reach beyond our circle of friends, an opportunity to say for him “Welcome to God’s good earth. Welcome to the planet, friend.”

—————–

By not following the priorities of loving our neighbor (the person in close proximity who is in need) we post our signs that tell them to look elsewhere for someone who cares.

What we do seems harmless enough.  We may even justify our actions in the name of service to Jesus.

We don’t see the cumulative effect.
And the reason we don’t see this is because we see our world only through our eyes and not the eyes of Christ because we are living on human principles of getting by in this world.  And we are blind to the view from the other side.

We think we have given a tactful, even friendly, piece of advice when in fact we have posted a NO TRESPASSING sign.

And I would ask. How many “NO TRESPASSING” signs and “NOT WELCOME” signs do you think a person need to be confronted with through the course of the day before he or she gets a very clear message?

There is no place for me here. No welcoming group.  No one who accepts me as family.

Sometimes our Christianity hides the Christ of Scripture; sometimes our best intentions hide the welcoming message of our Savior.

King Jesus lived here and gave us principles to live by; principles he lived by.  And Jesus says “Welcome to the planet!”  So why don’t we communicate the message of our King?

I am a servant … a slave actually.

And so are you. We are all slaves by default or by choice.

Choose – serve Christ, slave to righteousness, free …

By default (don’t choose, just let whatever) – serve ourselves, slave to sin, confined by our mortality and our sin …

(Romans 6.16) Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

(Romans 6.17) But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

(Romans 6.18) and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

But I kind of got myself off track. I didn’t really begin this to make a comparison or dive into a theology lesson.

I wanted to speak to the blessing of being a servant of the king of the universe and the very exciting and fulfilling adventure of discovering who we are and the greatness of said King.

All hail King Jesus. I gladly bow before your heavenly throne while still on this humbled planet.

Bowed before my God! Great joy!

Sometimes I am so ready for heaven. So ready for Jesus to “beam me up.”

Tired, worn and pain, way too much pain.

Just take me now, Lord …

But then God speaks to me about the pain and loneliness and “lostness” of so many who would be left behind on the planet.

So many who need to hear some truly good news, as in the kind of good news that only God can give.

As in hope and new life, a perspective that evades the prison of Earth’s horizon.

And above all, I do want to please Christ.

So, I guess heaven must wait and I must serve while I have the opportunity to share the goodness and greatness of God.

(1 Corinthians 5.7-9 NCV) We live by what we believe, not by what we can see. So I say that we have courage. We really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord. Our only goal is to please God whether we live here or there.

Yes, I’m a goose … so to speak.

Bases on some informal “research” I have come to the conclusion that I’m a goose-type person.

A friend told me that she had read that sometimes when the mate of a goose is wounded or otherwise injured that the healthy mate will stay by the wounded one at his or her own mortal peril.

In other words the goose risks death for the sake of loyalty.

The goose would rather die than desert his or her mate.

So, yes, I’m a goose and very happy to say so. I would rather die than abandon this beautiful person who is my wife.

So go ahead and call me a goose.

I’m good with that.

So am I just another religious person claiming to know truth, or has my truth led me to live in the light?

Has my light blinded me or has it shown me a clearer picture of Christ, which is reflected in the relationships I have with the people around me?

1 John 2:9-11 (NIV)
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. [10] Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. [11] But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.