Thinking This Week

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Do you call yourself a Christian? A Lutheran? A Baptist? A Catholic?

What if we called ourselves “Christ Followers?” What difference would that make in how we thought of ourselves?  What difference would that make in how others thought of us?

Is a rose by any other name still a rose? Or could it be something more?  Why not try on a new name for a week or so—Christ Follower.

TROUBLES WITH PASS WORDS?

Do you have troubles and frustrations with passwords? Have you never hit on a good system to develop easy to remember passwords?

Why not connect your passwords to Bible passages that you would like to memorize?  Might be a good way to learn more of the Bible and keep track of new passwords! 

How about for your next one: Habakkuk3:17-19.

Don’t use John3:16 or Psalm23. Hackers will figure those out. But something from Habakkuk or Deuteronomy ought to be hacker proof.

QUIT HIT FROM C.S. LEWIS

One of our members sent me a number of quotes by C.S. Lewis. I always appreciate Lewis’ way with words and ideas.

Try this one on: One must keep pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.

THINK ABOUT MOSES

I liked what another preacher said about Moses once. He made this point. “The first 40 years he thought he was something. The second 40 years he learned he was nothing. The third 40 years he learned what God can do with a nothing!”

Let Jesus words to Paul be a commentary on that and an encouragement to you, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  (II Corinthians 12:9)

LEMONADE STAND 

People are so different today. Everything has changed.

Maybe not.

I saw some kids in our neighborhood with a lemonade stand last summer. Seems like our kids had one years ago. I am sure when I was young my sisters and I had one. Before that I’ll bet my dad had one as a kid. You too?

Maybe people haven’t changed so much after all.

People are people. They have hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears, frustrations, joys and desires—the objects might be different, but the people are not so much. People are people.

People also have the same central problem: sin and death.

People also have the same eternal solution: Jesus.

Two things:

• Share your faith in Jesus every chance you get. Remember how it feels to be loved and forgiven?

• When you see a lemonade stand, stop and buy some. Remember how it felt when you made that first sale?

Okay, a third thing. In our day we talk so much about how different people are. That doesn’t seem to be helping things. We might be better off thinking about how we are alike instead of how we are different. That’s the path to turning lemons into lemonade.

HARD TO BELIEVE?

Jesus said, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possession.” (Luke 12:15)

In our capitalistic, materialistic way of life this is hard to believe. But it is crucial to believe. And it is good to believe. Once we really have this clear we also have peace and contentment.

Of course, the problem in keeping this straight in our life is that what really matters seems less real than what seems to matter really.

LIGHTEN THE LOAD

Time for spring cleaning is near. Where to start? Basement? Garage? Spare bed room? All of the above? Do you continue to have all kinds of stuff you no longer need or want?  Try this: order a dumpster from your local trash removal service and don’t let them pick it up until you’ve filled it up. To the top.

Maybe not.

When traveling through this world, the wise are careful not to collect so much of the things or the thinking of the world that they get knocked off the path to heaven. Jesus said, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” (Luke 13:24)

What do you need to do to lighten your load? Do things need to be given away or given up?  Have you accumulated patterns and practices of the world that are distracting you from your walk with Jesus?

In your walk as a Christ follower what do you need to do to lighten the load?