The Highlander

 As I began my rookie training with the local Fire Department, I was reminded in a round about way of how much our lives impact the lives of others.  One of the things I was blessed with as I began my training was our wonderful textbook Essentials Of Firefighting And Department Operations.  This wonderful gift literally weighs about 20 pounds, give or take a few ounces!  It is loaded with all kinds of vital information that every firefighter NEEDS to know.  As we were going through our class on Firefighter Safety and Health, I came across a quote that struck a deep chord within me.  It was this, “Train as if your life depended on it–it does.”  No statement could be any truer, especially when it comes to firefighting, and all of the rigorous and repetitive traing that you go through.  This statement has affected the way I approach all of it; from working out and doing all of the physical training, to all of the mental and psychological aspects as well.

Yet, the more I pondered that statement and principle, I thought about another statement that is just as true, “Live as if the lives of others depended on it–they do.”  We have been placed in this world by Father to love Him and to love others.  It does not get any simpler than that.  Every single day, people are brought across our paths that He has placed there for us to love in some way.  It may simply be a kind word that they need or maybe some encouragement.  It could be that we have the chance to invest some time in their life or give them something that they may physically need.  It may just be that they need a listening ear.  It doesn’t matter that you don’t have all of the answers, just that you have the time to care enough to listen.

The deepest need of all of our hearts is to be loved.  Having that need met gives us all of the significance, meaning, and direction that we need to live a fulfilled and richly blessed life in this world.  The way that we live, the words that we speak, whether we like it or not, touches the lives of others.  That impact can be positive or negative and it could be one that lasts for a short time or for a lifetime.  People watch us and listen to us, especially if they know that we profess to walk with Christ.  I don’t say that in order to “guilt you” into living right.  That is just a fact.  We don’t need more rules and regulations or principles and steps, in order to live lives that make a difference.  We just need to live loved by Father.  As we receive His love for us, and it fills us up, it HAS to spill over into the lives of others.  We just cannot contain it.  We learn to live life as Eugene Peterson states in The Message, according to the “unforced rhythms of grace.”

If we will give ourselves over to the pursuit of being loved by God and loving Him, the impact of our lives on others will be for the eternal good.  So remember, live as if the lives of others depended on it–they do!

The Highlander

  I don’t know why I find it so difficult to trust God (or very many people for that matter).  I know I should (yikes!  There’s that profane performance word), and I also know that the surest way to please Him is to simply trust Him (Hebrews 11:6).  Heck!  When in my life can I go back and find a time when He ever failed me or did not ever keep a promise?  None.  Now, that is not saying that I cannot go back and find times (many I am afraid), when He did not do what I “thought” He should, or what I felt like He “said” (through some inner impression or outer “word” from some well meaning saint) He would do.  There are more of those than I can remember.  And with each failed experience came a letdown and just a wee bit of confusion.  Why?  Why God?  Why didn’t You___?  I just KNEW You were leading or speaking!  Why!?  Silence.

If I am honest, my life has not turned out anywhere like I thought, dreamed, or planned that it would!  How about yours?  It seems like God has frustrated all of my “plans/dreams” at every turn.  I am not where I thought I would be at this point in my life in any area…period.  I do not have it all together, and I find that I now have more questions than I do answers.  I am less sure about more, and more sure about less.  Looking back, I realize that I have spent more time in “speculations, controversies, and questions” ( 1 Timothy 1:4; 6:4-5; 2 Timothy2:23), than learning how to simply love and live loved by Father.  (more…)

 I started a series of messages last Sunday on the Kingdom of God.  It is a theme that has captured my heart for years now, and one that I see more and more that so many believers have little understanding of.  The fact that our God reigns is undeniable, yet we have forgotten the fact that He created man to rule and reign with Him!  Our rule was only meant to be exercised in union with God, as He would act with us.  He always intended to be our constant companion and co-worker in the creative enterprise of life on earth.

One of things that I was reminded of again as I was preparing to share, was that He intended for all of us to have a unique realm over which we would be responsible.  In fact, He prepared that realm for us, before the world was ever made (Matthew 25:34).  Now that just blows me away!

The whole of His relationship with us was not about religion, rituals, rules and regulations, it was all about love.  It was about Him being our Father, our Life, our Love.  He wanted to walk with us in loving and harmonious union and oneness.  It was not about going to a PLACE to meet Him, but living life IN HIM everywhere we went and in everything we did.  He was to be our all in all.

In the context of that wonderful relationship, man would be what He desired and He could turn Him loose to rule over His creation as he desired.   Of course we all know that sin entered the picture, and disrupted the whole process.

But that was no surprise to God!  He had a plan all along to redeem us and restore us and all that Adam lost.  He did that in the greatest demonstration of love ever exhibited on earth…through the death of His only Son on a Roman cross.  He gave us His best, when we were at our worst.  If that does not show us how much and how truly He loves us, nothing does!

When we, by grace through faith, enter into a relationship with God, we are restored, reborn, and released!  We become these wonderful new creations and God begins the process of making us into the kind of persons that can rule and reign with Him!  Life is not about WHAT we do FOR God, but the KIND of person that we are BECOMING in and by His gracious work IN us!  He is preparing us to rule over that unique realm that He has had prepared for us since the foundation of the world!

Obviously, good works flow from our lives as we walk with Him.  But they flow out of who we are, as He wills and does His good pleasure through us.  We do them because we love Him and others, not in order to gain brownie points with God.  We do righteous works because we are righteous people in Christ!

I needed to be reminded once again that God is not so much interested in how much I do FOR Him in my life, as He is in the person I am BECOMING.  Why?  Because the person I am becoming has eternal impact on the realm over which I will rule in the coming age.  If I focus on the person I am becoming, and give myself to those things that shape that, the works will flow as naturally as rivers do to an ocean.
Enoch’s life sums the whole matter up beautifully; he walked WITH God.  Now that is a life I am totally up for!

Peace,

The Highlander

 O sleep, where art thou?  It is 5:30 am and I have been awake since 2:45, and finally gave up the battle of trying to return to the bliss of rest at 3:50 when I finally got up.  Between two daughters who got home at the ungodly hour of 3 am (after watching a midnight showing of Transformers, go figure), and being afraid that every time I turned over I would hear the squeal of Max being transformed from poodle to pancake, I felt “led” to get up.

As I sit here in the pre-dawn moments of a new day, I am thinking about life.  I am enjoying Cathleen Falsani’s book Sin Boldy- A Field Guide for Grace.  I have never read anything by her before, but this book is refreshing.  It is a simple collection of stories from her life that illustrate God’s grace in different ways.

As I was reading a chapter about her experiences in a very poor area in Kenya, she made a remark about the women there that slapped me in the face.  As she talked about the women’s energy and ingenuity in their work, even in the most difficult of living situations, she said this, “They had no time for despair.  They are far too busy living.”  SMACK!

“Far too busy LIVING.”  Now that grabbed my attention.  I thought about the reality in my own life that whenever I found myself depressed, doubting, and despairing, I have stopped living.  In those times I have chosen to throw the car of life into “park”, and refuse to journey on and enjoy the ride.  I cannot enjoy the sights, sounds and people around me, because I am too busy navel gazing while sitting in the drivers seat.

The fact is, I have cut myself off from the source of real life and that is Jesus.  After all, He Himself said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE.  Despair says that God has turned His back on me, and that there is just no reason to go on.  Despair says that there is no purpose in life, no rhyme or reason to any of it.  It tells me that I am sinking in a pit too deep for me (or God for that matter), to get me out of, so why go on.  Just sit and sulk, and cry, “Woe is me.”  Ever been there?

I remember Jesus telling a guy one time what the definition of real living was.  As always, He made it real simple.  So simple that even “I” can get it!  He basically said that if you love God with your whole being, and other people as yourself, you would live (Luke 10:27-28).  Real life is found in loving God and loving others.  We love in order to live and we live in order to love.

Because He lives in us, His love has filled our hearts (Romans 5:5), and that love has to go somewhere!  It has to be expressed both upward (towards Father), and outward (towards others).  Whenever we are doing this, even in the simplest of ways, we are living.  When we are not, we cease living in the truest since of the word, and start trying to find life in things that can only bring death.  Then you know what happens?  Yep, despair shows up at the door with a great big smile on his face.  He is ready to move in and set up house keeping.

The women Cathleen spoke of were far too busy loving God and others in what they were doing, that they had no time or place for despair.

I want to live!  I want to sieze the day and live it to the hilt.  Yet, I realize that when I look back at my life, far too many of my days have been spent just “existing” and “getting” by, and not really living.  Despair and I have spent more time together than I care to remember.  So, today Papa, as I sit here listening to the birds waking up and singing a song of welcome to the rising sun, I want to live.  Let Your life in me, a life that is love itself, find expression upward and outward today.  In word, thought and deed, let Your love flow out of me, so that when I do put my head down on a pillow later on (and I am looking forward to that!), I will know that by Your grace, I lived!

I hope that today you will have no time for despair, because you too, are far too busy living!

The Highlander

  Well, I passed another birthday this weekend.  Funny, I feel the same as I did a week ago, but the calendar says I am one year older.  Of course, calendars don’t dictate how you feel on a certain day, they just inform you of what day it is.  How you feel, live, and experience life on that day, has a lot to do with you.  You can “live!”, or you can just “exist”.

The older I get, the more I want to live, really live, each day.  I want to enjoy every moment that Papa gives me.  I am realizing that every second is a gift and while each gift is given, I want to receive it and milk it for all it is worth.  Sure, I want to accomplish things that make a difference in somebody’s world while I am here, but I am also learning how relish the little things that nobody else sees.  Sometimes, God shows Himself to me in those “hidden moments” more than in the wide open ones.

One thing that He has driven home for me in the last few years, is that the only thing that REALLY matters, is love.  Nothing more, nothing less.  My life will be judged by how well I loved.  Because how well I lived, will be determined by how well I loved.  Everything the Bible speaks of is summed up (as Jesus said), by how well I loved Father, and how well I loved others.  So, every opportunity I get each day to express love for Him and to others, I need to seize it.  I want my life to be invested, not spent.  The only way that will happen is by living a life of love.

In five minutes, I get a chance to love in word and deed.  My wife will come out here, and I will hug her, and tell her how special she is and how very much I love her.  In an hour, I will be out among people and will be looking for the opportunities that Papa will give me to show love to someone else.  It may be in a kind or encouraging word.  It could be in an act of service that is needed, or just to sit still and listen to someones  heart.  Father has more “love adventures” planned for me each day than I can shake a stick at.  I just need to be looking for them as I am going along.

So, my prayer this day is not, “Father use me to do great things”, or “make me a great man”.  Neither is it, “Bless me, bless me, bless me”.  Nope.  It is, “Father fill me with Your life and let me walk in love towards You and all that You bring my way.”  I am sure that He will answer that prayer, and I am also sure that I will have lived life to its fullest if I do those things.  Heck, love sort of makes life worth livin’!

The Highlander

Two weeks ago, my girls and I braved the elements and went to the first showing of Prince Caspian which took place at 12:01 am. Now, I must say that I have been looking forward to this for a long time, and I was not disappointed.There in the midst of a host of college kids and a few adults who were allowed to (or were able to), stay up past their bed time, I was blessed with another fresh encounter with the living Aslan. There were several points during the movie, when I just had to keep from breaking down and crying uncontrollably. I know that may seem weird to some, but to others, it makes perfectly good sense. (more…)

Have you ever stopped and listened to many of our conversations about our relationship with God? If so, have you ever noticed how much of our language is rooted in an Old Covenant, separation mentality? Here are a few simple examples:”Welcome to the “the Lord’s house”" (Usually given when welcoming people to a Sunday morning gathering).

“Lord, we come into Your Presence…”

“Be with us Jesus…”

“Help us draw near to You…”

“Cast me not away from Your Presence”

“Come to us now Lord…”

These are just a few of the kind of Old Covenant, separation Freudian slips we make when talking about our relationship with God. Are they correct? Heck no! (more…)

As we walk with God, one of the things that is to be happening with us, is that we are to be becoming more and more like Him.  Yes, as we discussed in the last post, we are in a real battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that we will win battles, and lose some.  Our struggle will not be over until Jesus returns or we go to be with Him through death.  Yet, in our hearts as children of God, we long to be like Him.

Just whose job is it anyway to make us “godly”?  When it is all said and done, who will get the credit?  Us or Him?  The Scripture is pretty clear that:

1.  HE has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29)
2.  HE will keep us from falling and present us SPOTLESS before His throne (Jude v:24)
3.  HE who began a good work IN us, will perform (or finish) it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6)
4.  HE is our holiness (1 Corinthians 1:30)
5.  HE chose us to be holy and without blame (Ephesians 1:4)
6.  HE sanctifies us by His Word (John 17:17)

I think you are getting the picture…HE alone will get all the glory for making us holy.  We will be obedient and holy, only because HE has made us that way.

You may say, “But HE commands us to obey Him, as well as be holy as He is.”  You are exactly right.  But remember this:

1.  YOU are HIS workmanship, created in Christ unto good works , which GOD ordained (prepared) BEFORE that you should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10)
2.  For it is GOD Who is at work IN you BOTH to will (desire to obey and please Him), and to do (empower you to obey Him and carry out His will), His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13)

So, just what in the heck are we to do?  Focus on trying to be holy and “better”, or focus on Him and loving Him?  (more…)

I periodically enjoy watching Inside the Actors Studio shown here on the Arts and Entertainment channel. Last week, Dustin Hoffman was the guest. It was interesting to listen to him talk about his early days and the methods he used when preparing for a role. He talked about how he looks for models in real life, from whom he learns about his particular character, and weaves that model into the role he is playing. He is simply playing a role, and acting in front of a camera, in order to produce a certain response from the audience, and to convince them that he IS that character.

As he was talking, I thought, “That is just what many Christians do, as well as most churches.” Think about it. Let’s start with individuals. (more…)

The great sadness found its way,
Into my quiet life,
It brought with it a darker day,
And much internal strife,
Pain and suffering walked with me,
In every step I took,
My sight was dimmed and I could not see,
Nor did I have the desire to look,
I found myself in a pit so deep,
I was stuck in miry clay,
I knew what I had sown, I now must reap,
I could not find the words to even pray,
Then, somehow, some way, Your love broke through,
You entered my cold, dark, night,
You called forth springtime and made all things new,
And healed my heart with loves warm light,
You opened my eyes to see Your heart,
So good and kind towards me,
You spoke the words, made my Red Sea part,
and said, “Let’s go, you’re free!”
I cannot say thank You enough each day,
For grace and mercy so true,
I wish I could only find the words to say,
Papa, how very much I love You!

By Randy Umberger