Good, great or Christian?

This morning I was sharing about a good man. He was a good friend, a good husband, a good family man and an active man of faith. His name was Philemon and he was a friend of the Apostle Paul. He was all the above things plus he refreshed the hearts of the saints.

I would like to think that we all could be that kind of good man or woman. It just requires us to love our friends and families and the saints. That should be easy enough. After all Jesus told us that the world would know we are His disciples when we love one another. The making of a good is right here.

But Paul encouraged his friend to be more, to go farther. He prayed for him to have an active faith so that he would have an understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. I was reminded that the more we tell the world about Jesus the more we see Him and know Him and ultimately are conformed to His image. This is what makes a great man! Paul encourages Philemon to be a great man in Christ.

If that was all to learn from this epistle it could be enough but Paul says there is more. Paul wants Philemon to be a Christian man! Apparently Philemon owned a slave named Onesimus who had escaped after stealing from his his master. Paul wants Philemon to forgive Onesimus who has gotten saved while with Paul in Rome. And take him back. And to treat him like a brother not a slave or a thief.

In my self confident, self righteous flesh I always thought this would be easy for Philemon or any Christian but then the Lord started to remind me of how many I had "forgiven."

Philemon was being told not just to forgive but to take this slave, who defied his authority, who had stolen from him and embarassed him, and put him back inside his home! To set him free and treat him like family. Who could do that? A Christian that's who!

The Lord was showing me that I have the talk down but the walk still needs work. I easily say "You're forgiven" but do I let them back into fellowship with me or even to be part of my family?
That's what Jesus did for me. He has forgiven me, brought me into His family as a brother and is even building me a place to live.

I tell you that I have no idea what that kind of forgiveness is like on the giving side. I know it on the receiving end but I still struggle on the giving end. But I will keep trying because Jesus didn't quit doing the Godly thing and I need to do the Christian thing.

Until this morning I was willing to settle for the good man and possibly hoping for the great. But now Jesus challenges me to be the Christian man.

Lord I need to learn to live an active faith by forgiving like you do. I have to admit I'm a little nervous to teach the last 18 verses of this letter next Sunday. But with God all things are possible!

Dust bunnies, fixing things and cool water

I know I said I was going to stop fixing things but sometimes you just got to do it. The refrigerator has been slowly warming up over the last week (along with the weather) and when you can't even get a slightly cool drink of water, well enough is enough.

Apparently you have to clean the cooling coils once every few years! Taking the back plate off of the fridge revealed a large, fuzzy, dark brown lump where there should be the aforementioned coils. So with a 3 inch paint brush and a screwdriver I killed the dust bunny that had swallowed the coils but apparently the dust bunny had already eaten the fan. So tinkering with the fan (for the non technical that means banging on it with the paint brush) the fan is now working. GOD IS GOOD! We shall see in the morning if this has repaired the fridge.

I did however teach today. The SOM had a survey of Ephesians. It went well but it is getting harder every year to teach the survey classes as the Bible just has too much to say! But the guys are learning and that's what counts. God working in their lives.

I pray God is good in your life too. He never fails us but sometimes we are not as faithful as we should be. Sometimes the dust bunnies of sin overwhelm us and we lose our cooling abilities and the cooling fan of the Holy Spirit is grieved. But Jesus knows just what to do. (No, He doesn't bang us around with a paintbrush) He takes away all the sin that has clogged us up, washes us with the word, anoints us with oil and puts us back into service so the next guy can get some cool living water that flows from the Spirit through us to others.

I don't know if our fridge will work tomorrow but after Jesus gets done with us I know we'll be working just fine!

Crusades and Childrens Movies

It was a very interesting day Friday. I was invited to teach at a crusade in Kajjansi being held by Pastor Aaron. I agreed to go but I had told them that we couldn't let them use the generator or sound system from the church as it was needed for the Friday night kid's movie, Saturday youth group and Sunday services. But I did bring our back up system. The choir sang for 1 1/2 hours but the set up guys didn't notice that the battery operarted system had become disconnected from the power source. So just about the time Aaron was to teach the system goes dead.

We finally get the sound system up again Aaron's teaching goes well the choir sings for half hour and the system dies again. Sound systems are meant to die but what bothered me was that no one wanted to fix the system they would rather complain about it! But we got it living again and it was my turn to teach. The sound system had no problems for the message but as soon as the altar call came and the choir started to sing the sound system went on holiday again. There didn't appear to be any fruit from the whole first day of the crusade.

My heart was getting hard by this point as the common refrain was "If we had better equipment God would bring us success." It was all I could do not to lash out at people and defend my decision. So I told Aaron that I was heading back to Jinja that night instead of staying. He was disappointed but I just couldn't trust myself to stay and say something that might hurt our relationship.

On the 3 hour ride home I asked the Lord repeatedly"Is there any fruit today" but I couldn't see anything.
I got home at 11 ate dinner and went to bed, thoroughly discouraged.

This morning JB came over all excited about what had happened last night. I told him that nothing happened but he said I just hadn't heard. At the Friday night movie, the children's version of the Jesus film, in Luganda, about 100 kids came. During the movie there was none of the usual talking and joking. When the time came to ask the kids to pray to receive Jesus as their Savior, every child quietly asked Jesus to save them. JB had never seen anything like it! All this was happening while I was driving and ask God "Where is the fruit?"

I am amazed at how self focused I can be. I was discouraged that God had not used me for a great harvest at Kajjansi. But God was busy with His plan not mine for His glory not mine! Praise you Jesus for saving all those kids. Thank you that your Father's will is done not mine!

Tomorrow I go back to Kajjansi to share the hope of life in Jesus. I don't care if the sound system works or that I teach well but just that Jesus is there and the Holy Spirit is working.

Maybe I'll just show a movie.

Eggs, Sugar, Eclipses and seeing through things

It easy to get discouraged. Here in Jinja nothing seems to go as planned. Monday Aaron and Richard, pastors from Kajjansi and Lumuli came to see me. It seems like a they can't get their chickens to lay as many eggs as they should. So Aaron sold all his chickens and is buying new chicks to start over. Only problem is he sold them for 4,000 shillings each. That's at least 3000 Ugs below the Kelli blue book value. for a 2009 chicken. Man at that price I'd have bought them. But he is starting over hoping to learn from his mistakes. Richard on the other hand wants to sell his chickens and the buy chickens to sell to restaurants. His plan is to buy chickens in the village at 5,000 and sell them in town at 6,000 making 1000 shillings on each chicken. Funny how sitting between two guys who raise chickens one can't sell his birds fo 4000 and the other can't buy his for less than 5000. I guess the easiest solution would to be buy and sell to each other but I didn't think of that.

Anyway Richard can't seem to see past the 1000 shilling profit and get his mind on the idea that in raising chickens for 7 weeks he can make a 3800 shilling profit. So the three of us discussed for 3 hours the various problems of making money from poultry. But finally they have agreed to work at raising their birds and to put in the effort to succeed and not quit.

Tuesday and Thursday I spent part of each day with Pastor Apollo at the sugar works trying to get his money from the harvest last month of his two acres of cane. Apparently when Apollo goes to get paid they can't seem to find his file to send it for processing but if he pays 5,000-10,000 to the clerk his file magically appears. After two weeks of this nonsense He asked me to come and assist him in the file hunt. Amazingly when a mzungu is there the file never gets lost. Until I leave then it instantly is lost again only to reappear two days later just after I walk through the door.
It is so hard to watch a good man like Apollo have to go through this frustration just to get paid. But he does go through it with a grace and good naturedness that I only wish I had.

This morning we experienced an Annular eclipse. It will not happen again until 2125 so we had everyone out watching. But what I found fascinating was the people looking through welding lenses or smoked glass to see it. To a one, kids and adults would either look at the glass and say "All I see is my reflection" or they would look at the glass so intently that they forgot to face the sun. It amazed me that they could not see past the glass!

But then can I see past the glass? Do I see my friends, Christian brothers and sisters as Jesus sees them? Do I see who they truly are? Do I look through the same lens that God uses to make me look good in His sight? The lens of grace and love that makes me look like His Son? Am I willing to see the job through of helping raise up a new generation for Christ? Or am I willing to sell my chickens for new ones? Am I willing to play the frustrating game of hide the file of Christ until it surfaces in peoples lives and the walk it through to the end so the harvest is complete.

I'm seeing better now, Lord! Show me some more!

Psalm 18:1-3

Friday morning 5:30 As I get ready for an early run my daily reading is Psalm 18. As I read verses 1-3 I am struck by how true the word of God is and how faithless I am. I claim to know that God is my rock, fortress, refuge, deliverer, shield and my stronghold. But I realize that too often when I am tired, weak or despairing I don't trust in God my refuge, deliverer and my rock. I trust not in God's Spirit in me but trust in what I used to do before I met Jesus. After 17 years of walking with Jesus still at the least trouble or any lack of peace in my heart I go back to who I used to be and what I did for comfort.

I used to be a mechanic and when stressed I fix something. But many of the problems in life I can't fix. So I fix cars, water heaters, fans, electronics or whatever I can to show that I still have control in my life.

I shared the verses from Psalm 18 with my class later in the morning to encourage them to hold fast to Jesus and let him fix the things in their lives and not go back to any other source of comfort, protection or deliverance. They understood what was shared and class went well. So well that we met for five straight hours (Bev was in Kampala so we didn't have to stop for lunch). It was great!

Later that day I shared with a young friend, Andy, about the end times for two hours. I felt as good as I had in quite awhile. God laid on my heart that sharing His word and His plan for His children's future was what He wanted me to do. Not spending my time fixing stuff. I told JB and Steven that I would not be repairing things anymore and it was up to them to get things repaired. It felt good to let the load of self imposed work go. I will trust in my Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer.

Today I had the privilege of teaching at Calvary Chapel Kololo, the new offshoot of CCKampala.
It was the first time for me to teach there and I was incredibly nervous. As the worship team was singing my hands were shaking uncontrollably. I was afraid to raise them for fear that others would see them shake. Then God in His precious everloving way spoke to me. The worship team started singing Psalm 18! God reminded me so gently that He is my refuge when I fear. When I feel like I can't do it, He can! And my fear left. I was blessed again to be able to share God's word with brothers and sisters who needed and wanted to hear Jesus speak to their hearts the same way He had just spoken to mine.

I hope that I can remember the lesson I learned this week. I call to the Lord who is worthy of praise and I am saved from my enemies. Those outside and those within. Praise God our Rock!