The Secret of Contented Living

We are so prone to be obsessed with "what" is happening in our life and to ask "why" if we are unhappy with it (as if the answer would make it easier!).  In my outlook with my disease, I agree with former Press Secretary Tony Snow when his cancer came back.  He said, "I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care.  It is what it is -- a plain and indisputable fact."  He would concentrate "Who" is with him.

I am inspired to focus on the "Who" of my life every time I read Daniel 3 -- the account of the three Hebrew young men facing the fiery furnace.  They were taken from their homeland as prisoners of Babylon.  Having proved themselves and serving in high office, they attract the attention of those determined to make their life miserable.  Then they were threatened with being incinerated in a huge furnace.  When those things happened, there was no lament, "God, we have faithfully honored you, this isn't fair!  Why?"  Look how they focused on their "Who" -- "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand.  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up..." (Daniel 3:17,18 ASV).  Awesome confidence!

Try this focus; you will like it -- Isaiah 43:2.

Dick Robinson

Joy In The Hard Times

I think one of the major challenges to a maturing faith is to believe God will make a way of joy and satisfaction when times are hard.  That’s why I like Habakkuk.  He knew hard times, really hard times, were coming for Judah.  He had faithfully fulfilled his prophetic role of announcing God’s judgment.  He would not be shielded from the effects.  He says if he has no income, no food, no sheep nor cattle, “…yet I will rejoice in the LORD,  I will be joyful in God my Savior.”  Hab. 3:18 NIV

How could he do that?  Look what he believed – “The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights”-- Hab. 3:19 NIV.  He believed strength, guidance, and good would be given in conditions that made his knees weak as he thought about them.

Dick Robinson

Americans are the Unhappiest People

A recent study by the World Health Organization and Harvard Medical School revealed Americans are the unhappiest people on earth.  I wonder if this isn't because we are convinced God will spare us any difficulty, pain, suffering, etc.  When life does not work out that way, we become unhappy.  The Bible will cure such errant theology.  My reading the other day, for example:

"Take the old prophets as your mentors.  They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God.  What a gift life is to those who stay the course!  You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end.  That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail."

   James 5:10-11, The Message

In my future blogs, I want to share some of the prophets and OT personalities who pump me up!

Dick Robinson 

My BHAG

I became acquainted with a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” (BHAG) in reading the  book Built To Last, and adapted it to my personal life.  I am now working on refining it.  I don’t want to wake up in the morning and do an inventory of my  physical problems (a current danger, and if I start there, I will stay there all day) but goals that rise out of why God has placed me in this culture.  I want them to be big, hairy, and audacious, because God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, more than I can ask or think, according  to His power at work in me! (Eph  3:20)  Besides, Goethe said, "Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” – especially my heart!

 

Dick Robinson

IT WASN'T THE END!

I was typing Saturday at 6:00 PM, the time Harold Camping had predicted the world would end. For a moment I pondered the foolishness of setting dates, then looked out the window and imagined what it will be like when Jesus does return; the trumpet sound, the skies splitting, seeing Him… What a moment!  I think it is getting close.

 

Dick Robinson

Grieving

There have been seven deaths in the church family in the past ten days.  A number of church members, relatives, immediate family and loved ones of people in the church have passed away (just now, as I was typing this up, a member stopped in my office to tell me of his uncle that just died).

Paul wrote and said, "Brothers, we do not want you to...grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope" (1 Thess. 5:13).  Paul is saying that faith helps us to grieve differently -- hopefully -- confidently.

The saddest funeral I was ever part of was that of a woman who died in Florida.  She was flown back to Illinois and I was asked to have her funeral.  She had one son.  At the funeral service, in the funeral home chapel, there were a total of 7 people -- me, the son, and five others.  When the service ended, the son just stayed in his seat for over 40 minutes.  Neither mother nor son had faith and both of them lived lives closed off from others.  The only thing I could talk about was that God was available to comfort him and that people need Jesus.

Contrast that with the funerals of late in our congregation where there have been singing and laughter and joy.  Don't misunderstand, we grieve; Paul admits that we grieve -- we just grieve differently.  The worship center and fellowship hall have been full with loving support.  And what we are talking about is God's goodness and grace and promises and love and faithfulness.  We are talking about heaven and seeing our loved ones again.  And we are talking about what a blessing they were to us in their life.

Oh, yes!  God is still available to comfort us.  And more than ever we are convinced that people need Jesus.  But praise be to God, we don't have to grieve like those who have no hope!

One Of Satan's Most Effective Lies...

One of Satan's most effective lies is when he prompts us to question God’s goodness in the face of current circumstance, saying “it isn’t fair!” “We have been good; good things ought to happen to us.”

There are things in this world that are not fair. My illness is not one of them – Jesus said storms come, Matt. 7:25. It bothers me when someone says, “It is not fair that you have this disease”. I have a picture on my computer that I keep to remind me of what is not fair. It is of a starving Sudanese child, crawling in the dust toward a feeding center. . A vulture is a few feet away, watching her, waiting.

I live in a comfortable home -- she crawls in the dust. I have hospitals, doctors, and medicine to make me more comfortable – she lacks even the essentials of life. I have many friends that help me -- she lacks one person to pick her up and take her a few hundred yards to the feeding station.

God’s will for us:  “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  I Thess. 5:16-18

Dick Robinson

PS: Next time you feel sorry for yourself, remember this:  If  you make $24,000.00 per year, you are in the top 10% of the world’s wealthiest. If you make $80,000.00 per year, you are in the top 1% of the world’s wealthiest.