kvanover@twc.com

The God-first Mentality and a Fence

June 10, 2014 0Comment

Put God first. Friends have said it me, and I have said it to friends. It seems rather simple, but it can be daunting advice. Being someone who has a track record of letting his career define himself, I could do better at putting God first. Actually, the reason that I have not posted anything in over a month is my career. Therefore, I have experience with this issue.

Putting God first. What does that look like? Well, it is difficult to describe until someone commits. Basically, we need to “get off the fence”. The fence is a great analogy. Fences divide property. Adjacent land owners will often share the cost of the fence that divides their properties. So, the fence is not owned by anyone. The fence is neutral, so to speak. And neutrality is comfortable. If you are neutral, you really do not have to offend anyone. However, God does not respect neutrality. He wants your love and attention. He wants you to stand for something….HIM. Actually, Jesus is the most popular person to ever exist…. who actually stood for something. So, have a “come to Jesus meeting” with yourself. Ask, “What do I believe?”. If you believe God is the almighty creator, Jesus is his son, Jesus died for you, and you have accepted Jesus, then the second part of this blog post is important. If you cannot affirm the preceding statement, then I cannot help you in this particular post. However, I have previous posts that are helpful to skeptics. I would also suggest the book, Cold Case Christianity or the dvd, “The Case for Christ”. The movie “God’s not Dead” is good as well.

Okay, back to putting God first. The following are suggestions. I am, by no means, an expert. As soon as you wake up, read something Godly (Bible, devotional, etc). Not only will it ease anxiety, it shows God he is important because you did it first….before any of the day’s activities. Re-arrange your schedule to include Godly activities (church, small groups, service projects). Communicate with God throughout the day. I send short prayers, or text messages, to God all the time. Basically, sacrifice your own desires for Godly things. You may feel like you are losing something temporarily, but what you gain is eternal.

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Okay to Question….God?

May 1, 2014 2Comments

Is it okay to question God, the almighty creator of the universe, the alpha and omega, the landlord of everything? I mean, how can we as mere mortals possibly understand God, who created the universe, knows how many hairs are on our heads, knows every thought inside our minds (scary), and so forth?

Well, we cannot understand him. He knows HIS ways are way above our ways. And that is precisely why we will have questions. So, in my humble opinion, it is more than okay to question God. If fact, the Bible is full of examples of people questioning God. Two of the most famous examples are Jesus and Moses. When Jesus was praying in the garden, he asked God to take this cup of suffering from him, but let God’s will be done. He knew it was coming, but he still asked. He questioned it. Moses, a mere mortal like us, questioned God a little further. He said who am I, that I should go to pharaoh. He also asked what was he going to say to the Israelites, when he went to Egypt. Then he asked God, what if they did not believe him. Therefore, there is definitely a Biblical precedent for questioning God.

However, my favorite example is a lesser known Bible hero named Gideon. I have written about Gideon briefly in a previous post. Gideon was beating wheat in a whine press because an invading army was plundering his land, when an angel appeared. The angel told him, “God is with you, mighty warrior”. To put this in complete perspective, Gideon is hiding his food from an invading army, and no relief is in sight. The angel just said, “God is with you”. Well, it sure did not look to Gideon like the Lord was with him. He asked what any rational, sane, human being would ask: “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us….”. God then told Gideon to deliver Israel from the invaders. Gideon said you gotta be kidding. The he asks for proof that God was with him. Gideon, albeit very reluctantly, eventually kicks the invading army out of Israel. The complete story is in Judges 6-8. Gideon’s story is both inspiring and entertaining. He may be the most “human” of all the Bible heroes.

In retrospect, it is completely okay and understandable to question God. Since HIS understanding is far greater than our own understanding, he realizes that we will have questions. Jesus, Moses, and especially Gideon questioned God, and he patiently tolerated it. Go ahead. Ask questions. It’s okay….really.

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Thanks, Mom and Dad

March 31, 2014 3Comments

I recently took a class called “How to Argue so Your Spouse Will Listen”. Although revised somewhat by our local church, the material was written by Dr. Sharon Morris May. It is a superb class with solid advice. During one portion of the class, I was asked to identify emotions that I felt as a child. The purpose of the exercise was to find any insecurities that may have originated during childhood, via my parents. There was a 23 item checklist of negative emotions that included some of the following 1) not seen, 2) no one will be there for me, 3) rejected, 4) not wanted or desired, 5) controlled, etc. Other people in my group were marking almost of the these negative emotions. I could not mark any, not even one.

Now, do not get me wrong. My parents will be the first to admit it. They were not perfect. In fact, they divorced when I was 18 years old. However, I have never, in my life, held any resentment towards them. They raised me the best way that they knew how. And I will always be grateful. I love you guys very much.

My Mom was fantastic. She kept the meals cooked and the house cleaned. In fact, everyday that I came home from school, she had something ready to eat. My Dad was great too. Even though he worked all the time while I was growing up, I never held it against him (in Eastern Kentucky, if you had a job at all, you felt lucky). He HAD to work all those hours. He worked so much, he asked my uncle to take me fishing one time. We went to the Dogwood Valley Pay Lake. We had a blast. As I got older, Dad’s work schedule got a little better. From 1986 until about 2008, Dad and I hunted together every deer season. I started hunting with my son in 2009 or Dad and I would still be hunting together.

I could write for days about my parents, but I want to be sensitive to people who did not have good parents. There are plenty of bad parents out there. Actually, I think there should be an application process to have a kid…… You know, the Bible promises us a just, loving, and wonderful heavenly father. I understand that, for some people, this is a hollow promise. Maybe your father was so bad that you do not want any part of another father. If that is true, I am very sorry. I know what it is like to have a good earthly father, and I can only imagine what my heavenly father is like.

Hold onto the hope of wonderful heavenly father, it will be worth the wait. In fact, I will discuss attributes of our heavenly father in my next post.

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Ever Considered Yourself a Screw-up?

February 19, 2014 2Comments

A few months ago, I was having idle chit-chat with a friend when he referred to himself as a “screw-up”. Actually, he referred to himself with a synonym for screw-up, but for the sake of keeping this post rated PG, I’ll just use the term “screw-up”. I was somewhat taken aback. At first, I thought he was joking, but as the conversation continued, I learned he was not joking. My friend had a law degree and a professional career. He was also dedicated and hard-working. I would hardly consider him a screw-up. I tried to change his mind, but he would not yield. So, I said to myself, God can still use you. In fact, the Bible is full of Godly examples of screw-ups doing important things.

The first major screw-up that comes to mind is Moses. Moses was raised as Egyptian royalty. He eventually learned about his Jewish heritage. He saw an Egyptian slave driver abusing a Jewish slave, and he killed him. He fled Egypt and lived the next 30 or so years as a fugitive in the mountains….until God called him to lead his people out of Egypt. So, God called an old, fugitive, murderer to lead his people out of Egypt. And Moses-the Screw-up becomes the most important person in the Old Testament.

The next screw-up is Gideon. Gideon is probably more famous because of the Gideon Bible (that he did not write) than his Old Testament exploits. God called Gideon a “mighty warrior”. Gideon was hiding from an invading force. He described himself to God this way: he said that he was the weakest member of the weakest clan. God told him to tear down an altar to false god, and Gideon did it at night, so no one would see him. He got caught, and his father had to keep people from killing him. Yet, God called Gideon-the-screw up to kick an invading force out of the promised land, which he did.

The New Testament has screw-ups too. Peter and Paul may be two of the most central figures of the New Testament, AND they could easily be described as screw-ups. When Jesus was arrested, Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times. Peter said that he did not know Jesus. He said that he did not even know him. That is pretty rough, considering he had just spent the last three years with him and had promised he would never leave him. Yet Jesus said, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”. Paul despised the early church. His job was to stamp out what he considered a heretic movement. He severely persecuted the early Christians. Then he falls off a horse, meets Jesus, becomes the early church’s greatest ambassador, and writes two-thirds of the New Testament.

How’s that for proof that God can use screw-ups?

kvanover@twc.com

The God-first Mentality and a Fence

Okay to Question….God?

Thanks, Mom and Dad

Ever Considered Yourself a Screw-up?

You Missed

Intersection of this Life and the next Life

Child-Like

Inverse Hypocrisy

Spread it out before the Lord