2015

Happy New Year’s Adam Again!

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Happy New Year Quote - Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy New Year Quote – Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Once again, it’s New Year’s Adam, which precedes New Year’s Eve, which itself precedes 2016.

For better or worse, 2015 is coming to an end.

For some of you, it’s a year to remember and you wish it could go on a little longer.

For some, it’s a year to forget and it can end quickly enough.

For most of us, it’s been a mixed bag of blessings and hardships, of joys and sorrow, of good days and bad days.

My boss where I worked previously used to say that any day without a toe tag is a good day. I take it to mean that any day that you wake up is already a good one. Any day you get a chance to be alive is better than all those yet to come that you may or may not get.

As a believer, I do believe that death is only a gateway to greater joy than I can possibly imagine. To be absent from the body, wrote the Apostle Paul, is to be present with Jesus. I believe that.

I also believe that life here and now is too precious to be wasted on fretting about what might have been or what could be. As one of my new favorite movie quotes says, “There’s no present like the time.”

“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been” (Rainer Maria Rilke).

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier'” (Alfred Lord Tennyson).

Best of all, with Jesus every moment and every breath is a second chance to start over and be the person you always wanted to be, the person God made you to be.

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Four Days Left in 2015

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Note: if you still have unfulfilled resolutions that you haven’t given up on for 2015, now’s the time to get crackin’. You have four days left. That’s all.

Four days.

It seems like it wasn’t that long ago I was bidding a fond farewell to 2014 and wondering what 2015 would look like.

Speedy. 2015 has looked and felt and gone by speedily. Much more so than 2014.

So what are you planning to do in 2016 to improve your life? What are your resolutions and goals for the new year?

After hearing Aaron Bryant’s sermon, I think my goal is the same as the prophetess Anna from Luke 2– to do whatever it takes to get to where I see the Redeemer in my life and that He becomes the focus of my single-minded devotion.

Also, I’d like to see the Tennessee Titans not look like the Bad News Bears of the NFL. It’s gotten embarrassing to watch the games.

I’d like to see people who profess the name of Jesus in Nashville being more visible (and I put myself in that category). A friend of mine posted on Facebook that 95% of the churches in Nashville are declining.

So much for Nashville being the belt buckle of the Bible belt. We have a lot of church buildings, but not nearly as many vibrant, biblical churches that are actively engaging in a Acts 2-type lifestyle of missional living and intentional community.

As I’ve mentioned before, maybe it’s time for most of us (me included) to stop merely going to church and start being the church. The difference is one hour on Sunday and one hour on Wednesday versus 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

So there we are. That’s what I hope to see in 2016. Maybe those Titans might even start being competitive if they can get decent front office leadership and ownership that actually cares about winning.

But that’s another blog for another day.

 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

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“I’m not there yet, nor have I become perfect; but I am charging on to gain anything and everything the Anointed One, Jesus, has in store for me—and nothing will stand in my way because He has grabbed me and won’t let me go. Brothers and sisters, as I said, I know I have not arrived; but there’s one thing I am doing: I’m leaving my old life behind, putting everything on the line for this mission. I am sprinting toward the only goal that counts: to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God’s call to resurrection life found exclusively in Jesus the Anointed. All of us who are mature ought to think the same way about these matters. If you have a different attitude, then God will reveal this to you as well. For now, let’s hold on to what we have been shown and keep in step with these teachings” (Phil. 3:12-16).

One thing that I keep learning and re-learning is that you can’t keep doing the same old things in the same old way and expect new results. You can’t keep doing things the way you’ve always done them and expect change.

The old definition of insanity holds true: doing the same thing over and over and each time expecting a different result.

Growth in the Christian life is a matter of discipline drenched in grace. You supply the disciplines and the effort and realize that even then, it’s only grace that brings about the real change.

Without grace, you can grit your teeth and lace up those old bootstraps and work for all you’re worth and still be the same old you.

It’s all grace. Even the desire from within to change is because of grace.

Let’s make 2016 different because we no longer belief that maturity and growth come through the osmosis of sleeping with a Bible under our pillows. Let’s train ourselves to be not the same old people we were in 2015, but people who will diligently hunger and thirst after Jesus and His words, no matter what.

The end.

 

Waving at Promises from Afar

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“Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16).

In my quest to read through the Bible in 2015, I’m currently in 2 Chronicles 32, and it reads like a tragedy. It seems almost from the start, the people of God fell short of expectations, rebelling against God and worshipping just about anything and everything but God. Even having the Kingdom split in two and the Northern Kingdom (Israel) taken captive and deported to Babylon didn’t help.

If the Bible ended there, it would be about the most depressing book I’ve ever read. But I’ve cheated and read the end of the story. I know how it ends. When you know that ultimately God and His people prevail, it makes the dark parts easier to stomach.

Sadly, I can relate too much to these people. They started off with brash promises and the best of intentions, but these promises and intentions lasted about as long as my New Year’s resolutions. Not long.

At this point, they’re coming to the end of a series of vicious cycles where 1) the people are living well, 2) the people forget God and try to be like all their neighbors, 3) God gets angry and punishes them by famine, war, and hostile takeovers, 3) the people repent, 4) God forgives them and restores them.

By this point, God has had enough. They’ve pushed Him too far. There’s no sign of the people wanting to change and God is totally just to write them off as a lost cause.

But even now there’s a plan. There’s always been a plan. There’s a Messiah in the works, promised all the way back in Genesis 3:16 to come and deliver His people. There have been prophecies and stories passed around for generations and the faintest glimmer of hope even in the bleakest moments.

That’s what Easter is all about– that long awaited and eagerly anticipated promise coming true at last.

 

Three More Days of 2014

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I really can’t believe it. Only 3 more days left in the year? 72 hours? It seems like it’s only been a month since we rang in 2014. Two, tops. Seriously, the year has flown by. But in a little over three days, we’ll be ringing in 2015 with all the usual pomp and circumstance but sadly with no Dick Clark. I still miss that guy.

2014 has been anything but expected, but it’s been good. Why? I’m still here. That’s the best reason of all to celebrate– being alive for one more day.

I’m not dying just yet. I’m just extremely grateful these days, most of all for the gift of life.

Here’s a sampling of some of what I’ve written this year:

https://oneragamuffin.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/my-commentary-on-current-events/

https://oneragamuffin.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/6882/

https://oneragamuffin.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/life-lessons-from-a-great-movie/

Those are three randomly chosen blogs that I wrote at some point during 2014.

On a side note, 2015 is the year we finally catch up to Marty McFly from Back to the Future fame. As you remember from the 1985 classic, he first went back in time to 1955 to save his parents’ marriage (and as a result, he saved himself). In the sequel, Marty goes into the future to save his kids– October 21, 2015 to be precise. Of course, there’s a third movie where Marty goes back to 1885 dressed up as a pink Clint Eastwood. But that’s not important right now.

I have to admit most of the clothing looks like the 80’s on steroids. I’m thankful that current fashion isn’t based on Back to the Future Part II. Especially not that jacket with the retractable arms. And the technology has surpassed in many ways what the movie envisioned for 2015 (like for instance the very excellent blu ray version of the Back to the Future trilogy).

I’m still waiting on the hoverboards. And I can’t wait to see what God will do next in 2015.

Happy New Year’s Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve

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I think that’s right. I’m not the best at math but I think that’s the correct number of Eves in the title.

What else do you call it? It’s not Boxing Day. That was yesterday. It’s one of those weird days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve that doesn’t have a name.

Supposedly, this is the day where you give three french hens to that special loved one, according to the song. So if you’re still looking for ideas 2 days after the fact, there you go.

I’m already looking forward to 2015, as I know many of you are. I know it will take me at least a month to get used to writing “2015” on all my checks and letters, but I’m up for the challenge.

The good news is that God will be just as sovereign in 2015 as He was in 2014. He will be just as able to supply all your and all my needs in Christ in 2015 as He was in 2014.

Whatever happens in 2015, God will be there. That, my friends, is something to look forward to.