Dustin George's Blog

Questions asked of elementary students about love and marriage…and their answers:

2010-01-26T08:26:00.001-08:00

(Which, strangely, is some of the same advice that some adults give me when giving advice (unasked) about how to find a spouse...)

“HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHOM TO MARRY?”
No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with. -Kirsten, age 10

“WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?”
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then. -Camille, age 10

“WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?”
Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough. -Lynnette, age 8
On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date. -Martin, age 10 (wise beyond his years)

“WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?”
I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns. -Craig, age 9 (extreme, but likely effective)

“WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?”
When they're rich. -Pam, age 7 (we all know a "Pam")

“IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?”
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them. -Mike, age 4 (bless you child)

Grace Abuse

2009-12-09T05:50:00.000-08:00

It seems that we sometimes take the idea of the grace of God and amplify it beyond what is Biblical. The Bible says in Romans that where our “sin abounded grace abounded the more” (5:20). It’s true, and God is really a God of grace and a God of mercy, but at some point along the way, if we are not careful, we may shake off the memory of Mt. Sinai and lose our sense of the holy. That attitude can lead to flippant worship.

We can come to Him with boldness, but not carelessness.

I need to be qualify that phrase above:“lose our sense of the holy,” I don't mean that we should be legalists. That's not what I'm stating at all. What do I mean by legalism? Majoring on the externals and making the non-essentials vital. Oftentimes people elevate preference to the point of the truth. When that happens, they have committed a sacrilege by legalism. I’m reminded of the Pharisees who took the traditions of men and taught them as the command of God...

Matt. 15:7-9 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:

8 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
9 And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"

Some may take the holy and make it profane, but some take the profane and make it holy.

So when I speak of "losing the sense of the holy," I'm not speaking of reverting to legalism (which, in itself, is a slap to the holiness of God in that legalism basically says that we can do enough good things to earn, nay, deserve the approval of God. I'm reminded of the statement that one made: "If holiness were just a matter of following a set of rules and doing certain things at a certain time in a certain way, then a computer could be programmed to be holy.")

I'm glad that God relates to us with the grace found in Christ. Grace is shown in Jesus taking my own sinfulness upon Himself and giving me His righteousness. It’s the Grand Cosmic Exchange. I can't very well be proud, simply because I didn't do anything to earn His righteousness and holiness. It is a gift from God.

When I came to Christ, it was not a matter of God becoming less holy than He is in the Old Testament, but about a human becoming a new creation for His glory and being given His holiness. He is still holy.

Is. 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

In the past, people would go to God and fall before Him, weeping over sin, mourning over those things displeasing to Him, shaking in the presence of One who is completely holy.

Unfortunately, when we think of holiness we don’t usually equate it with being broken, instead, we immediately think of “you must do this" or "you must not do that" and push ourselves back into legalistic thinking.

Remember: Our life with Christ is not a series of regulations that we attempt to follow, but it is a relationship to enjoy. There are things we should keep ourselves from, and certainly there are things we are to do in order to be obedient to him. But that is not the whole of it; we can't reduce a life with Him to a checklist.

Far too often we leave the doctrine of the Cross at salvation, and fail to apply it to the rest of our lives. Our lives as Christians are wrapped in the Cross. I often ask, “When does eternal life begin for you as a Christian?” It does not begin when you die; it begins at the moment of salvation. You become a new creation, and you start living eternally from that very moment. Our eternity is wrapped up in what Jesus did on the cross. But we often fail to live like it now.

So how are we to live with this knowledge of the Cross? How is it that we are to approach living this life with that mindset? The answer is found largely in the idea of sacrifice.

Just as on Mount Sinai blood was shed to consecrate and purify, in the Temple blood was shed for the same reason essentially: to cover and atone for sin. And Jesus shed His blood on behalf of our sin. Yet there is a difference in these sacrifices that we find in the book of Hebrews in that the blood of these animals was shed year after year, after year, after year. Jesus offered a once for all sacrifice, a sacrifice that need not be repeated because it was perfect (Heb. 9:11-15).

Do you think those bulls, those oxen, the sheep and goats, and the doves that were sacrificed under the Levitical system understood why they were being sacrificed? Do you think they had a comprehension of that? Of course not.

They didn’t...but Jesus did. Jesus understood. You don’t find Jesus on the Cross saying, "I don't really get why I must go through this; this makes no sense. I don't really understand this ‘sins-of-the-world-being-placed-upon-Me’ idea." We do find Jesus in the Garden of Gethesemane, agonizing over what is before Him, facing the dread of being separated from the Father by bearing the sins of humanity. Matthew relates:

Mt. 26:39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

“Not My will but Your will be done.”

We find Him saying earlier that He had come to do "the will of Him who sent Me” (John 4:34; 6:38). Unlike the sacrificial animals, Jesus knew exactly what He was facing, He knew why He was dying, He laid His life down on His own accord…He said so (John 10:18). So just as the animals were sacrificed, their blood was sacrificed, their lives were taken, their physical life ended...they did not understand.

Christ sacrificed His body, His physical life, and shed His blood, but you can’t ignore the fact that He also sacrificed His will. His sacrifice was voluntary. He surrendered to the will of the Father. So the Cross then is not just the surrendering of His physical life, but the surrendering of His very will.

And it's the same for us. Sometimes we get so caught up in the externals, the trappings, the appearance of Christianity that we don't focus upon our wills and what’s going on inside of us. Jesus did not die so that you can have better self-esteem, and so that you could look better to those around you, and be well-liked, more appealing, accepted by society, and have your “ticket punched” so that you would have eternal life when you die.

Approaching a holy God means that you not only surrender your physical life, but that you surrender your personal will. Your desires, your glory, what you believe is best...you sacrifice all of it for His desires, His glory, and what He knows is best. That's not legalism, that's living a crucified life.

The writer of Hebrews gives us an understandin of how we approach our God...The Holy One:

Heb. 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

We have been given grace, but let us never separate that grace from godly fear. Why? “For our God is a consuming fire.”

Ex. 19:18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

He’s still the Holy One.

He says, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). He doesn't say, "Act holy, for I am holy."

Don't just do, be. Live a life crucified, in body and will, to the Holy One.

Jesus, Etc.

2009-11-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

Once, a friend of mine was at a concert at a church where a well-known singer was playing. Her friend in high school had come along with her and had been asking people questions about following Jesus. When he asked this visiting singer (on his way to the stage), “What does it cost to follow Jesus?” the answer was: “You have to give up everything.” My friend, who was the only other person present at the conversation, said, “I didn’t appreciate him saying that! I really lost a lot of respect for the performer. My friend might have come to Christ if that singer had not said that! You don’t just tell a lost person that you have to give up everything when they ask!”

Or do you…?

When someone says, “I’m not ready to give up everything.” We essentially say, “Well, just give up as much as you can right now, maybe later God will help you to be willing to surrender more.” That’s not Biblical.

We’re just so casual about our worship, about our service…Minimum standards and thinking like that. “What’s the least that I can do to get by?” is the question we ask. If you look at His words, Jesus didn’t say anything to cushion the blow. In fact, Jesus seems bent on driving people away.

He talked about hating your father and mother when comparing your love for them to your love for Him:
Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”
He continued in the passage to talk about counting the cost of following Him.

He spoke of putting your hand to the plow and the necessity of not looking back:
Luke 9:62 But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

He spoke to the rich young ruler and told him to sell at that he had:
Mark 10:21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."

When the disciples left their nets, we find that “left” was a word that meant “to totally forsake” something. They left them to follow Him.

Why, why then do we expect our lives to be any less radical?

Maybe it’s because we like comfort, or maybe we like to “keep our options open.”

That applies to our acceptance of Biblical teaching as well. When I teach, I sometimes have some likely (well-meaning) people make comments to me that run something like this: “You don’t really appeal to many people because you break down the verses. You should try to teach the Scripture in a pure narrative format; people want to hear stories. Because if you say that the Bible is completely authoritative you’re going to scare some people off. Nobody wants to feel confronted with a truth they have to line up with; people need to feel relaxed, like you’re sitting across from them drinking a cup of coffee sitting on a comfy sofa, just having a comfortable conversation, no pressure, nothing expected, no authoritative truth brought up. Just tell how it applies to your life, but don't suggest that there are universal truths…That’s what will really engage people. You should be that casual about it.”

How do we expect to worship God in the way He calls us to worship Him, yet refuse to listen to Him and apply His truth if it runs contrary to our schedules, desires, prejudices, plans and our pre-determined way of thinking?

We make Him out to be less than the King of the Universe, then blame Him for His perceived shorcomings or His apparent inability to make things comfy for us.

“Where does God fit into what I’m doing?” is the question many ask. That’s the acme of selfishness. “Where do I fit into what God is doing?” is the real question.

Distance

2009-09-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

I was reading today in Exodus 19 about God telling Moses to set boundaries around Mt. Sinai to keep the Israelites from approaching. God gave specific instructions regarding this prohibition: “You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, 'Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain" (19:12-13).

Did you get that? God shows that He is holy, so much so that if someone broke this rule, then no one would even touch that person…He would be stoned or shot with an arrow instead.

Moses then climbs the mountain to meet with God, and while he probably huffs with his hands on his knees, God tells him, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the LORD, and many of them perish” (21).

Moses states the obvious and reminds God of His earlier command. After all, surely His people wouldn’t transgress a clear message from the mouth of God, right?

God insists, and Moses trudges back down to the people to remind them of the serious nature of God’s holiness.

When God said, “Don’t come any closer!” the reaction was to do the thing He said to not do.

Now this holy God is the same God that we serve, the same God who has placed His Spirit into every believer, the same God we can approach with boldness because of the sacrifice of Christ…And we so often ignore Him and neglect spending time with Him, even though He made a way for us to know Him.

Given an advantage unheard of throughout the Old Testament, we chose to undervalue it.

There’s something patently wrong about that.

The Cleaner

2009-07-19T04:42:00.001-07:00

"NO EXTRA CHARGE FOR FAST SERVICE"

That's one of the signs over the counter at the shop of my new cleaner. I smiled when I saw the sign. Half of the smile was due to the jovial way that this small-statured man of Asian ancestry went to find my suits from the rack. The other half of the smile was due to the reminder that people assume that service is an "add-on" and not the norm.

What is assumed at the cleaners is too often also assumed in the Church.

Premodern, Modern and Postmodern Thought: A General Comparison

2009-07-16T07:06:00.000-07:00

PREMODERN THOUGHT

Characteristics:

o The supernatural exists; God exists.

o He has perfect knowledge, and we can only know what He reveals to us.

o Humanity is, at the most basic level, bad, and is subject to God.

o Meaning and purpose come from Him.

MODERN THOUGHT

Characteristics:

o The supernatural and the natural are on two different levels. If humans are rational, and we depend upon what we know, then the supernatural is seen as being irrational…therefore inferior. Eventually, this idea moved deeper into…

o Naturalism (nature/the physical world is all that exists). Therefore God, being non-material, is obviously a creation of the human mind (so too for all religions).

o We can use observation, methods and cause/effect relationships to build upon the foundation of our knowledge and eventually achieve certainty. We don’t need revelation from God.

o Humanity is the measure of all things (we don’t exist to serve a higher being, we alone determine truth, and any authority can and should be questioned and tested).

o Secularism—there is no eternal, only right now. If there happens to be a supernatural world, it doesn’t have any impact upon reality in the present.

o At the most basic level a human is full of vast untapped potential to discover, tame and harness the unknown...we are, at heart, good.

POSTMODERN THOUGHT

Characteristics:

o The supernatural may well exist. But there is no one overarching purpose or meaning or universal foundation (authorities, including religion, exist to create a contrived hierarchy for the means of domination).

o We can never know anything for certain, and history itself is subject to interpretation and reinterpretation. Our set of knowledge arose from our society and culture alone.

o Truth is determined by whatever community you are in and is adopted for the community. There are multiple “truths.” Objective, absolute truth simply does not exist.

o Relativism—each person adheres to a personal system of values that “work” for the individual, and each value system is “right” for that person.

o Pluralism—all ideas are equally valid, except those that would claim superiority over another (those are wrong). No one religion is right.

(Check out Radically Unchurched by Alvin Reid and Thinking Against the Grain by N. Allan Moseley for a more detailed treatment of the topic of worldviews...Excellent resources...)

To use a metaphor…In Pre-modern thinking, God is the captain of the ship, standing at the helm, wheel eternally in hand. He supplies the wind, the ocean currents, knows the direction and destination, and we serve as His crew having been liberated from our chains of sin.

In Modern thinking, humanity is functioning as the captain of the ship, wheel firmly in hand. By reading the winds and predicting the currents with scientific accuracy we can discover the direction by science and reasoning and then chart a new destination to explore.

Postmodern thinking lowers the sails, cuts the anchor free, disables the rudder chain, lets the wheel turn as it may all while cursing the meaninglessness of the wind and waves as they push the ship randomly about…and casting furious opposition at those who might suggest that they must choose a captain.

Things I Don't Like So Much...At All...

2009-06-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Since some have asked (and since I've been posting those things that I do like), here, in no particular order, are some things that I've come to realize that I do not enjoy...
1. Flossing (though I do it daily...actually, multiple times daily...which may be why I don't like it).
2. Music by Tiny Tim.
3. Garbage Truck noise early in the morning.
4. Weeks when I don't have some time to be alone and recharge.
5. When people don't celebrate others' success.
6. Keyboards that have a key that's a little too hard to push. Sometimes my "A" KEY IS THAT WAY AND i OVERCOMPENSATE AND HIT CAPS LOCK BY MISTAKE.
7. Dried ketchup (or "catsup," if you like) collected around the mouth of the ketchup bottle. What's worse is catsup on the ketchup bottle...How'd that happen?
8. False humility (aka masked pride).
9. Theft.
10. Laziness.
11. Kimchi.
12. Driving anywhere for a long period of time.
13. Insecurity in leaders.
14. When a wrench slips off the nut or bolt head and your knuckles get bashed against something.
15. Sitting next to someone at a red light while they have their music up way too loud...So I turn up mine...Usually it sounds something like Biggy vs. Bach. (Bach, by the way, always wins...I mean, who will be listening to Biggy 300 years hence? No one. Point made. And yes, I know that few, other than me, use the word "hence" anymore...alas.)
16. Building kingdoms of our own instead of His Kingdom...Or worse still, building our little kingdoms and proclaiming them to be His. I mean, what part of "majesty" and "sovereign" do we not get?
17. The fact that few people read classic books. And by "classics," I'm referring to something older than the 1960's...much older...
18. Writer's block.
19. The fact that I can't paint well (I'm not talking about walls).
20. The reality that I let things bother me...

Things I Like #6

2009-04-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

Goat cheese...Yes, goat cheese. I know that it's strong. I know that it's probably an acquired taste. Silver Goat is by far the best I've tasted.

Crumble it in a sandwich of crusty bread and grilled shrimp. Or, my favorite (I know this may sound repulsive, but this is what I like...If you have really strong feelings about that, then be my guest to start a blog for things you don't like and put this at the top of the list): a sliver of goat cheese on an organic wheat cracker with a dab of blackberry preserves.

Try it before you berate me.

(This gives me an idea...I'll do a series of my favorite cheeses...stay tuned.)

Coal Mines and Other Deep, Dark Places

2009-04-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Centralia is a town in Eastern Pennsylvania. In the early 1900’s millions of tons of coal were being mined in the region leaving behind an extensive web of excavated mine shafts, some more than 500 feet below the surface. In May 1962, on the outskirts of town, a garbage fire was burning in one of the old strip mine pits. This fire ignited one of the exposed coal seams which, in turn, made its way to the network of mine shafts. Over time, it spread underground until the ground began to seep smoke and fissures started to open in roadways. The grave nature of the problem emerged in 1981 as a young boy walked through the neighborhood and found the ground under him fall away into a 150-foot-deep hole. He was saved by clutching exposed tree roots until his cousin could rescue him. Though coal mine fires are common in the region, the danger of the fires being so close to the surface got the attention of the state. It was determined that a digging project to extinguish this fire would cost an estimated $660-million, and there were no solid guarantees that the attempt would work. The government began to buy the land and homes of the residents so they could relocate to safer ground. In 1981, there were 1600 people living there. Now, in 2007, there are 9.

This fire, started in 1962, has been burning now for 45 years. Currently, the fire is eating away at an stretch of an 8-mile-long coal seam that experts say will keep it burning for another 250 years.

Reminds me of bitterness…

We find in Hebrews 12 the command: “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled” (vs. 14,15). We are warned to guard against a “root of bitterness” that would cause hurt to ourselves, to others, and most importantly, to our witness for Christ. Bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment…they all spread, and they all have a source. One incident, one person, or one word viewed in the wrong way can light a small fire in a little, secluded area of your life. Soon, if left unchecked, the flames of bitterness can find a way into a major seam and begin to creep slowly and methodically though all the foundational supports you depend upon, feeding the fire. Eventually, what is going on underneath makes its way to the surface, and people begin to recognize the damage. The major difference is this: you can’t just simply move away from the bitterness. No matter the cost, you must put out the blaze, lest the fire that burns against another consumes you as well.

What You Leave Behind

2009-03-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

“A man's life is always more forcible than his speech. When men take stock of him they reckon his deeds as dollars and his words as pennies. If his life and doctrine disagree, the mass of onlookers accept his practice and reject his preaching.” -C.H. Spurgeon

One of the things that I heard often when growing up was this: “That’s going to leave a mark.” I tripped and scraped my knee…“That’s going to leave a mark.”
Ran into the barbed-wire fence…“That’s going to leave a mark.” Fell from the top of a tree I had climbed…“That’s going to leave a mark.” And those situations did, in fact, leave their marks. We all have scars from accidents and incidents. We all have marks. But it’s easier to focus on the marks made upon us than it is to focus on the marks we make.

I think of parents who fail to guide and guard their children with a clear biblical focus…“That’s going to leave a mark.” People steadily pursuing habits that distance them from an intimate walk with God…“That’s going to leave a mark.” Or when anger, or gossip, or bitterness arises and governs behavior, sullies a life, or destroys a relationship…“That’s going to leave a mark.” We all have marks; we all leave marks.

In the New Testament, a certain word, tupos, surfaces periodically. The word means “the mark of a blow.” It is the word used to describe the act of minting a coin by striking it with a die, or leaving an impression in wax or clay by the application of pressure. It’s the same word translated as “pattern” in Philippians 3:17: “Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have for us a pattern.”

He uses the word again (translated as “example”) in I Thessalonians 1:7: “So that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe.” Paul uses the same word to encourage both Timothy and Titus to be examples to those before them.

You will leave a mark. You will make an impression that will, in some way, no matter how seemingly small, shape the lives of others. I saw a quote once that read, “No matter who you are, someone is looking to you as an example of how to believe and how to behave.” Who is watching you? Could it be said of you that you strive to live a life that strikes the right kind of die in the lives of others? That your lasting impression is one that shamelessly glorifies Christ and points others clearly to Him? Are you, like Paul, willing to say to those around you, “The things which you…saw in me, these do” (Phil. 4:9)?

What kind of example do you display?
What impression do you make?
That’s going to leave a mark…what will it be?

Tuning In

2009-02-27T04:48:00.000-08:00

His name was John Romulus Brinkley, but he called himself “Doctor.” Attending a school that taught non-traditional medicine and receiving a certificate (valid in only eight states) gave him the supposed right to confer such a title upon himself to lend reputability to his “practice.” He sold his cure-alls via radio show broadcast beamed from a 1000-watt tower in Milford, Kansas. When Kansas pulled his medical “license” and caused him to lose credibility, Brinkley ran for governor as a write-in candidate (his main motivation seems to have been to become governor so that he could reinstate his own medical license). Quickly converting the Milford radio station into the central means of self-promotion for the campaign, Brinkley made blatant comparisons between the way he was being treated and the trial and death of Jesus, and proclaimed his own brand of quack-medicine to be the salvation of the masses. Ultimately, he did not win the governorship though he tried more than once. Upset by his losses, Brinkley moved to the border town of Del Rio, Texas and set up a radio transmission tower across the Rio Grande in Villa Acuna, Mexico. Whereas the United States had a limit upon the wattage of a radio transmitter (50,000 watts), across the border this regulation was not in place. The new station, XERA, operated with an effective wattage of one million watts. Locals said that birds flying near the tower would drop dead, the old dynamo-powered headlamps on trucks in Del Rio would flicker, and barbed-wire fences would hum all over Texas when XERA operated at maximum power. The “X” overrode the transmissions of Atlanta, Chicago, and even some Canadian stations. So powerful was the signal that it is reported that transmissions reached Russia where the organization that was the precursor to the KGB used the broadcasts to give English lessons to the spies-in-training. Brinkley’s messages of bizarre treatments, fortune tellers, and promised restored health helped him to rake in a reported sum of $12 million in five years. Letters and payments came in from every state of the Union as well as from 14 other countries. These letters were written by the hurting in the hope that a quack doctor with a widespread voice sitting on the banks of the Rio Grande could cure what ailed them.

Sometimes we wonder why confusion and uncertainty exists at such a level today. Could it be that we listen to too many voices? Not every voice that speaks of the promise of comfort and peace is the voice of God, no matter how loudly, widespread, promising or authoritative that voice may sound. Messages pound us daily, but we must select the station to which we listen. In the din of multiple voices, all blaring at once (and sometimes contradictory in meaning and purpose) we must make the time and effort so we will not miss hearing the “still, small voice” of God (I Kings 19:12). We must be aware of the false messages that bombard us, but listen to and follow the truth offered from only one source: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).

DCG

Yet Another Likeable Thing...From Mississippi (like me)

2009-02-27T04:35:00.000-08:00

I read it for the first time years ago...and it was good.

I've since read it a number of times...and they've all been good.

It's The Bear by William Faulkner. A story of a boy who faces the wild, the wild that is being eaten away gradually by cultured civilization, like so many things grand and frightful. He faces one of the most important rites of passage of his life to date. (The bit about the dog facing the bear, not included here, is priceless).

Permit an excerpt:

He was sixteen. For six years now he had been a man's hunter. For six years now he had heard the best of all talking. It was of the wilderness, the big woods, bigger and older than any recorded document:--of white man fatuous enough to believe he had bought any part of it, of Indian ruthless enough to pretend that any fragment of it had been his to convey.... It was of the men, not white nor black nor red but men, hunters, with the will and hardihood to endure and the humility and skill to survive, and the dogs and the bear and deer juxtaposed and reliefed against it, ordered and compelled by and within the wilderness in the ancient and unremitting contest according to the ancient and unmitigable rules which voided all regrets and brooked no quarter; -- the best game of all, the best of all breathing and forever the best of all listening, the voices quiet and weighty and deliberate for retrospection and exactitude among the concrete trophies -- the racked guns and the heads and skins -- in the libraries of town houses or the offices of plantation houses or (and best of all) in the camps themselves where the intact and still-warm meat yet hung, the men who had slain it sitting before the burning logs on hearths when there were houses and hearths or about the smoky blazing piled wood in front of stretched tarpaulins when there were not. There was always a bottle present, so that it would seem to him that those fine fierce instants of heart and brain and courage and wiliness and speed were concentrated and distilled into that brown liquor which not women, not boys and children, but only hunters drank, drinking not of the blood they spilled but some condensation of the wild immortal spirit, drinking it moderately, humbly even, not with the pagan's base and baseless hope of acquiring thereby the virtues of cunning and speed but in salute to them.(pp. 185-186).

Center Stage

2009-02-24T15:23:00.000-08:00

A brief history lesson, if you will…

For years upon years, humans held to the basic theory that the Earth, not the Sun, was at the center of our universe. Claudius Ptolemaeus, a Greek living in the 2nd century A.D., was the first to offer a detailed explanation of this theory. His work was accepted for many years afterward as true. We refer to this arrangement of the universe as the Ptolemaic model: Earth is in the center and all things (the Sun, the planets, the stars, etc.) move in orbits around it. Only after the passing of a millennium (and some change), was this theory toppled by the extensive scientific work starting with Copernicus in 1543, then Galileo and, after him, Kepler. Now we hold a Copernican view of the universe: the Sun, not the Earth, is at the center. (Interestingly, a recent study shows that 1 in 5 Americans think that the Earth still occupies the central position.)

But long before Ptolemaeus formalized the popular Earth-centered theory, a man named Aristarchus of Samos, born in 310 B.C., offered an alternate idea. He said, even then, that the Sun was the center of our universe. Though he was right, his suggestion was considered ridiculous. According to history, he had only one known supporter, a man named Seleucus.

Seems that suggesting our little world isn’t the center of the universe wins few popularity votes…

Today, even though the old Earth-centered model has passed from the scene, a new way of thinking has emerged: a “me-centered” universe…and it has plenty of followers. We live in an entitlement society: our rights must be met, preferences catered to, freedoms to do “whatever we want to do” preserved, and atop it all, we must be entertained. In short, we feel like the world, others, and even God, owe us something. This line of thought stretches to include the way we shop, vote, and even how we worship.

Someone considering being involved with our Singles Ministry asked me a question once with a tone that sounded very much he was haggling over the options offered on a new car, and I was the salesman:

“So if I come to your Bible Fellowship class on Sunday, what exactly is in it for me? I want to know exactly what you can offer me.”

So, I was truthful.

“Opportunities for people to become followers of Christ, know Him more deeply, become more like Him, and glorify Him through sacrifice and service,” I said.

By all accounts, though it is the right answer, it wasn’t the desired or expected answer.

The “me-centered” universe doesn’t square with the reality found in Christ. In fact, Colossians tells us that “All things were created through Him and for Him” (1:16). He must be the “center of my universe” because He’s the only one worthy to occupy that position.

Jesus doesn’t exist for me; I exist for Him. Or, as a pastor said long ago, “It’s not about what you’re going to get out of God, but what God’s going to get out of you.”

DCG

A Few of My Favorite Things...what is this? # 4 on the list, I think...

2009-02-24T14:55:00.000-08:00

Greek food is great.

Sushi is great.

How many times have you thought, "How I wish I could find a place to get sushi AND Greek food?"

Wish no longer.

Kalamata Kitchen (9405 S. Northshore Dr., Knoxville, 37922) right here in Knoxville, has both!

Let me go on record as saying this: They have a samurai roll that is the absolute best thing on the menu. It's unlike any other samurai roll you have ever had...I promise. Seared scallops, great sauces atop it all...you need one...now.

What's That On Your Wrist

2009-02-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

I was the only 5th grader in Study Hall reading Soldier of Fortune magazine...

I know that's weird. It was a bit strange then too. There were lots of questioning looks from teachers; I was always glad that no discussion of future plans was brought up in that time:

"Now children, what would you like to be when you grow up?"
"I'd like to be a doctor."
"Good, how about you?"
"A scientist."
"Very good...Dustin? How about you?"
"I would like to travel to various places of conflict about our globe and bring justice to the oppressed."

But anyway, back to SOF magazine. I always saw these ads in the back for elephant hair bracelets...and I always wanted one.
So early last year I found one at a great website (which is approved by numerous elephant hair fans as all the hair is gathered in humane ways):

http://justelephant.com/

2009-02-05T11:12:00.001-08:00

Fast Pitch

2009-01-29T11:28:00.000-08:00

I saw one for the first time when I was in 4th grade. It was a hardball. I know that we use the term “hardball” to differentiate a baseball from a softball, but this was no baseball, it was a true hardball. A kid named Chris brought it to school; he was the guy with the crew-cut hair and the hands stained from playing in red-clay dirt. A group of us were playing tag when Chris showed up with this thing in his hand. “Who wants to play?” he asked. If I remember correctly, we tried to run away, after all, it was a hardball.
It was a little smaller than a baseball, but was not made of a leather-cased, rubber core wrapped with twine. This ball was solid, with a seam running around it like an equator, and was scarred from impacts against brick walls and gravel driveways. This was no toy; it was a miniature planet…a world of hurt. He held it up in the sun for us to see and chided us for our cowardice.
“What if it hits one of us?” a friend asked.
“Do you know how much that would hurt?” said another. Someone suggested that we roll the ball to one another. Others nodded with enthusiasm, rolling seemed so much safer. Chris snorted, “You throw hardballs.”
And that’s what we did. At times, seeing that ball drop down from a blue sky toward you, the only thing you could think was, “It’s going too fast. It will slip through my fingers and hit my head.” And sometimes you would sidestep the hurtling little planet and watch as it thumped against the ground leaving a sharply-defined crater near your feet. But, at other times, you would step up, stretch out your hands, and catch it.
God plays hardball. He is a loving God, a God of comfort, and a merciful God, yet He is a God of truth. He plays hardball. John gives us the response of some of Jesus’ disciples after hearing Him teach on the subject of His coming death; “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" (John 6:60). John goes on to write in verse 66 “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” The hardball was pitched, and they stepped out of the way.
Having taught high school English for a few years before going into the ministry, I had developed one unit about knowing and acting upon the truth of a matter. I would always ask at the beginning of that unit the same question, “Would you rather hear the hard truth, and possibly have to make corrections to your life, or believe a “soft” lie, and remain comfortable, not having to change anything?” Many, many students chose the second: the comfortable, soft, non-challenging lie. That’s what Jesus encountered. “Don’t give me the truth, give me something easy.” His followers wanted the comfort of the miracles, but cared little for the core of the message. Sidestep the hardball, let it fall to the ground; it’s safer that way.
Perhaps God is playing hardball with you. Maybe you’ve been reading His word and He has pitched a ball to you. You are in the game, but then you see it dropping out of the sky, and think, “I should step aside.” Or maybe you would say, “God, why don’t You roll the ball to me? It’s safer.” Maybe you’ve grown so scared and discouraged that you’ve stepped from the game. Don’t step aside, don’t complain, and get back in the game. Step up to the truth, even if the corrections you face are painful. Remember, His goal is to make you like Him; “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

Crossroads Series for February: Habakkuk

2009-01-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

A Few of My Favorite Things 2

2009-01-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

Hummus...Some say it's merely ground chickpeas and olive oil (well, that is true), but it's so much more than that. Sabra is the creamiest hummus I've ever had (and I've had a lot). By far, the best.

Sometimes when I'm out to eat, and I see hummus on the menu, I like to say, "Bring me a hummus, and make it a Sabra."

Okay, no, I don't really do that...

But you should really try this stuff...it's great.

(By the way, I'm getting nothing for heaping such accolades upon this noble product...But, People of the Sabra brand (or Sabra-ites/Sabrans, whatever you may be called there at the company) if you happen to read this and feel compelled to send me some of your hummus, I shan't turn it away.)

More Timely After 30 Years...

2009-01-15T08:43:00.002-08:00

"The Mush God has been known to appear to millionaires on golf courses. He appears to politicians at ribbon-cutting ceremonies and to clergymen speaking the invocation on national TV at either Democratic or Republican conventions. The Mush God's presence is felt during Brotherhood Week and when Rotarians come together. He is the lifeless deity President Carter was referring to when suggesting peace might come to the Middle East because the Egyptian president and Israeli prime minister both worshipped the Great Mushy One.
"The Mush God has no theology to speak of, being a Cream of Wheat divinity. The Mush God has no particular credo, no tenets of faith, nothing that would make it difficult for believer and non-believer alike to lower one's head when the temporary chairman tells us the Reverend, Rabbi, Father, Mufti, or So-and-So will lead us in an innocuous, harmless prayer, for this god of public occasions is not a jealous god. You can even invoke him to start a hooker convention and he/she or it won't be offended.
"God of the Rotary, God of the Optimists' Club, Protector of the Buddy System, the Mush God is the Lord of secular ritual, of the necessary but hypocritical forms and formalities that hush the divisive and the derisive. The Mush God is a serviceable god whose laws are not chiseled on tablets but written on sand, open to amendment, qualification, and era-sure. This is a god that will compromise with you, make allowances and declare all wars holy, all peaces hallowed."

Nicholas Van Hoffman (1978)

Something to Ponder

2009-01-15T08:43:00.001-08:00

"Rome fell September 4, 476AD. It was overrun with illegal
immigrants: Visigoths, Franks, Anglos, Saxons, Ostrogoths,
Burgundians, Lombards, Jutes and Vandals, who at first assimilated
and worked as servants, but then came so fast they did not learn
the Latin Language or the Roman form of government. Highly trained
Roman Legions moving rapidly on their advanced road system, were
strained fighting conflicts worldwide. Rome had a trade deficit,
having outsourced most of its grain production to North Africa, and
when Vandals captured that area, Rome did not have the resources to
retaliate. Attila the Hun was committing terrorist attacks. The
city of Rome was on welfare with citizens being given free
bread. One Roman commented: 'Those who live at the expense of the
public funds are more numerous than those who provide them.' Tax
collectors were 'more terrible than the enemy.' Gladiators provided
violent entertainment in the Coliseum. There was injustice in
courts, exposure of unwanted infants, infidelity, immorality
and perverted bathhouses. 5th-Century historian Salvian wrote:
'O Roman people be ashamed... Let nobody think otherwise, the vices
of our bad lives have alone conquered us'." ---William Federer

A Few of My Favorite Things 1

2009-01-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

I've decided to share a few things I've found along my way that I like, enjoy or find generally amusing for some reason.
To begin, the scent that I like and wear often: Idole by Lubin.
People smell it and say, "Oh, that smells like..." and trail off into confusion.

For those of you into that sort of thing, here's the breakdown:
Top Notes-
Rum Absolute, Saffron, Bitter Orange Peel, Black Cumin.
Middle Notes-
Doum Palm, Smoked Ebony, Sugar Cane.
Base Notes-
Leather, Red Sandalwood.

Coming in January...

2008-12-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

Everybody gets the blues sometimes...Suffering rolls in like a thunderstorm over the Mississippi Delta, sadness rides in on a lank horse and sits for a spell, and when you need water, life gives you gasoline.

In those moments, hope can shine through because of Christ and His work.

Join us in January in the Crossroads class as we look at how we can be set free and leave the blues.

Crossroads Single Adult Bible Fellowship meets at 9:30 in room 2230-2231 at Sevier Heights Baptist Church.

For more information about The Singles Ministry, or to contact us, go to: www.sevierheights.org (click on "singles").

2008-12-11T08:54:00.001-08:00

Coming Sunday, December 14...

2008-12-10T14:30:00.001-08:00

“Why would a ‘good’ God allow suffering?”

2008-12-04T04:42:00.000-08:00

I’ve been asked this question quite a few times over the last 6 months. With senseless terrorist attacks sinking hooks of fear deep into many, the overall state of the world economy, and the general anxiety over the future of our nation, it’s easy to see why this question would be something mulled over at times. But sometimes the question is directed at moments much more localized, toward personal hardships and private pain.

So, why would a good God allow suffering?

Epicurus tackled this idea many years ago in ancient Greece:

“Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot;
Or He can, but does not want to;
Or He cannot and does not want to.
If He wants to, but cannot, He is impotent.
If He can, but does not want to, He is wicked.
But if God both can and wants to abolish evil,
Then how come evil is in the world?”

(By the way, Epicurus’ name is attached to a certain school of thought: Epicureanism. Simply stated, for an Epicurean, pain and pleasure were indicators of what was bad and good. They believed that entire point of philosophy was to live a life that was happy and peaceful and without any fear or discomfort.)

So, how do I answer when someone asks that question?

Though I may be oversimplifying for the sake of space, some use suffering as a "reason" to disbelieve in God, while others wonder what God is doing when He allows for suffering.

First, I've been told by some, “Suffering proves there is no God.”

My response is always the same: “Why, what’s wrong with suffering?”

Usually the person isn’t very happy with that question, and I get a passionate response along the lines of: “Suffering is bad, unfair, and wrong. A good God wouldn’t allow it!”

And there’s the problem with that thinking. If I think suffering is bad, unfair, wrong, unjust, cruel, or any other thing that carries with it a value judgment, and I also hold to the assertion that God does not exist, then from where does that idea of bad, unfair, wrong, unjust or cruel arise? (And where do we get the idea of a "good" God?)

If there’s no God, and if truth is determined only by the culture in which we live, then there are no absolutes that transcend culture and time. There’s no objective standard. If that’s the case, then morality is relative too…and the notion of right and wrong…and good and bad…Quite simply, without a God, there’s no real "fair" or "unfair."

Let me give you an example…I had an Anthropology professor in college who, in the first half of a lesson, taught how life and culture are subject to evolutionary processes, and in the next portion of the lesson she talked about how everyone should have equal rights, no matter their status, education, IQ, physical traits, or abilities. I had to wonder why that might be the case. Those two ideas can’t coexist (at least not in any sensible way). If evolution is true, then there is no fair and unfair; one must use whatever means necessary to survive. So get faster and more fit because there’s no fair and unfair, only “good for me” and “too bad for you.”

Yet we know that there is a thing called unfairness…and cruelty... and suffering.

The recognition of suffering points to a standard, something perfect…God.

And it underlines an important point: Things are not as they should be…

And then some believe in God, but still struggle with the reality of suffering in the world. I keep returning to the big idea that has helped me most through times of suffering: Suffering points toward a restoration.

But what of the end of suffering then? What’s the point? Does it end? And what do I mean by a restoration?

Let's see...

Vance Havner once said, “Adam and Eve bit the apple and our teeth still ache.”

We’re born into a sinful world. We live in a sinful world with all the things that sin brings with it. But there’s more to come…and better things…

Matt. 19:28 So Jesus said to them, "Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Do you see what Jesus is saying? He says that He is the One who will set all things right, make all things over, and bring His justice upon the earth. He’s the way. He will restore creation…

Is. 65:17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Acts 3:19-21 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

II Pet. 3:11-13 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Rev. 21:1-5 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."

But He not only will restore the physical world, but He restores us. He is the resurrection. He brings the dead to life…He is the new birth.

II Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

II Cor. 5:1-5 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

Our mortality, and all the suffering with it, will be “swallowed up by life” that Christ offers.

So what do we make of it all…that the universe and all who are His will be restored to a perfect state, yet we experience suffering here and now?

Rom. 8:18-25 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

We wait for Him to return and restore us…A word from Mr. Lewis:

“They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.” --C. S. Lewis

We groan, yes, but we point to Christ. The world is sinful, we are born into sin, and each and every one of us is offered an opportunity for repentance. He can restore us, and then use us to bring the message of the hope found in Him to the world that needs restoration by His power.

The people of former rebellion can be the people of future restoration by sharing the hope that is within us with a world in need of restoration for the glory of God. We are not perfect, so we should be able to easily share and relate to those who do not know God, yet being in a struggle with the flesh, we long greatly for the redemption offered by Christ.

So, when it comes to suffering and restoration, I always think of my childhood…

When I was small, sometimes I would get a cut or a scratch or skin my knee. The result would be a band-aid…and then a popsicle or a bit of candy to placate the tears. A consolation for the pain I endured; “Poor little guy. Here, have something sweet.”

I often thought of Heaven as being that: a long struggle here, a consolation offered on the “other side,” as it were. God leans down and says, “Poor little one, you’ve been through so much, here, have something that will take your mind off that.”

But that’s not restoration…

The future restoration of which the Bible speaks may be more akin to not a bandage and a confection, but a brand-new knee, with new skin, that never ages, or experiences hurt, and that is completely beyond any kind of skin that anyone could ever image…perfect. But not just a knee, but a new body and a total being without the desire to sin (try to wrap your brain about that).

Heaven is not a popsicle…it’s a new knee. That’s our hope.

John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

The Best Laid Plans

2008-12-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.” Prov. 16:9

Sometimes I have an image in my mind that looks something like this…

It’s a cold morning, just before dawn, and I’m sitting in my truck at the edge of a recently cleared plot of land. Beside me is a rolled-up plan. It’s the plan for my life. I’m about to meet with God so that He can look it over. God shows up (I really don’t pay any attention to what kind of vehicle He drives…). I pull out the plans and lay them on the hood of my truck and He looks them over. “Did you do this?” He asks.
“Yes.”
“All by yourself?”
“All by myself.”
“But you didn’t ask Me.”
(pause)“But I’m asking now.”
“Asking for what?”
(another pause, longer this time) “Asking for You to bless them.”
He looks at the plans again. “So, where do I fit in?”
“Excuse me?”
“Me. Where do I fit in your plans?”
I flip a page or two of the sheets, “Here, right here, see, there You are. And You are in some other places too.”
He just looks at me.
“Let Me show you something,” He says. And, with that, He takes out His own plans and places the roll of papers on the hood. “You made plans all by yourself, that’s the problem. And the plans you have made by yourself would be really good plans, if you want to accomplish them all by yourself. These are My plans for you now.”
He unrolls a tiny bit of a corner for me to see. I look at it and say, “And…?”
“Do that, and then I’ll show you more.”
“But I would like to know the rest now.”
“You have plenty to do with this one corner now. Besides, these are My plans for you, not your plans for Me. You are a part of My plan, not the other way around. So, if anyone needs to get his plans in line, it’s you.”

I find myself confronted with that reality at times. I can get comfortable and so focused doing “my own thing” and ignore the One who has plans for my life. And, sometimes, the “corner” that He lets me see makes little or no sense at the time, because I can’t see the entire picture. He’s not an “add-on” or “optional equipment.” He’s the Architect of the plans I am to follow and Builder.
He doesn’t need my wisdom to make His plans for me (“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent” (I Cor.1:19b)), but I need His wisdom to follow the plan (James 3:13). The problem lies in forgetting Him; for us to see a work that can be done by God alone, we must first see a work that is impossible for man alone.
The only thing I can really offer to the accomplishing of the plan is my trust, obedience, and dependence upon Him. “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Cor.12:10b). Are you a part of His plans, or is He a part of yours?

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Hold Whatcha' Got...

2008-12-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

As a child, growing up on a farm, there were plenty of opportunities to fix fence, split wood and find lost cattle. At times the cattle proved too adept at escaping the confines of the fences, so the posts were lengthened and more levels of plank were installed. One day as my father and I worked on the fence, he came alongside me and showed me what he needed me to do. He measured a section of fencepost, then scored it with the point of a 40 penny nail and lifted the heavy end of a plank, pushing it up to the mark on the post. "All I'm asking you to do is hold it to this mark," he said. "After I level out the other end and nail it, I'll come back down here and nail this end." So I stood there, with my back to his work, staring out into the pasture, holding this plank. The first few moments weren't bad…then time seemed to wear on…and on. I became tired and distracted. Before long, my father was standing beside me looking down at the post.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Wha-?"
"You've let the plank slip."
He was right. He lifted it back up and said, "Hold whatcha' got. That's all you have to do for now. I'm going to work on the other end, and then, then I will come back down to this end and we'll nail it up. I haven't forgotten about you. Just hold whatcha' got."
I think about this at times when I'm shouldering a load, a responsibility, a task that God has given me. He places it into my stewardship, and then he seems to take His time working elsewhere. I grow tired, and impatient while I wait on Him…and I slip away from His mark on my post. It's at those times that He draws alongside and says, "I haven't forgotten about you. Hold whatcha' got." I can trust Him in these moments, after all, He did make some promises: "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!" (Ps.27:14), "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." (Gal. 6:9), "For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."( Heb. 13:5b).
If the burden is great, "hold whatcha' got" until He lifts it. Concern yourself with the "mark", the standard, that He has laid out for you. He hasn't forgotten you; He may be working on the other end. He knows what He is doing…and He knows right where you are.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

"Why does Mr. Jefferson have a goatee?"

2008-12-01T10:45:00.000-08:00

According to government statistics, in 2006 alone, counterfeit US bills totaling $56,200,000 were discovered after entering into circulation. With home-production of illegal funds posing such a growing problem and the arrival of advanced copiers and better computer printers, the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing in recent years has upgrading the security features of some of the most commonly-counterfeited bills, thus making it much harder for would-be crooks to produce “funny money.” Color-shifting inks, watermarks, and security strips, increase the uniqueness of American currency. According to the US Secret Service website, even the paper that bills are printed on can not be legally produced by an individual. It is of a specific composition, pressed to a particular thickness and contains tiny red and blue fibers (you can see them if you look closely enough).

However, one of the best ways to determine a real bill from a fake one is the simplest: human touch. Because of the characteristics of this closely-guarded paper, a difference can be discerned by the fingertips. Interestingly enough, the best way for one to become skilled at determining counterfeit bills is not by intensive study of the fake money, but by taking every opportunity to handle real currency. When a person knows exactly what the genuine article feels like and looks like, spotting an attempt at deception becomes easier.

The same proves true in matters of spirituality.

There are many voices speaking many things conveniently labeled as “truth,” but not all of these hold up to scrutiny. You can’t believe every person on television who claims to preach the truth, no matter what kind of ratings they might enjoy. Nor should you recommend a particular book simply upon the basis that you found it in a Christian bookstore. And just because a movie mentions God doesn’t make it a religious film. We need discernment.

Hebrews 5:13-14 reads, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” We must train and exercise our spiritual sense of “touch” by disciplined application of Scriptural truth so that we can recognize the counterfeits when they arise.

If you want to spot the frauds, spend time with the truth.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Bellyache

2008-12-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

I have a close friend who has been a part of my men’s small group for the last two years now, and I can remember the first time he gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever been given. One day, I related to him the trials of the previous week and the turmoil they had caused. When I finished, I waited for a response. Honestly, I expected the equivalent of an emotional slap on the back and some line about “you’ll make it brother” (how pat we are sometimes in our response to other Christians in straits). Instead, he looked right at me and said, “You know what your problem is? You need perspective. Why don’t you try to get some?”

Not the answer I wanted, but true nonetheless.

It wasn’t the first (nor the last) time that I’ve needed a good dose of perspective. Oftentimes, God brings that perspective through events that you never would have chosen for yourself. Take Jonah for example. Here’s a guy who gets a message from God: Arise, go to Nineveh and preach to them. Now, in all fairness, Nineveh wasn’t the best place for him to go, it might be dangerous; they were, after all, an evil people, God said so Himself. But God Himself also gave a personal command that should have taken priority over Jonah’s desires. So what does Jonah do? Grab a ticket for a cruise in the opposite direction. “But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD” (Jon. 1:3). But since we have a better chance of losing our shadows than escaping an omnipresent and all-powerful God, He still works His plan in Jonah’s life. He is pitched overboard and swallowed by a “great fish.” 3 days and 3 nights later he is spit out onto land. God speaks to Jonah a second time, “Arise, go to Nineveh” (3:2). This time, he obeys.

What changed? Nineveh was still evil, the mission commanded by God remained static, and the sun continued to rise and set for those 3 days and nights. The world didn’t change; Jonah did. Floating around in the dark gullet of an animal, covered in fish juices (and other stuff you don’t want to imagine) had a profound effect on him. There are changes in perspective that you gain only by spending time in the belly of a fish. Those dark, stinking places and hard, despairing times that we go through shape us more deeply and define us more clearly than most other experiences. They point out our weaknesses and underscore the fact that God has none. Jonah cries out from his own literal fish belly, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD” (2:7). Our response to difficulty should be no different. Only by remembering God can we have the right perspective.

The Jonah drifting into the deep in the ship’s wake toward the awaiting fish’s mouth was not the same Jonah gulping the fresh air on the shore after being spit out. Likewise, the way you view God, others or even yourself can change dramatically after a period of time in the fish’s belly.

When you do land on the shore, let your first breath be one of thanks, and go to your own Nineveh with a new perspective of the One who holds your life.

Dustin C. George
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles

On fear...

2008-11-07T05:44:00.001-08:00

Not all things that make noise beside the path come down the path.
---Traditional African proverb

He called it the Wampus Cat. My grandfather loved to talk about it. We would listen wide-eyed as he wove tales of the massive, mythical, predatory cat. I learned that it’s big: “Once, I heard about a Wampus Cat carrying off an adult cow.” It’s fast: “He can outrun cars, so you can’t get away in one.” And it has some kind of special power over its prey: “If you look at his eyes, he will hypnotize you, your feet will stick to the ground and you won’t be able to call for help.” As a small child, I had a healthy fear of the Wampus Cat because of the powers it was said to possess, but that wasn’t the most terrifying aspect, not at all. The one thing that gave that sick feeling of being cold and hot at the same time was the habitat of the Wampus Cat. It lived everywhere. If a softball rolled far under the porch, a warning came from the rocker with the squeaking runners, “If you climb under there, the Wampus Cat will get you.” I couldn’t stray too close to the woods, go into the old barn, or wander around after dark (or in daylight for that matter). Wherever I went and whenever it might be, the Wampus Cat was watching, waiting.

One warm summer evening all the years of the stories and the resultant wariness funneled into a single defining moment. My brother and I were playing at twilight near the edge of my grandparents' yard near the rusted barbed-wire fence hanging heavy with twisted honeysuckle vines that blocked a clear view of the pasture. As my grandfather, returning from fishing, heard our voices across the fencerow, he crept over to the fence and gave the honeysuckle a shake. We froze. “What was that?” my brother asked. We moved slowly toward the noise. He shook the vines again. We took a few more careful steps. With each shake, we drew nearer and nearer. Finally, when we were squinting in the dying light, trying to make out any detail of the source of the noise, my grandfather gave a loud “Wampus Cat yowl.” Instantly, I yelled, “It’s the Wampus Cat!” (Boys often brag, “If I found myself in such-and-such a situation, I would do so-and-so…” We like to think that we would be heroic and brave, unwavering and sacrificial, but when true terror sweeps over you, you tend to forget all of that.) I left my brother and ran as fast as I could go.

I covered the distance of the yard with the speed that comes from knowing that if you are not fast, you will be eaten. I threw open the screen door so hard that it never closed quite right ever again. Running screaming through the house, passing my mother and grandmother, I found a suitable spot in the kitchen between the stove and the countertop that you wouldn’t think that a 18-year old boy could fit into…okay, seriously, I wasn’t 18, but I’m sure that I aged greatly in those few moments. It was one of the most frightening experiences of my young life.

I’ve been scared since. I was fearful when I finally stepped out in obedience to God and left the only place I had ever known as home to move to a new state where I knew no one. Terror gripped me again as I fell off a cliff face in a rock climbing accident. And, every time I stand to preach, waves of absolute, perfect fear wash over me. It’s my greatest joy, yet my greatest fear. These fears are real; you may have fears too. Relationships, health, job situations, financial concerns…each and all may snap at your mind with the teeth of panic and worry. Each person faces a personal Wampus Cat.

The good new is this: we are not left without encouragement or defense. “Fear not“ is a command found often in the Bible; God understands that we can be fearful people. Living under the cloud of worry may overshadow life to the point that any fleeting ray of light will not be enjoyed, but rather anxiously watched in the fear that it will dim far too soon. “Do not fret, it only causes harm,“ wrote the Psalmist (37:8b).

How can we face fear? First, by the gift of God: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (II Tim.1:7); He has equipped us in Christ with power. As a Christian, you can face your fear because He is with you; “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Heb.13:5b-6). But the key that makes both of the above possible, and enables a person to avoid unnecessary fear, is a necessary fear…the fear of the LORD. It is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge (Prov.9:10), it keeps us from sinful ways (Prov.16:6), and brings satisfaction and life (Prov.19:23). “The Angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them” (Ps.34:7).

This isn’t to say that we won’t face hardships, loss, and fearful situations; we will. But in the midst of the storms, I must remember the focus: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Ecc.12:13b). Christ is present, and you are to approach Him with fearful reverence.

So let the Wampus Cats yowl as they may, The Sovereign King of the Universe will bring you through.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

2008-11-03T07:38:00.001-08:00

Tear Down That Wall...

2008-10-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

It was Christmas day, just before I graduated from high school (dating myself here, I know), when I opened a gift from my parents and found inside a small chunk of concrete. Yes, concrete, not coal, but concrete (I must have been a really bad kid). With it was a certificate of authenticity indicating that it was a piece of the Berlin Wall.
Let’s revisit history for a moment…
Construction on the Berlin Wall began on August 13, 1961 (when it was a barbed-wire fence), and it went through four different phases of building until reaching the point of being the formidable barrier separating East and West Berlin and thus East and West Germany (interestingly, in the Soviet Union, the wall was called the "Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart"). This wall was an icon of the Cold War, a time of the West and the East each attempting to grow stronger by the undermining of the other. It stood for 28 years until November 9, 1989 when East German officials allowed people to freely cross the border into West Berlin. In the days and weeks following, many chipped, hammered and pounded at the wall to take home a piece of Cold War history.
This is how I came by the lump of concrete sitting on a shelf in my office. Some forward-thinking person bought multiple sections of the wall on the East Berlin Side (which is why my piece has absolutely no graffiti on it, seems that in East Germany merely approaching the wall with a look of suspicion was a good way to get oneself shot; evidently graffiti is not an art that one would die for). The sections were then imported to America, broken up, boxed with certificates of authenticity, and placed on sale in department stores in time for Christmas. It has always struck me how such a symbol of Communism could be shattered and then distributed all over the world by capitalism…
Every time I think of the Berlin Wall and remember watching the fall of it on television, I think about the soreg. The soreg was the low wall that surrounded the temple in Jerusalem and kept Gentiles (non-Jews) from entering. Jewish worshippers could go and come passing in and out of the 13 places of entry, but no one else. In fact, there were inscriptions around the wall written in Greek stating: “No foreigner is to enter the barriers surrounding the sanctuary. He who is caught will have himself to blame for his death which will follow.” There probably wasn’t any graffiti on the soreg either.
Then, in Ephesians, we find that even though we were once cut off from God (...without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (2:12)), for the Christian there has been a change: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (2:13). Paul continues, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity (2:14-16).
That “middle wall of separation” mentioned in verse 14 is the soreg. We are separated from God no longer, and all who follow Christ as the only Savior and as God Himself are now united in the same family. No more walls, no more soreg. No matter what we look like, how we dress, how much money we have in the bank, or what side of town we call home, as Christians we are part of the same body, the Body of Christ. Since this is the case, what keeps us apart?
Back to Germany…
Now, years after the fall of the wall, there are still people who focus on the cultural differences of East and West Germans. So much so that a 2004 poll indicates that 12% of East Germans and 25% of West Germans wished the Berlin Wall still snaked through the city, cutting the groups off from each other. This view of each other is referred to, in German, as “Mauer im Kopf” (“The wall in the head”).
Even though the physical wall that separated them is gone, there is still a mental barrier when they think of each other. Maybe sometimes, as Christians, we’ve got “the soreg in the head.” If God tore down the wall, what gives me the right to build it again…even if it is in my mind?

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles

www.threadsmedia.com/life/article/tear-down-that-wall/

Face to Face

2008-10-21T06:17:00.002-07:00

“The extent to which people in a relationship can bring up and resolve issues is a critical marker of the soundness of the relationship.” ---Dr. Henry Cloud

I’ve been thinking about those conversations that one has from time to time. Not via email, not over the phone lines or through the cell towers, not on silent paper dropped into the mail, but face to face. Certainly those other modes of communication have advantages (the speed of email, the convenience of a phone, and the thoughtfulness and anticipation of a letter), but there is something about a face to face conversation that is both deeply meaningful as well as somewhat unnerving (at times). When we face another to communicate, we seek to have as many boundaries removed as possible. We see the expressions, hear the tone of voice, and read the body language. But, too often we are unbalanced in our approach to one another. Dr. Henry Cloud, in his book Boundaries Face To Face, addresses this imbalance (I realize that what follows is a longer quote than I would use usually, but it speaks directly and clearly to my point.):

Many of us live in two worlds when it comes to relationships. In one world we have friendly conversations in which we avoid all disagreements; in the other we have major conflict-type conversations that tear everybody and everything up. In the first world we have connection without truth, and in the second we have truth without connection. God did not design us to live in these two worlds, having these two types of relationships. He wants us to live in the one world, where He lives and where truth and love coexist as allies, not adversaries. Our connections are best when they are truthful, and our truth is best when we are connected.

If I am not careful, I can approach God the same way. I can try to avoid addressing anything that might be in the way of my relationship with God and function on a purely surface level. Or I can focus solely upon the facts and become legalistic, distancing myself from God by my own self-righteousness. God expects us to live with Him face to face. Today, as I read Psalm 27, I saw verse 8; “When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face LORD, I will seek.” Seeking God’s face in the Old Testament meant that you were seeking the presence of God. And He calls us there, to the place where we sit before Him and worship, communicating with our Creator in truth and love, connected with the One who desires for us to come face to face with Him.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles

Cramping Your Style

2008-10-21T06:17:00.001-07:00

We had a bull on our farm when I was young. Great animal, except for one little thing: he hated being confined to a pen…or a pasture…or multiple pastures for that matter. When he decided that it was time to take a little walk through the fence (and I do mean through the fence) or take a leap over the fence, then he would do so and casually stroll wherever he might want to go. Any barrier, whether perceived or real, would be seen as a threat to his freedom and would be dealt with accordingly. One particular summer night stands out in my mind because on that night, discovering the bull was out and roving about the neighborhood, we went to find him in our truck. Before the night was over, the truck got a little too close and had its grille torn to pieces by the calmly-executed movement of a well-placed horn. The lessons learned were simple: he didn’t like fences or anything else that came too close. He was good-natured, so long as he had room to do just as he pleased and we didn’t invade his “space.”

I’ve seen that those things that stand in opposition to the work of God (the world, the flesh, and Satan) work the same way as the bull. So long as you don’t “cramp their style” they will leave you be. When you allow God to come against those towering strongholds and the fallow, unproductive ground in your life, you can be assured that there will be opposition. Areas that were once no real threat are now seen as places where the power of God is seen at work, and Satan won’t like it, the world won’t like it, and your flesh won’t like it. I’ve talked to people who seem mystified that when they try to live for Christ in the workplace they are ridiculed by people. They are stunned that a life with Christ has troubles, amazed that Satan would launch a counter-attack or attempt to undermine what God wants to do in the life of the Christian. Even more unsettling is the activity of the flesh, the habits of who you were before coming to Christ, fighting against the work of the Spirit of God.

This is why Jesus says, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18,19). In Romans we find the command, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Rom. 13:14). And Peter writes, “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (I Pet. 5:8). You are to watch and take great care when doing the will of God. The world, the flesh and Satan will combat your every move toward obedience to Christ and everything done for His glory. If you aren’t in the battle, then you will never have to face the arrows, but if you are facing the arrows for His sake, know that He is doing something in your life and in your personal ministry that is a threat to the enemies of God.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles

Keep Your Words Soft and Sweet...You May Have to Eat Them

2008-10-21T06:16:00.000-07:00

“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.”
-Publius, a Greek sage

Have you ever been talking to someone, and you reach that point where an internal monologue begins? Your brain says something like this: “Stop talking already. You’ve said too much. Hello, mouth, are you listening to me?” Yet your tongue keeps galloping along no matter how hard you might tug on the reins. We have all been at that place. Those words spoken without thought (or any words for that matter) can never be called back. And we watch helplessly as they stampede along. If only we could discipline ourselves in the area of speech.
I taught high school for a number of years, and one thing I often asked of students was to think before speaking. Often they did not, but on occasion, they did. One particular student comes to mind. After numerous interruptions, I told him that our first step was to give him the opportunity to remedy the situation. I asked, “What do you think would help?”
“Maybe if I thought before I spoke.”
“How long would you need?”
“How about 5 seconds?”
“Alright, here’s what we’ll do. You have a thought, or a question, and you raise your hand. I will keep teaching until at least 5 seconds have passed. If your hand is still up then, and you have thought about your question or comment for that time, then I’ll call on you. But if I call on you, and your response is one that can be taken as an attempt to be silly or disruptive, we will have to find another way to deal with this.” That was our guideline.
The next day, I reminded him of the agreement. I remember the first time that he “self-governed” himself. His hand shot up, and his mouth opened; I just held up my hand, and then spread my 5 fingers. I kept teaching, and saw his expression change to a brow knitted in thought. He nodded to himself and lowered his hand. I asked him later what he had been on the verge of saying. “Nothing I should have said,” was his response.
It’s so simple, think before you speak. I remember reading once that Winston Churchill said of someone, “[He] has the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thought.” That’s how many of us can be characterized at times: too many words, not enough thought. Yet the warning in the Bible is clear: “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who is restrains his lips is wise” (Prov. 10:19).
“But,” one might say, “I have so much to say; I couldn’t wait 5 seconds.” If I waited 5 seconds before I spoke, and used those seconds to think. I would have much less to say, and much less to ask forgiveness for.
Would a 5 second-rule be a good idea for your speech?

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles

Waiting for a Plane

2008-10-21T06:15:00.000-07:00

World War II ended many, many years of geographic isolation for some of the inhabitants of certain South Pacific islands. Many of these islands were used by the allied forces as supply depots as planes would drop cargo from the air via parachute or unload the supplies after landing on temporary airstrips. Natives who lived on the islands beheld such wonders as Zippo lighters that produced flames from one’s hand, Jeeps roving over the landscape, power tools and machinery that leveled trees and moved earth, and food eaten from cans. The tribes came up with an interesting, but erroneous, line of thought. The “rituals” performed by the troops (talking into a radio, marching around with guns, having hangers with small planes inside them) would usher in the arrival of larger planes from the gods, laden with “magical” wonders from the modern world. So, when the war ended, “shrines” began to be erected on the islands: bamboo and vine cargo planes inside mock hangers near crudely-constructed landing strips lined with native-built (non-functioning, of course) control towers. Some natives went through “drills” that entailed marching around in ranks with sticks resembling guns and talking on coconut headsets. Objects such as lighters, cameras, pens and any other modern trappings became venerated icons. All the while, they watched the skies, waiting for the gods to smile upon their efforts in replicating the details of the “rituals” and reward them with a low-flying cargo plane heavy with treasures.

Sadly, some missionaries found great difficulty in evangelizing these groups because they weren’t looking for the God, but for what a god could bring to them. Even showing up on the islands with modern items would give the natives great joy because they believed that finally, the second coming of the cargo gods had occurred.

It’s easy to dismiss the “cargo cults” with a chuckle and a shake of the head, but stop and consider the questions and statements that are posed to God today: “What does Jesus have that I need?” “What is in church for me, because I deserve a lot?” “I did my part, now this is what I want to see happen from you God!” Essentially what is being said is this: “God, where’s my cargo?”

Colossians reminds us that “All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (1:16b-17). He created all things for Himself…that includes me. God doesn’t exist for me, I exist for Him. My acts of worship are to be offered to Christ because He alone is worthy of the praise, not because I’m trying to get something out of Him. As one great preacher of old said, “[It’s] not what you can get from Him, but what He will get from you.”

You don’t have to be living in America in the 21st century to be materialistic, and you don’t have to be a native in the South Pacific to have the wrong view of God.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles

2008-10-20T11:36:00.001-07:00

KnoxSpots 2008

2008-10-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

Take Me Out-...Were You Ever In?

2008-10-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

“Bullfight critics row on row
Crowd the enormous plaza full,
But only one is there who knows,
And he is the one who fights the bull.”

I went to a baseball game a while back and participated in all those traditions of the great American pastime: soft pretzels, hard seats and loud hecklers. We listened to a man seated behind our group shout commands and comments to the batter, the umpire, and most pointedly, to the guy on first (and his name wasn’t “Who”). All evening long this guy gave clear color commentary on what was wrong with the pitching, catching and batting and exactly what should be done to remedy the “problems.” I glanced back at him to see just what this “keeper of all wisdom” looked like and saw a middle-aged guy settled comfortably in his seat with a drink in his hand. Though he was amusing, this gentleman may have been right on some points and, on others, he might have been positively wrong. One could debate many of the things that he said, but one thing was absolutely certain: he was not in the game. Though he was full of energy and full of even more opinion, he wasn’t wearing a jersey, didn’t have a bat or glove, and his name wasn’t called out in any lineup. He was, despite all his posturing, a complaining spectator. Being in the ballpark didn’t mean he was in the game.

I couldn’t help but wonder how many times the same thing happens in church.

It’s not an issue that has appeared only recently. James makes it clear that the problem of complaining has been in the church for a long time, “Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!” (5:9). We are reminded elsewhere “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:14,15).
Our attitude will influence how, and if, we shine as “lights in the world.” That’s a weighty responsibility, but a responsibility that we must understand if we are really “in the game.” We may share opinions to further the team’s progress, and we may speak candidly, and yes, passionately in certain instances and in the appropriate places, but love for Christ and His Church must govern us. Just being in the ballpark didn’t mean that guy was in the game; just being Christians, regardless of the opinions we might state, doesn’t mean that we’re actively participating in the Body of Christ.

If you are in the game, support the team.
If you aren’t in the game, there’s a place on the team for you…but it’s not in the bleachers.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Practice Stillness

2008-10-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else--we are the busiest people in the world. ---Eric Hoffer

Have you ever tried to dig a hole in dry sand? One shovelful comes out, another slides in from the edges. You dig and dig and keep finding more and more sand in the hole. It’s tempting to say, “That’s enough; I quit!” Chances are (if you are like most) you find yourself busily attempting to dig yourself out after the tasks of life slide in upon you. As a matter of fact, you might be reading this on a break, or have had to put off reading this until later because you are so busy. The responsibilities of career, family, a social life and church can seem never-ending. The “to-do” list grows to multiple pages. Each hour of each day of the calendar fills. Someone asks, “What do you do in your spare time?” You respond, “Spare time? What’s that?”
When is the last time that you took time to be still? Do you remember? I remember times in my own life when I’ve experienced true stillness: standing alone in a humid Costa Rican rainforest at dusk, intense times of prayer when all distractions seemed far removed from me, a moment in the National Cathedral in Washington, and some other instances come to mind. In each case, the busyness of life was overridden in the stillness by the presence of God. But then, I had to be still first. I wonder how many times I was so busy making and carrying out my plans, that I missed God in the process. He’s there, and I shuffle about under my load, head down, and miss that moment with Him. Since every worthwhile relationship takes time, could it be said that your relationship with Him is being shown as worthwhile by the time you spend with Him? You say, “But there’s the hole, and the sand, the growing ‘to-do’ list and the day planner. There is no time!” Yes, life is busy, there is no mistaking that. But there is time for God, assuming you make time. Martin Luther once said, “I have so much business to do today that I shall not be able to get through it with less than three hours’ prayer.” You must make time before God to be still.

Ps. 46:10a reads, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Be still, quit grasping, stop trying to do it alone, wait quietly upon Him…Be still and you will know that He is God.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

It Wouldn't Have Worked On Me...I Hate Marshmallows...(Dark Chocolate, a Different Story)

2008-10-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

“The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t.”
--Dr. Phillips Brooks

The psychological experiment is legendary now…Stanford University in the 1960s, a number of four-year-olds, and bags of marshmallows all converged to produce a study on waiting and rewards. A single marshmallow was placed on the table in front of each child tested. The children were told that they would be given another marshmallow in addition to the first one if they did not eat the first one before the researcher returned (usually within 15-20 minutes). If the first one was eaten before time was up, they would not receive the second marshmallow. Each child was then left alone in the room with a single, tempting marshmallow for company and was watched from the other room secretly to record the behavior.

Some children sang songs and hummed to distract themselves, while others stared around the room, intentionally avoiding the sight of the marshmallow. One child crawled under the table to avoid eating the marshmallow and others sat holding their heads. At least one of them placed the tip of his tongue on the tabletop…as…close…as…he…could… possibly…get to the marshmallow without actually touching it. There were some of the children who sat very still, very patiently, for a very long time (at least, a long time for a four-year-old) and waited. Then there were those who simply looked at the marshmallow and devoured it, thus missing the reward of twice as many later, opting instead for immediate gratification.

Patience can be hard to maintain, regardless of age. I sometimes ask groups of people, “How many of you have ever prayed for patience?” Usually a large number of hands go up. Then I ask, “How many of you have ever prayed for patience more than once?” Usually the vast majority of hands drop. Why? Because God does not so much give patience to us as develop patience in us. It’s not something that is usually dropped into a person’s life easily by a one-time installation, but it is a virtue developed over time, through difficult and trying circumstances. During those situations, God seems to take His time with us to grow patience within us. God is “the God of patience” (Rom. 15:5).
We, as His children, are to bear the same characteristic. We too, are to wait calmly and allow “patience [to] have its perfect work” (James 1:4). Often we think we have signed up for a spiritual 50-yard dash, but in actuality, we are slated for the marathon.

The marshmallow study mentioned earlier didn’t end in the 1960s. Researchers tracked these individuals who were tested and studied them again, thirty years later, as adults. The results: the children who didn’t wait tended to become adults who were impulsive and sought instant results, whereas the ones who waited tended to be more disciplined and structured and patient in all areas of their lives. Lives of impatience, left unchecked, continually produce even more impatience.

Far too often, because of impatience, we sacrifice the “best” yet to come and settle for the “good enough” now. We seek to gratify the flesh instead of glorifying Christ. All the waiting and patience yields rewards…and they are greater than a second marshmallow.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

You Never Know How Far Your Care Will Reach...Or Your Neglect...

2008-10-16T12:47:00.001-07:00

I was struck by a story that originally came from Gary LaFerla’s book Finding Your Way. It’s an account taken from the U.S. Navy’s records recording events from WWII. Elgin Staples was aboard the USS Astoria when it was attacked by the enemy in the battle for Savo Island in the Pacific. This is the remainder of the story found in LaFerla’s book:

About 0200 hours a young Midwesterner, Signalman 3rd class Elgin Staples, was swept overboard by the blast when the Astoria’s number one eight-inch gun turret exploded. Wounded in both legs by shrapnel and in semi-shock, he was kept afloat by a narrow lifebelt that he managed to activate with a simple trigger mechanism.
At around 0600 hours, Staples was rescued by a passing destroyer and returned to the Astoria, whose captain was attempting to save the cruiser by beaching her. The effort failed, and Staples, still wearing the same lifebelt, found himself back in the water. It was lunchtime. Picked up again, this time by the USS President Jackson, he was one of 500 survivors of the battle who were evacuated to Noumea. On board the transport, Staples hugging that lifebelt with gratitude looked at that small piece of equipment for the first time. He scrutinized every stitch of the lifebelt that had served him so well. It had been manufactured by Firestone Tire and Rubber of Akron, Ohio, and bore a registration number.
Given home leave, Staples told his story and asked his mother, who worked for Firestone, about the purpose of the number on the belt. She replied that the company insisted on personal responsibility for the war effort and that the number was unique and assigned to only one inspector. Staples remembered everything about the lifebelt, and quoted the number. There was a moment of stunned silence in the room and then his mother spoke: “That was my personal code that I affixed to every item I was responsible for approving.”*

Mrs. Staples in the story above could not have thought that the lifebelt she held in her hands and looked at so carefully would be in the hands of her son who would also study its construction after it saved his life, yet she had a personal responsibility for the safety of the one to use the belt…even if she never knew who would use it.
Every time God places you in someone’s path, or someone in your path, He is giving you an opportunity to minister. I think about Paul’s comment that he would only boast of what God had done “within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us—a sphere which especially includes you” (II Cor. 10:13). This “sphere” was the area where God had placed the apostle to minister and included those to whom he wrote. It was a personal responsibility given to him by God. That person you encounter in your “sphere”, like the lifebelt, may just as well have a “personal code” written on them: they are your responsibility, an opportunity given by God to share with that individual what He has done and is doing in your life. You may not have the opportunity to pull out a tract and go over the plan of salvation, more likely it will be you conveying Christ in your behavior and manner and speech.
You may never know the impact that moment makes upon that person. God may choose to use that seemingly ordinary encounter to convict, encourage, minister or challenge…or to save a life.

What responsibility do you take for those around you?

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

"Kumba" lit. the Congo word for "Roar...while you hang on for dear life."

2008-10-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

At the time, it was the highest and fastest roller coaster in the Southeastern United States. Rising above the city like a green twisted silly straw, The Kumba reached 65 miles per hour in the initial drop and continued into a maze of track wrapped and woven through the trees and walkways in the amusement park. It was the first roller coaster I had ever ridden. I rode it once, went back into the line again, then again. On that third trip, like the previous two, I sat in the car, but I sat in a seat that had been vacant on the other trips. And as the cars began the slow climb up the initial ascent, I pushed against the padded safety collar that had been lowered over my head and shoulders before we started to move. When I pushed, the collar lifted away from me, pivoting on the hinge at the top of the seat’s headrest. It didn’t open completely, but it did swing up until it was above the 90 degree mark; I could lift it up above my sightline, quite far enough for me to be ejected from the seat in the loops. I slammed the collar against me, hard. It didn’t lock. I tried again and again to force the harness into the proper position, but to no avail. I looked at the stranger next to me. He was a heavily tattooed motorcycle-type. He said only one sentence, “You, my friend, are about to die.”
You know how, when people go over the top of the ascent and begin the initial drop on those rides, they yell out in excitement? There were only stark-raving-fear-yells coming out of me. I had the forethought to lace my arms through the metal handles on the safety collar and brace my feet against a tiny metal lip near the edge of the car’s floor. This ride, this 45-second ride, seemed to span hours. With every loop, I lifted from my seat into a half-standing stance. When the ride finally ended and went into the station for unloading, I slumped down in my seat and dropped my arms. The collar rose up (while all the other’s remained locked). The attendant looked at me wide-eyed and said, “Your collar didn’t lock?”
“No, it didn’t,” I replied. He shouted out to another attendant to block off the seat until repairs could be made. I staggered out of the car, right behind Mr. Motorcycle Guy. His friends met him on the sidewalk, “How was it?” they asked.
“It was awesome, lots of fun!” he responded.

What made the difference? What was the difference between his experience and my last ride? We were on the same row, in the same car, on the same ride. But the two feet from the center of my seat to the center of his made the difference. Two feet over and he would have been yelling for his life. As a matter of fact, I had sat in his seat for the two previous rides and whooped with enjoyment. Now, two feet to the left, it wasn’t the same.

I’ve been thinking lately, how many times must I have sat two feet from someone in need of encouragement and didn’t recognize it (or worse, I recognized it, but didn’t offer encouragement)? I’m going along enjoying the ride, while a fellow passenger, white-knuckled with buckled knees, looks on at the same ride with terror. What’s the difference in us? Two feet.

Isaiah refers to God on a number of occasions in the context of the comfort He offers (Is. 40:1; 51:3; 66:13). But, too often when that comfort from God is given to us out of His great mercy and grace, we see it as completed action: “Now that I’m comforted, I never have to consider that problem again.” We move on and promptly forget the circumstances that brought us to the point where we needed the comfort. Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” II Cor. 1:3,4. Those verses make my response to God’s comfort clear: when God offers me comfort and consolation, when He brings me to the point where He speaks truth to my heart through His word and His work, I am then to turn and offer that same comfort to others who find themselves in my seat, the seat that is just a couple of feet away.

Who can you reach out to and encourage and comfort today?

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Authorized Signatures

2008-10-16T12:38:00.002-07:00

I was in a bookstore a couple of years ago and placed my credit card on the counter. I had not signed the card because I didn’t want someone to have my signature if the card happened to be stolen or lost. The woman behind the counter scanned it, then looked at the back and said, “I can’t accept this unless it’s signed.” I explained to her my reasoning, and she smiled and said again, “You’ll have to sign it to complete your purchase.” Not wanting to hold court over the matter, I signed the card. She then handed me the receipt to sign…and promptly compared the signatures, nodded, and returned my card to me. I wondered just how much safer my identity had become…
There is much talk of “identity theft”. We speak of the future of DNA identification, certain Internet upgrades to prevent user fraud, the placement of “biometric” data on credit cards (like a fingerprint) to secure information. All are to prevent our “identities” from being used by others. According to the standard estimate, $56.6 billion was lost last year in the United States due to identity theft. It’s a serious and costly threat; people rob you of your personal information to do with it as they wish and show little regard for you and your privacy.
Unfortunately, some people have the same view of God.
“Let’s say I give my entire life over to Him,” the reasoning goes. “He will take away my friends, my fun, and everything I really want. God will, in fact, ruin my life and take away who I am. He will steal my identity.” I’ve (sadly) spoken to more than one person about this subject. I always think about Matthew 16:24-26: Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” What exactly is Christ speaking of losing? Do I lose my identity and become a part of a faceless, nameless bowl of “spiritual pudding”? Do I fade into a type of Christian anonymity, absorbed by the masses? Look at what Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So, spiritually, who I am before I begin to follow a life with Christ dies when I commit my life to Him (the Bible refers to this as the “old man”), but according to Jesus, when that happens, I find my life (“but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it”). I don’t lose a life that is worth keeping when I come to Him…I gain one beyond compare.
The person God wants you to be, the best and most valuable identity you could ever possess, is found only in a life with Him.
Are you living the identity He desires for you?

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

"Making Tools Chant That Saints Might Sing"

2008-10-16T12:38:00.001-07:00

It’s an old story, but one worth the retelling.

A man was walking through a city in Europe many, many years ago and came across the construction site of a cathedral. Everywhere workers scurried to and fro, busily focused upon differing tasks. Inside the half-finished shell of the sanctuary, the man neared a stonecutter, arms covered in a layer of fine stone powder, hammer and chisel in hand, and asked, “What are you doing?”
“I’m chipping away at this stone to fit it into one of the columns there.” He returned to his work.
The man found a carpenter and asked him the same question: “What are you doing?”
The carpenter replied (without looking up), “Carving the altar rail.”

As he left the sanctuary, he came across a man stooping over to collect bits of stone and chips of wood and placing them into a worn wooden bucket. “And what are you doing?” The man stood up straight, looked at his questioner, and said, “I’m building a cathedral.”

We often lose focus of the true importance of our job. We get so wrapped up in the tasks at hand (or watching the clock on the wall, computer screen or phone) that work effectively becomes reduced to nothing more than something to “get through.” We get up, go to work, take lunch, work some more, leave, go home exhausted, go to bed, get up the next day, etc. It’s helpful to think, “Why am I doing this?” or, like the story above asks, “What am I doing?”
Ask that question in your workplace and you will likely get answers such as:
“Making a paycheck.”
“Paying the bills.”
“Accomplishing tasks.”
“Working for the boss.”

We need people who will be “cathedral-builders.” No matter how humble, insignificant or thankless the job may seem to be, those people say, “I’m building a cathedral. I’m working for God.” Do you see your work as a sacred duty or a dull drudgery? Maybe you need to realign yourself with the command from Col. 3:23, 24: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, and not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Lone Wolves Have No One to Hear Them Howl

2008-10-16T12:36:00.002-07:00

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts, nor measure words, but to pour them all out just as they are, chaff and grain together knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
–George Eliot
Let me ask you something: When was the last time that you talked to somebody else? Really talked? About the hard, rough, and bothersome parts of your life? (At this point some of you probably feel like stuffing your hands in your pockets and looking at the ground…or perhaps you think, “I don’t like the tone of those questions; I’ll just quit reading this now.”) The questions could be more directed: Do you have a person in your life with whom you can be completely open and honest? One that will listen, not out of duty, but desire? To whom do you talk?
We insulate and isolate ourselves from others, both from speaking to them and from hearing from them, and then wonder why on earth we don’t connect. And, when we do speak, it’s something like this, “How are you?”
“Fine. You?”
“Okay.”
I do realize that this common exchange is not the place to bring up the weighty issues of life. No one expects the greeting to sound like…
“How are you?”
“Let me tell you all about it, first…”
Nor should it sound like that, but the vague, pleasant and safe “fine” (when, in fact, things are not “fine”) rings hollow in the mouth of the speaker and pushes him farther and farther from others. And somehow, at times, we take the same approach when speaking to God. God asks, “How are you doing?”
“Fine.”
“Really?”
“Really, I am.”
And all the while we know that He knows.

Then I read Psalms and realize that David didn’t keep much to himself…

I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" (Ps. 42:9).

My heart is severely pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me (Ps. 55:4-5).

Break their teeth in their mouth, O God! Break out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD! (Ps. 58:6).

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Ps. 42:1-2).

I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable (Ps. 145:1-3).

Whether mourning, confused, angry, or filled with praise, David made it clear to God (and moreover himself) what was going on within his heart and mind. Yet we go about as though we have no need to be known, no need to be honest, no need to share with a friend the deepest hurts, disappointments or anxieties. We need that connection to grow. That sharing may take place in a small group setting, or with a person willing to pray for you, or with that close friend with whom you can share your heart and be safe. Whatever the context, we must remember: We are not designed to be “lone wolf” Christians.

Are you being completely honest with God?
Do you have a friend to whom you can talk openly and freely?
Do you see your need for authenticity?

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Make Sure Your Blocks Are Stacked

2008-10-16T12:36:00.001-07:00

When the Spanish conquistadores marched into Peru in the 1500’s, the land was ruled by the Incas. Upon invading, the Spaniards found Incan walls and foundations built of stones fitted together without the benefit of any mortar. Many of these walls still stand today. Some of the stones used in the construction weigh in at over 100 tons and took hours upon hours of painstaking labor to shape using other, smaller “hammer” stones to chip away the excess rock on the faces and to smooth the rough edges of the block so that it would match exactly with the contours of the adjoining block. The stones were fitted so carefully that even now it is impossible to insert a razor blade between many of them.

In 1950, an earthquake shook the mountains of Peru and destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the capital city’s modern buildings. Upon inspection, only a few of the joints in the Incan walls had shifted a small amount, but the walls, undamaged, still stood firm.

I thought about this today when I read Titus 1:1 where Paul writes of the “acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness.” The word Paul uses that is translated as “acknowledgement” doesn’t mean that God’s truth is given a courtesy nod, but it speaks of a precise knowledge and correct understanding of the truth. This understanding in turn accompanies (or “accords with”) godliness or reverence for God.

Our personal beliefs sometimes may fail to match God’s truth precisely. We might adopt and adapt truth to “fit” our scheme of thought, but in reality, when we try that approach, we weaken the entire structure. If we desire our beliefs to stand the shaking and the uncertainty that rises daily against them, we must have a correct and precise knowledge of the truth. Beliefs must be established upon, shaped by, and conformed to an unchanging standard, fitted so carefully that nothing can wedge itself between the belief in the truth and truth itself.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Hardball

2008-10-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

I saw one for the first time when I was in 4th grade. It was a hardball. I know that we use the term “hardball” to differentiate a baseball from a softball, but this was no baseball, it was a true hardball. A kid named Chris brought it to school; he was the guy with the crew-cut hair and the hands stained from playing in red-clay dirt. A group of us were playing tag when Chris showed up with this thing in his hand. “Who wants to play?” he asked. If I remember correctly, we tried to run away, after all, it was a hardball.
It was a little smaller than a baseball, but was not made of a leather-cased, rubber core wrapped with twine. This ball was solid, with a seam running around it like an equator, and was scarred from impacts against brick walls and gravel driveways. This was no toy; it was a miniature planet…a world of hurt. He held it up in the sun for us to see and chided us for our cowardice.
“What if it hits one of us?” a friend asked.
“Do you know how much that would hurt?” said another. Someone suggested that we roll the ball to one another. Others nodded with enthusiasm, rolling seemed so much safer. Chris snorted, “You throw hardballs.”
And that’s what we did. At times, seeing that ball drop down from a blue sky toward you, the only thing you could think was, “It’s going too fast. It will slip through my fingers and hit my head.” And sometimes you would sidestep the hurtling little planet and watch as it thumped against the ground leaving a sharply-defined crater near your feet. But, at other times, you would step up, stretch out your hands, and catch it.
God plays hardball. He is a loving God, a God of comfort, and a merciful God, yet He is a God of truth. He plays hardball. John gives us the response of some of Jesus’ disciples after hearing Him teach on the subject of His coming death; “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" (John 6:60). John goes on to write in verse 66 “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” The hardball was pitched, and they stepped out of the way.
Having taught high school English for some years, I had developed one unit about knowing and acting upon the truth of a matter. I would always ask at the beginning of that unit the same question, “Would you rather hear the hard truth, and possibly have to make corrections to your life, or believe a “soft” lie, and remain comfortable, not having to change anything?” Many, many students chose the second: the comfortable, soft, non-challenging lie. That’s what Jesus encountered. “Don’t give me the truth, give me something easy.” His followers wanted the comfort of the miracles, but cared little for the core of the message. Sidestep the hardball, let it fall to the ground; it’s safer that way.
Perhaps God is playing hardball with you. Maybe you’ve been reading His word and He has pitched a ball to you. You are in the game, but then you see it dropping out of the sky, and think, “I should step aside.” Or maybe you would say, “God, why don’t You roll the ball to me? It’s safer.” Maybe you’ve grown so scared and discouraged that you’ve stepped from the game. Don’t step aside, don’t complain, and get back in the game. Step up to the truth, even if the corrections you face are painful. Remember, His goal is to make you like Him; “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Living Sacrifices Can Crawl Off the Altar

2008-10-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

“Like the sisters of Lazarus, sometimes we must experience a death to our own vision before we can catch a glimpse of God’s perfect plan.” --Dr. Don Rauniker

“If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, how would you live differently today?” I’ve been asked that question on numerous occasions, and my answer is usually something along the lines of: “Tell everyone I care about what they mean to me, write out how and by whom I want my funeral conducted, and eat way too much ice cream.”
I suppose that we would all live differently if we knew that today was our final day of life.

Then I read Mark 8:34…“When He [Jesus] had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Taking up the cross doesn’t mean just bearing a burden; someone taking up a cross is about to die. Though many did (and still do) give their lives for the truth of God, this command isn’t about a one-time death to self, but consistent self-sacrifice. This kind of denial of self, a dying to sin and self, is to be a part of my daily walk with Christ. The problem is clear: Though I’m a new creation in Christ, and who I was once is now dead (II Cor. 5:17), those old habits and old patterns of who I was before Christ exert influence over my life now. I must die daily to those influences and live for Christ by His power. So then, the pressing question is not, “If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, how would you live differently today?” The more important question is this: “If you died to self each day, how would your entire life be different?”

To quote a great pastor from years ago, “Might we go to our own funerals” each day, dying to self and living for Christ.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Ever Been in a Too-Small Pot?

2008-10-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

I decided to repot a plant recently, and found, when I pulled it from the pot, that the entire plant slipped out easily. The roots were tangled and matted together into a dense, tightly-woven mass. The plant had become “root bound.” I repotted it, put it on my balcony, and forgot all about it… until today. I was talking to someone on the phone while looking out my sliding glass door at the plant. This conversation with another, added to the image of the plant before me, led to a confrontation from God…

How can you tell if a plant is root bound? The experts say that a plant suffering from the condition will be stunted in growth. An indication of this (when buying a plant packaged in a planting bag) is that the bag will not “give” when pressed because the roots have filled up the container completely. A root bound plant has roots that do not spread out for nutrients, but ones that circle the interior of the container until they conform to the shape of the pot.

At times, and about certain things, I am root bound. I’ve grown only as much as the pot I’m in allows, but I don’t want another pot…I like this one. If you were to check my root bound areas, you would find that I don’t give easily when pressed. I’m rigid, hard, and unyielding. I don’t want to change my way of doing things. My roots circle, never spreading out, becoming more and more tightly constrained until I’ve used up all the moisture and nutrients in my already too-small pot. It’s a comfortable pot, yet I’m not growing…I’ve come to match my surroundings, circling the inside of my heart, never reaching out beyond what I perceive as the limit.

When I repotted the plant on my balcony, I did something to it first: I slashed the root ball repeatedly with a knife. I didn’t cut the major roots, but broke up the network of secondary ones to encourage them to branch out.

That’s what God does. He uses situations and circumstances to slash through those things that hinder us from branching. He doesn’t put us in a larger pot without some major adjustments to our root system. Paul prays that the Ephesians would be “rooted and grounded in love” and that they “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (3:17b-19a). Perhaps my love, both for God and for others, has grown “root bound” and limited. Maybe God needs to slash open the repetitive cycle so I can branch out from the tiny pot in which I have placed myself into the infinite soil of Christ’s love.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Orcas With a Focus Problem

2008-10-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

I was just reading an account earlier today about a number of killer whales that mysteriously beached themselves and died. When the marine biologists investigated, they found that the whales were not seeking the larger fish found in the deeper waters but were chasing after smaller fish in the shallows…minnows to be exact. They gave their lives running after something small.

I had to stop and think, “What is the real size of those things I pursue?” Sometimes the most noble-seeming idea may occupy much of my time, energy and thought, but at heart, is it something for which I am willing to spend my life?

I have a friend who says often to me, “You know what you need? New perspective.” Looking at how you spend your life will give you that much-needed, new perspective. Do you find yourself pursuing just to make your point? I’ve found too many times that I can fight and fight to make the statement I’m trying to make, and win…only to lose. I’ve seen how much time can be spent chasing one itch that turns into a full-scale flea hunt. And, probably like you, I’ve looked back on times of worry and concern and wondered, “What exactly was the worry or concern?”

Paul had perspective. He writes to the church at Corinth, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (I Cor. 2:2).
One thing was on his mind; he had a single-minded focus upon the task at hand. If he was going to spend his life (which, according to history, he did) on something, it would be something worthwhile.

I could do well to take a lesson…and stop chasing minnows.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Looking Back to Something I Wrote in the Summer...

2008-10-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

From the summer…

It has been oppressively dry around here lately. Temperatures have soared into the 90-degree range, have hovered there for weeks, and the only thing that has come along is a passing afternoon heat shower. People have been trying to keep watch on lawns and gardens while taking care that they themselves don’t get overheated and dehydrated trying to take care of the lawns and gardens. Everyone has been watching for relief, for the right cloud to pass over and bring a break from the drought. Everything has been thirsty.

Then, last night, relief came. It rained…then again today, a few times. The rains have come back for a time.

I was thinking about that last night when I was looking at the last great annual feast of the nation of Israel, the Feast of Tabernacles. The feast was to celebrate the way that God provided for the Israelites as they wandered through the desert after being brought out of bondage in Egypt; it was a time to remember the provision and deliverance of God. The feast also took place at the time of the year when the rainy season was about to begin. All eyes were upon the skies as the anticipation built for the life-giving rain. Throughout the feast, water was poured from a golden pitcher into a basin in the court of the Jewish Temple. This water symbolized the providence of God and reminded Israel of their dependence upon the LORD for survival and sustenance, both in the nation’s past and present. During this ceremony, Psalms were sung. One of the main Psalms recited was 118, one which contains verses that point to the coming of the Messiah (the Anointed One, the Deliverer). On the last day of the feast, the celebration surrounding the water-pouring ceremony was more elaborate than any of the previous days. Everyone was focused upon the beginning of the rainy season and the promise of the One who would be sent by God as the great Deliverer, the One who was the fulfillment of the thirst for eternal provision…

“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37, 38).

These were asking for the provision of God, and God was in their midst to answer. Jesus was saying, “You’re anticipating the Messiah? I’m the only One who can meet your deepest level of spiritual thirst.”

Maybe the skies in your life have been as cloudless and stark recently. Perhaps the rains have not come as you have anticipated that they would. Maybe, like the ground around here lately, you’re just thirsty and dry. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink…”

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults

Buttercup Wasn't Yellow

2008-10-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Everybody should try it…once. You get two teams of generally athletic people, take them to a basketball court, place them on the backs of donkeys, pitch a ball into the mix, and have them compete in a basketball game. While I was teaching high school, I was part of this grand experience…donkey basketball. Those two words, “donkey” and “basketball” seem to fit together very poorly. I have news for you: the words don’t clash nearly as much as the actual event.
Before we went out to play, we signed a waiver for a long list on possible injuries (including death), donned helmets, and were told, “If you are thrown, get up fast. The donkey will try to stomp you.” I thought, “What kind of animals are we facing here?” Like some reluctant gladiators of old, we were lined up, and the donkeys were brought in. Small, soft, lazy-looking donkeys. I thought it to be a joke, until the second half. I had done so well on my donkey for the first half that the “donkey coach” came over and said that he would be giving me “Buttercup.” (To name this donkey “Buttercup,” I discovered, would be analogous to tagging a Great White with the title of “Pooky” or “Snookums.”)
Buttercup seemed calm enough, until the second-half whistle blew. The first time I was thrown, I fractured my finger. The next time, good Buttercup pitched me over her head into a complete flip. The last time she threw me, it was headlong into the table with the scoreboard equipment on it. The metal legs of the table managed to catch one of my shoulders and stop me cold. It’s a humbling experience to crawl across a hardwood floor from under a table, holding your ribs, trying to catch your breath, making slow progress back toward a creature looking at you with a resolute eye, knowing that you pose no threat no matter how many you may breathe.
No matter what I did, I could not wear this donkey down. She simply persevered without fear. Too stubborn to give up, this soft little creature had inside an I-beam of steel.

Makes one think of endurance…

The bible speaks of those who endured hardship (Heb. 12), and how we are to “run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:1b-2a). The word used for “endurance” in this passage literally means, “a remaining under.” The pressure is there, the trials are present, yet we are to remain resolute, stubbornly holding in place despite the storms that rage. I’d like to be more Buttercup-like, calmly facing the second half of the game with the confidence that no matter what happens, I can endure it. But sometimes it seems so hard. Of course, the key for that attitude is the second part of the passage from Hebrews above: “looking unto Jesus.” He is the ultimate example of patience, endurance and perseverance, and I can never hope to last without Him.
As I look to Him, I can be, by His power, calm and resolute under the pressure, even if it takes a long while for the trial to pass.
All of this came to mind recently as I read a passage written by John Killinger retelling a story from The Atlantic Monthly about the breaking of horses to lead in the early days of the West…
“A little burro sometimes would be harnessed to a wild steed. Bucking and raging…the two would be turned loose like Laurel and Hardy to proceed out onto the desert range. They could be seen disappearing over the horizon, the great steed dragging that little burro along and throwing him about like a bag of cream puffs. They might be gone for days, but eventually they would come back. The little burro would be seen first, trotting back across the horizon, leading the submissive steed in tow. Somewhere out there on the rim of the world, that steed would become exhausted from trying to get rid of the burro, and in that moment, the burro would take mastery and become the leader…The battle is to the determined, not to the outraged; to the committed, not to those who are merely dramatic.”
I pray that I would be so determined when harnessed to the trial.
Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

I Never Figured Out How to Swing on a Vine While Holding the Sword

2008-10-16T12:26:00.002-07:00

Zorro and Tarzan were my childhood heroes. Zorro could wear a mask in public and play with swords with no one ever telling him that he shouldn’t do so. Tarzan, counter-cultural “ape-man”, lived in a tree house and swung around on vines all day long. For me, at the time, both seemed like great ways to live. (I still think that living in a tree house might have its perks.)

It was always great to play “Zorro.” I would wear some cloth around my head (into which I had cut eyeholes) while I brandished a fencing sword made from a straightened coat hanger and a Dixie cup. I didn’t play Tarzan much, probably for a lack of vines in the immediate area around our house. But no matter how much I pretended, no matter how I thought my costume looked, no matter how well I could use my…coat hanger, it simply did not make me Zorro. I was pretending to be something else.

Children aren’t the only ones who pretend.

We don masks at times to hide who we really are and to present a better image. The reasons are varied. It may be because of shame, or fear, or pride that we attempt to disguise ourselves. We don’t want to let anyone know just what is going on inside, so we take great care to arrange the window-dressing in our storefronts. The mask may insulate us, but it isolates us as well. Sometimes, if you’ve been wearing that mask long enough, you might even begin to fool yourself and think yourself to be much better than you actually are; you might even begin to believe the front you’re showing everyone else. It takes some strong truth to get through the mask.

Jesus confronted some “mask-wearers” of His day with the strong truth:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to me, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt. 23:25-28).

Jesus uses the word “hypocrite.” This is a term which literally means, “one who wears a mask.” According to Jesus, if the outside doesn’t match the inside, then it is hypocrisy.

Maybe it’s time to stop pretending.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

"Sunshine Station Between the Nations"

2008-10-16T12:26:00.001-07:00

Who Is In Charge Here?

2008-10-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

There’s an old joke about the visiting pastor who is very passionate about his message and is roving about the stage limited only by the reach of the long cord running from his lapel microphone back to the sound system. Waving his arms and shouting loudly, he comes very near to the edge of the stage more than once as the microphone wire pulls taut. A little girl on the front row leans over and asks her mother in a panicked whisper, “What happens if he gets loose?”

We like to keep things safe. As long as everything is within our control, battened down and secure, we can rest easily. When something, or someone, seems outside the reach of our control, we grow worried, disturbed or panicked. There is a necessity for order and structure, but we sometimes think that our personal idea of control holds sway over the entire corner of creation in which we may find ourselves. We like to know what to expect and when we can expect it. And sometimes, if we aren’t careful, we expect God to abide by the rules of our own making and refrain from any surprises.

I read a story recently about a little girl named Amanda in Boulder, Colorado who had received a Bible from her church. One member asked to see it, and she replied, “Okay, but don’t open it.”

When asked the reason why, Amanda said, “You’ll let God out.”

Too many of us worry about what God might do if He “gets loose.” We try our best to keep Him “under control” so He isn’t “let out.” But we are mistaken. He’s still in control…always has been. “He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Dan. 4:35b). He does as He desires to accomplish His purpose, and never once has He asked for advice from anyone.

Quit trying to rein in the work of Christ; open yourself to Him with a spirit of surrender and “let Him loose” in your life.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

But Wait, There's More!

2008-10-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

Whether it’s thick-papered, glossy ads for various products, a truck with rotating billboards along the side, advertisements on the Internet, or my recent discovery of talking razor blade dispensers in some stores (I kid you not), so many products promise to make you become (or at the very least, seem to be) more hip, smarter, of the socially elite, happier, and/or fulfilled. I suppose the question must be asked, “If all this ‘stuff’ can meet our deepest needs, why do we still want more?”

This inability of material possessions, social position or human accomplishments to meet our needs did not arise with the age of pop-up advertising…it has always been so. Years ago, Mick Jagger sang, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” But long before that, around the early third century AD, we find the Roman leader Septimus stating, “I have been everything, and it is nothing.” Back up further, and we find the wisest man in the world writing, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on all the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind…” (Ecc. 1:11).

Strange how we pursue objects, titles, and recognition only to have them prove to be dry wells, yet we shake off the disappointment, dust our hands, and chase after another notion seeming to hold promise of satisfaction of our thirst. We try our best to use a human-created means to meet a divinely created desire, yet come up short. The conclusion of Ecclesiastes includes the statement: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (12:13b). The longing for something more is not met in what I can become on my own, but in knowing Who He is. The real reason that all the things can never satisfy is simple: they aren’t big enough. Only Christ is.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Those Little Tux-Wearing Birds

2008-10-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

One penguin looks at another and says, “It looks like you’re wearing a tuxedo.”
The other penguin says, “Who’s to say that I’m not?”
--- from A Prairie Home Companion

I like that joke, partially because it has to do with penguins. They’re amusing birds in and of themselves. I also like the joke because I’ve attempted to explain the humor in it numerous times to certain people with no real success. But the humor points toward a deeper question, a question that may be funny when applied to a waddling, black and white clad bird, but seems painful when directed toward your own life: Am I hiding my true self?
I read once that we spend most of our lives trying to make our lives safe places. Before I moved to Tennessee, I visited the area with a friend of mine. We sat out on the porch of a cabin in the mountains and talked as the fireflies twinkled. “I think most people are running,” I said. “We run toward or away from something.”
“Not me,” he replied.
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not running toward or away from anything. I’m hiding,” he said. “The rest of you can run all you want, I’m hunkered down and hiding out.”
He was making his life a safe place by hiding. And in that hiding, he hid who he really was. “I’ve got it all figured out. I’m at peace. I’m in control. Who’s to say that I’m not?”
We all hide at times. We hide who we are, what we feel, what hurts us. We cover over the fears and doubts. But it only looks like we are “tuxedo wearers.” The reason we take the time to suit up is the same reason that Adam and Eve hid themselves in the Garden of Eden after sinning: fear.
We think, “I can hide who I am. I can escape. I can run away. I’ll ‘hunker down.’ No one needs to know the real me. I’ll lose control if they do. Keep the distance; it’s safer. Maybe I can fool some of them. Maybe even God.” Most certainly, you can fool yourself. All due to the fear of being known.
God’s initial response to the sin of Adam and Eve has always interested me. Adam and Eve sewed coverings of fig leaves to hid their nakedness and they hear “the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden” and “Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees” (Gen. 3:8). Then we find that question that tears at one’s heart, “Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (3:9).
There are those who say that God’s question to Adam and Eve shows that He is not all-knowing. That’s not the case at all. God was asking Adam to be honest. Did God know exactly where Adam was, what he did, and all the consequences of his actions? Absolutely. The question gave Adam the opportunity to be honest about his sin. As the old preacher said, “God didn’t ask because He didn’t know where Adam was. He asked to see if Adam knew where Adam was.”
Maybe you’ve been something you are not. More accurately, maybe you’ve seemed to be something you are not, and you have put a great deal of time and effort into making your life safe by hiding the “real you.” Perhaps you’ve come to the point where you have to let someone know you honestly. Maybe you’ve come to the point where you need to know yourself honestly.
Then again, maybe God has asked you, “Where are you?”
“Here,” you say.
“It looks like you’re wearing a tuxedo,” He replies.
“Who’s to say I’m not?” you retort.
“Me,” He says.

Dustin George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministry/singles

Is There Need for Speed?

2008-09-30T05:58:00.001-07:00

There’s a tap on my window, then a Voice, “Do you know how fast you were going?”
“Uh, not really, but I’ve got a good reason for going fast—“
“I see.”
“It seems that I’ve got so much to do that I can’t really slow down. At least, not without sacrificing something.”
“So that’s how you see things, huh?” He said.
“‘He who hesitates is lost.’ That’s what they say. Right?” I wait for His answer.
“And ‘Haste makes waste,’” He replies. “I’m sure you’ve heard that too. Right?”
I nod.
“Again, do you know how fast you were going?”
I shake my head and look at the speedometer needle. It sits at zero.
“You were going so fast that you missed Me.”

Have you had one of those conversations with God?

God has looked at me here lately and asked, “Do you know how fast you were going?” It’s easy to move quickly, make the snap decisions, press forward with all speed and miss Him. And the main reason that I tend to go so fast is this: I think that it all depends upon me. If I do it all right, make the grade, dot each “I” and cross every “T,” I will see the next level, pull myself up by the bootstraps, and attain some sort of fulfillment. In the midst of my grasping and striving, I can miss Him.
I think about Martha and Mary in Luke 10. Martha was “distracted with much serving” (v. 40). The phrase literally means, “She was dragging around.” Martha was overcome with all the things that didn’t matter so much, and she didn’t seem to realize just how fast she was going. She missed Him. All the while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, and Jesus said that she had “chosen that good part” (v. 42). She slowed down to spend time with the most important One.
I’ve been teaching through the book of Habakkuk, and I came across a word that I’ve seen many times before: selah. It’s a Hebrew word (used in songs), and most scholars agree that it is a musical notation indicating a pause. I read the Habakkuk passage from The Amplified Bible, and after the word selah follows this clarification of meaning: “pause, and calmly think of that.” The verse before the pause (3:3) speaks of God’s glory leading the people through the wilderness, and then, “pause, and calmly think of that.” Selah is found again and again in the Psalms. David writes, while being pursued by Absalom and his men, “I cried to the LORD with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. Selah. I lay down and slept; I awoke for the LORD sustained me” (Ps. 3:4, 5). God hears David (pause and calmly think of that), and he sleeps knowing the source of his strength is from above.
I need to pause, and calmly think of some things, things that are truly important to God, not just those things that have “importance” to me. I’m finding that I’ve missed a lot. I’m getting tired of being “pulled over” and being asked, “Do you know how fast you were going?”
But what tires me more is the answer to that question:
“Too fast to see You, God. Too fast to see You.”

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Black Coffee

2008-09-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

The last time I was in a coffee shop, the selection I found was astounding. There seemed to be a special java-variation for each customer, individualized drinks blended to suit each buyer’s needs and wants. I often found that the hardest thing one can order is a simple cup of black coffee with no flavoring, froth or fizz. It doesn’t end with coffee; one can easily customize most anything today. Your computer can have personalized backgrounds, your phone can ring out with your favorite song, and you can “try on” virtual paint for the walls of your home via certain websites. You can have things your way. We mix and match options, colors and various customizations for our vehicles, a far cry from Henry Ford’s comment about the Model T: “People can have it in any color they want, so long as it’s black.” Not that variation is bad or wrong, but when you look carefully, you’ll find that this personalization can creep into other areas of life as well, most specifically, in the realm of morality.

You might hear something like this…
“You have ‘your truth,’ and I have ‘my truth.’ What works for you doesn’t work for me, but that’s okay as long as you don’t try to impose your beliefs upon me or attempt to sway me in my beliefs. It really doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe something. And if you believe something, it becomes truth for you. After all, truth isn’t fixed, but it changes with the culture, with time, and as wisdom increases. People can pick and choose what they believe from any and all ideological, moral or religious belief systems, and no one has the right to tell anyone differently.”

Ever wonder what happened to the idea of an objective standard? When I was a teacher, I used a test key to grade tests. It would be placed alongside the student’s paper and compared. It didn’t really matter what someone preferred or wanted the answer to be; the only thing that mattered was the answer.

Unfortunately, nowadays, moral choices are often demoted to the same status of merely stating opinion. Issues of right and wrong are placed on the same level as deciding whether you want whipped cream or steamed milk in your coffee. Too often we choose morality based upon personal preference rather than upon a universal standard.

Two verses come to mind… “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12).

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’” (John 14:6).

The LORD God of the universe has an objective standard. He didn’t say, “I am one of the possible ways, a truth among many others that are just as valid…” Not only does He have a standard, He is the standard.

Now, if you will excuse me, I think I’ll go get a cup of black coffee.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Locked Out...

2008-09-24T11:15:00.001-07:00

Last year around this time found me in North Carolina at a wedding rehearsal in little country church somewhat off the beaten path. After the rehearsal dinner, everyone moved to the sanctuary to begin the walk-though and to go over the last minute details for the ceremony the coming day. Since I had no real part in the wedding, (I was just along for the ride), I brought plenty of material so I could catch up on some reading and also have some time to bring some ideas to the anvil for shaping that had been in the fire for a few weeks. While everyone settled into position and sound checks were in progress, I slipped out the door to retrieve my papers and books from the car. When I got to the church doors again, I found them locked and heard the pastor begin his pre-ceremony briefing. Not wanting to disturb matters by banging on the glass, I moved to the reception hall entrance and discovered it was secure too. I tried two other doors as well and got the same result. I was locked out of church. I thought, “Sooner or later, someone will miss me…maybe.”

So, with nothing else to do, I stood outside under a swaying Carolina Pine as the night breeze cooled rapidly and two of the last crickets of summer lazily answered each other across the churchyard with long, slow chirps as the mercury dropped steadily. Noticing the stained glass windows of the church, I began to walk around the building in the dark to examine them. Each window depicted a different event in the life of Christ, starting with his birth and ending with His return to earth. I stopped when I found the window showing the crucifixion and stood in the shaft of colored light, outside in the cold, while everyone else celebrated inside.

I couldn’t help but think, “I wonder, in Christianity, how many people stand outside, looking at the light and hearing the celebration, but no one invites them to take part.” They find themselves, for lack of a better way of saying it, “locked out.” When we become so polarized that we don’t want people who “aren’t like us” to worship alongside us, fearfully step away from living Christ out before a misguided, hurting culture, or simply develop an attitude of not caring about those we encounter daily, one must wonder if we take Jesus’ words seriously.
After all, He did say, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matt. 28:19a).

Perhaps now is the time to unlock the door, step outside your comfort zone, and show those who stand in the cold how to join the celebration. Because we all are either in the cold, or have come out of the cold; the only hope for any of us is the truth shining from that stained glass window: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

2008-09-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

All the makings of a country song...

2008-09-22T11:11:00.001-07:00

A few years ago, during one particular summer, it seemed like everywhere I turned there was yet another negative event taking me further into turmoil. Nothing seemed to be going right. To get some sort of relief, I thought it would be good to find some sort of distracting entertainment, so I went to a local rodeo one evening. Getting there early and having skipped lunch, I decided to take the long walk to the concession booth. The grandstands were covered, but the sidewalk along the edge of the area was not. Just as I began to walk, the sky opened up…with rain. Not just a light shower, not a passing drizzle, but a “pair-‘em-up-Noah-one-more-time” rain…hard, stinging and cold. Muddy water began to pour from the arena onto the sidewalk. It was only when my socks began to be soaked that I realized I had put off getting my cowboy boots resoled for much too long. I stood there, drenched to the skin, water trickling into my boots, and stomach growling with hunger. I couldn’t help but think, “God, why are things so hard, and why don’t you just let my life be uneventful? At least then I wouldn’t expect anything.” Looking to the other end of the arena, I saw, through the downpour, the brightly-lit board where the scores and times for the various events would be shown later in the evening. As I watched, sandwiched between two local ads scrolling across the screen were these words: “ONLY THE MEDIOCRE ARE AT THEIR BEST 100% OF THE TIME.” I sighed, wiped the rain from my face, and sloshed on to get a hot dog.

God is committed to the process of making each of His children more like Him. God doesn’t leave us in mediocrity; He calls us to step out to Him and live a life that will lead us through dry times and times when the breakers crash against us. Like the writer of Psalm 42, we go from drought conditions (As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God…) to drowning despair (Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me). God uses those times to strengthen our dependence upon and faith in Him. These are opportunities to know Him better than we could ever know Him before. Comfort in adversity teaches more than comfort alone. God never promised a life of ease, and He never promised that things would always turn the way we would prefer, but He did promise His presence. In the final verse of Psalm 42, we find these words, “Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him…”

Weather the storm knowing He is there, shaping you into His likeness, and you shall yet praise Him.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Push-Button God

2008-09-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

This morning I counted 6 remote controls in my apartment. I have, for example, one for the TV, another for the VCR, one for the DVD, and yet another universal one that eliminates the need for two for the TV and VCR. I like remotes. In fact, I found myself spending 5 minutes the other day searching for a remote when I could have simply turned on the CD player by hand. There is something about that element of control. There is a semblance of power in wielding a device that allows one to manipulate yet another device from a distance without wires. We humans long for control. It doesn’t stop with electronics though. If we can control something or someone, then that something (or someone) will not pose a threat to us. All we need is the right “remote” for the person or situation, the power will be harnessed, and all will be well.

I am reminded of the story found in 1 Samuel 4-5. The Ark of the Covenant was taken from the Hebrews by the Philistines and taken to the temple of Dagon. (Dagon was a fertility idol in ancient times depicted as having the upper body of a man and whose lower body was like a fish.) The ark was placed within this temple in the territory of the Philistines as a sign that the God of the Hebrews had been powerless before the forces following Dagon. The LORD, in the eyes of the Philistines, had been delivered to them by their god. Dagon was their “universal remote control.” Push the button, and control is given.

God had other thoughts.

In 1 Samuel 5:3, we find that the next morning Dagon was lying face down before the ark…prostrate…as in “bowing down.” The Philistines evidently didn’t grasp what God was trying to say to them, so they set Dagon up again and went about their way. The next morning, Dagon again was on the ground, but this time his hands and head were broken from the body. In ancient times an enemy often had his head and hands removed to assure that he was indeed dead (II Sam. 4:12). God was sending a clear message, “Dagon is a dead thing with no power before Me.” The LORD then sends a plague as judgment upon them, and they send the ark back to the people of God.

Is there something in your life that you have placed God alongside, and you think that it’s bigger than Him? Maybe you haven’t intentionally constructed an idol, but you have allowed a problem to get so large in your mind that you honestly believe that God can’t handle it. There have been situations where I placed something alongside Him, and, by comparison, the problem looked larger to me than God Himself.

Or perhaps you have tried to use a situation to manipulate, cajole, and persuade God to act on your part. Maybe you are attempting to have a God for your life that you can easily control, a God with a “push-button omnipotence.” You may see God as one that you can reach for Him only when you think you need Him. You may “point” God at a situation like you would direct a remote control and expect Him to work quickly.

God will not operate that way.

The morning comes, and that which you thought overruled the Almighty will lie broken before Him.

What’s your “Dagon?”

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

On faith...and robots

2008-09-22T11:09:00.003-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, as I tutored some local children one afternoon, another tutor talked to them about God being the Creator of all things. When he finished one little girl looked at me and asked, “Who made God?”
I smiled and replied, “No one.”
“But someone had to make Him.”
I shook my head, “He’s always been here…always.”
One little boy piped up, “Maybe it was the robots.”
“Robots?” I asked.
“Yeah, maybe the robots made Him, and then He made us—“
“Who made the robots then?” I asked.
“Oh…yeah…hmm…I don’t know.”

We like to have answers. Not just answers, but clear answers. Sometimes we create mechanical ways of thinking to help us avoid dealing with the difficulties of not knowing certain things by empirical evidence. We want answers that make sense to us in our immediate situation that clarify all cloudiness and tie up all loose ends neatly and quickly. Sometimes the uncertainty pushes us to the point where we realize that, with our limited human minds, we don’t have all the answers, and our trust in God will be tested. As a close friend of mine says, “God likes this faith business.”

The writer of Hebrews gives what most Christians quote as the definition of faith: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 1:1,2). In other words, faith is the very realization of and the confidence in that which we can not fully explain by our human senses and experimentation. Sometimes we place great value upon our faith, or our trust, in God. It is valuable (“more precious than silver” according to the bible) and will be tested, but our faith can not become the object upon which we depend. Our faith, at its core, really isn’t about what we do or do not understand; true faith is about who God is. We place our faith in Him and His ability, wisdom and power. Our faith is not in our faith; it’s in Him. No matter how hard we may try to figure everything out and continually come up short, we must trust that He holds complete knowledge of all things…no robots required.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

One, Two, or No Change?

2008-09-22T11:09:00.001-07:00

I was in fifth grade when I first got glasses. I remember sitting in the optometrist’s chair with the phoropter (the big swing arm device with all the lenses and focus wheels on it) against my face. “Which is better? One, two or three?” the doctor would ask as he flipped through the lens options. He said that my eyesight was such (read: bad) that they were going to make some “special glasses” just for me. Later I found out that “special glasses” meant powerful enough to see craters on Mars with the all the added bulkiness of welding goggles. When I finally put them on, I was astonished: trees had leaves, the writing on the blackboard made sense, and movies were more than talking blobs. All this time I had blamed the forest, the teacher and the projector when the real problem was my lack of focus.

Sometimes I feel like I’m still sitting in that chair, except instead of looking at a chart topped with a big “E,” I’m looking at life. And God is clicking the lenses through, and asking, “Which is better? One or two?”
“Two,” I say.
“One is better,” He replies.
“I like two,” I retort.
“But two is fuzzy, you know that,” He says.
“One hurts too much. It lets in too much light.”
“Two makes you miss things because they’re blurred.”
“Maybe, but two doesn’t hurt. Two is comfortable; two lets me see things how I’ve always seen them.”
“But one is the way I see things…and that’s how I want you to see too.”

I’ve found that I spend far too much time viewing life and others through a lens of my own shaping. Because of the sacrifice of Christ and His life-changing work, Paul writes, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh” (II Cor. 5:16). Paul experienced a permanent change of perspective; he received the right prescription. Life, and those in it, looked different to him. At times the truth was blinding for him, literally (Acts 9). And, at times, his stand for truth brought him pain (II Cor. 11). But despite it all, he saw more clearly than ever before.

People don’t look the same through number one, neither does life, but then, God doesn’t see things as we do. I’m glad He doesn’t see everyone else like I do, and I’m really glad that He doesn’t see me as I see myself…yet He loves me anyway.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Two Wheeled Tiny Terror

2008-09-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

My friend Jesse came by a while back cackling uncontrollably. “You’ve got to see this,” he said smiling broadly. Following him outside, he stood beside a little, motorized two-wheeler. “It’s called a ‘pocket bike,’” he said. This…thing looked like someone had ridden a motorcycle in the rain and it shrank underneath him. It’s small, no, tiny in size, but the weird thing is that it’s comparable in proportion to the size of a larger bike.

Jesse cranked the motor (with a pull cord), and the engine whined to life with all the fury of a standard, gas-powered weed trimmer. The shocking moment came when he sat down on this pint-sized wonder, revved it up, and shot across the parking lot with a speed that seemed impossible for something barely one foot tall. After the onlookers present had a chance to ride, my turn came. The first thing that someone my height notices when sitting on this thing is that your knees are nearly at the level of your shoulders; you are practically in the fetal position. Gunning the throttle, I took it for a couple of laps. At some point in this surreal experience, I thought I would see what it would do in the straightaway. This thing, which I later discovered has a maximum rider capacity of 300 lbs. and a top speed of 35 mph, easily sped along the pavement. It was right about then that I thought, “The pavement is really close to me right now. And if I crash on this thing and get visibly injured, or worse, have to be taken to the hospital it is going to be super-embarrassing explaining this to people…”

“So, what happened to you Dustin?”
“Motorcycle accident.”
“What kind?”
“Oh, you know, just a motorcycle…two wheels and all.”
“What, was it a Harley or something like that?”
“No, uh, it was…a little smaller than that.”
“So what exactly caused the accident?”
“It was either the little piece of gravel I hit, or I ran over my own shoestring...maybe both.”

The size of the bike didn’t match what you would think its power, speed and overall performance would be. It was a small package, but was a “big” thing. Thinking about it later, it seemed to me that it is a lot like faith.

Jesus told His disciples, “I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matt. 17:20). A tiny amount of faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed, has enormous power. Why? Because that small sliver of sold-out, resolute belief is in an infinite, all-powerful, all-knowing God. Again, God is the focus of faith, not our faith itself.

There’s an old saying that goes like this: “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

Maybe it’s time to say something similar, yet positive, for faith: “Faith will take you places you didn’t plan to go, to do things you wouldn’t plan to do, for results that could come only from God.”

Like that little pocket bike, when you fully invest even a small amount of faith in Almighty God, you had better hang on for the ride.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Let there be...

2008-09-22T11:05:00.000-07:00

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?
~Maurice Freehill

The first flashlight I ever owned was a tiny, disposable keychain flashlight given to me by my grandfather. You couldn’t see four feet with the light it gave, but it was light nonetheless. As a kid, I carried that light everywhere I went until it finally died. Then, as kids are apt to do, I didn’t dispose of it, but continued to carry it around with me pretending that it still worked.
After that, I’ve had too many flashlights to name. There were the penlights from the drugstore used to give myself self-prescribed, childhood tonsil checks. I remember a line of lights with colored lenses that made searching under the bed more interesting. I had a 6-cell police flashlight that was stolen by someone a few years ago, and then one with a large array of tiny LED lights in the front that you couldn’t look directly into or you would see spots before your eyes (while open or closed) for a long while after…I know this fact well.
These thoughts came to mind a couple of days ago as I read an ad for (get this) a “15-million candlepower spotlight.” 15 million. This is the kind of light that is not only highly visible, but nearly audible. The ad, in part, reads:

“The 15 Million Candlepower Spotlight is the world's most powerful cordless handheld spotlight. Its quartz halogen bulb illuminates objects up to a mile away and can be seen even further. Powered by a 12-volt 7 amp/hour sealed lead acid battery, recharge it at home, or in your car's lighter socket. Heavy-duty cage construction makes this spotlight virtually indestructible. Cleverly designed swivel mount lets you point the beam in almost any direction so you can work hands-free.”

I like some of those words, ones like “world’s most powerful” and “up to a mile away.” “Heavy duty” and “virtually indestructible” are great too. I read the ad and sighed. “What a light,” I thought. “Its cleverly designed swivel mount would let me point the beam in almost any direction so I could work hands-free. And I could work hands-free…up to a mile away.” I thought about this today as I read Isaiah, my favorite book in the Old Testament.

"Who among you fears the Lord?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who walks in darkness
And has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord
And rely upon his God.
Look, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled--
This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down in torment. (Is. 50:10, 11)

The immediate context of the passage is those who depend upon something of their own making for salvation, but the implications for those who follow God are clear. I can not create my own light or depend upon my own way or lean unto my own understanding and hope to walk rightly. No matter how many multi-colored lenses I use or how much candlepower I may muster, my understanding, in and of itself, is like darkness before the blinding light of the wisdom of God. Yet I seem to insist, when the way grows dim, on depending upon myself alone and pulling out my own light. I keep thinking that it’s the world’s most powerful one, heavy duty and indestructible too, but the truth is that it is a dead keychain flashlight at best, and I use it in the hope that I will be able to make some sense of the situation in which I find myself.

If you read the passage above, you find that the question is asked, “Who walks in darkness and has no light?” It is in those moments of uncertainty that the next line means so much; “Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely upon his God.” Sometimes I may not have the light that I think I want, but I know the God I most assuredly need. When the darkness is deep, He is deeper still.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org

Wicked Wicker

2008-09-03T09:10:00.000-07:00

I saw and used one for the first time when I was six. A little, multicolored, woven bamboo tube that you place your index fingers into and pull slightly, thus locking them in place. Any effort to extricate your digits by logical means (read: pulling), only draws the bamboo strips more tightly around your fingers. I’m speaking of the dreaded Chinese finger trap. I remember trying in vain to free myself as my mother watched bemusedly. No matter how hard I pulled, I couldn’t get loose. (I think this was a formative experience for me because even today, I don’t usually wear a watch, and if I get something my finger that can not move freely, I feel like I have to remove it. If I ever get married, I hope my wedding ring is little larger than necessary.)

The way you remove a finger trap is counterintuitive; you push your fingers in farther and then slide the bamboo sleeve from them. It doesn’t seem to make much sense approaching the problem that way…that’s why we get trapped, I suppose. We know how things should work, or at least, we think we know how things should work, but sometimes the best answer defies what we think should be true.

The Kingdom of God is counterintuitive, at least to humanity’s idea of logic. Over and over again we find events and teachings in the Bible that turn our reasoning topsy-turvy.

Take being blessed for example. We have our own idea of what it means to be “blessed.” The word in the New Testament often carries with it the idea of being “spiritually happy.” Happiness is a good thing. I like that. I want that. What does it look like? Jesus tells us in Matthew 5: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake…” (vs. 10,11). Seems like this contradicts my usual idea of what it means to be happy and blessed. But this is par for the course when we speak of the Kingdom of God…up is often down, down is usually up, and what we think should be turns out to be the opposite. Just consider the life of Jesus…

The Sovereign King of the Universe was born as a baby surrounded by livestock…
The disciples argued over who was the greatest among them during the Last Supper, and Jesus, taking on the role of the lowliest servant, washed their feet...
Jesus was judged by earthly trials, yet is the Judge of all…
In order to offer eternal life to man, He died…

This is why, when confronted with the truths of God, we often scratch our heads and think, “This doesn’t make much sense.” So we try to figure it out by pulling and tugging and fighting and stretching it to fit our own mindset. But life in the Kingdom of God doesn’t tend to line up easily with human thought. That’s why we must restrain from fighting against His working and willingly surrender to it. We trap ourselves when begin to think we can approach Him or understand Him on our terms alone.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:8,9).

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles

As School Starts This Fall, Let's Remember...

2008-09-02T18:11:00.001-07:00

Ben Franklin wrote of an interesting exchange between some of the early colonists and the Native Americans. It seems that after the treaty of Lancaster was signed by the two parties in June 1744, the Virginian government offered, as a gesture of goodwill, to take 6 of their young men and educate them at one of the colonial colleges. After thinking it over, the Native Americans gave their answer the next day…

"For we know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men with you would be very expensive to you. We are convinced therefore that you mean to do us good by your proposal, and we thank you heartily. But you who are wise must know that different nations have different conceptions of things, and you will therefore not take it amiss if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some experience of it: several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces; they were instructed in all your sciences; but when they came back to us they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly; were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, or counselors; they were totally good for nothing. We are however not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we decline accepting it; and to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them."
-from The Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin

For the Native Americans, knowledge carried more importance than just understanding a concept or committing a fact to memory. The knowledge had to hold a practical component; something meaningful should result. Being educated was more than passing a test sitting at a desk. Education and wisdom was learned by hands-on experience and intensive practice.
It really reminds me of the idea of wisdom found in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the word used often for “wisdom” could be translated as “skilled living.” When God gives us His wisdom, skilled living is the desired result. It’s more than just being able to win a Bible trivia game. There must be a practical application of truth. Because of the importance of living a skillful life, we are admonished to seek this wisdom. “Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding” (Prov. 4:7). God wants us to run after that type of true wisdom with diligence and passion: “If you seek [wisdom] as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God” (Prov. 2:4-5).

God offers to take us, and take great care of our spiritual education, instruct us in His wisdom, and make fully-devoted followers of us…but we must seek it as the treasure it is.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles

Thank You Captain Obvious.

2008-09-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

I read an article the other day about avoiding shark attacks and what to do if attacked (I really have no real useful reason for knowing said information, but I suppose it is better to have the knowledge and not need it, than to need it and not have it). After the detailed description of what to do in order to escape a hungry shark, I read this: “Australian scientists have discovered that swimming with another person decreases your chances of being attacked by 50%.” I would say so, and if I were swimming with 99 other people, I suspect my chances would be further reduced…just a hunch.

Funny how the obvious seems so hard to grasp at times…

How many times has it happened to you? You stand looking for something, maybe your keys, an important paper or the remote control, yet you just can’t find it. You search everywhere you can think of to look, then, stopping to think, you cast your eyes downward, and there, sitting before you, is the very thing you sought. It didn’t seem like it was there all the time, but it was.

I’ve heard married couples comment on this phenomenon when one has asked the other to retrieve something from the refrigerator. Standing there before the open door the husband, I’m told, usually speaks these words, “We have no ketchup.”

“Yes, we do. Look again.”

He peers longer into the shelves. “No, I don’t think we do. It’s not here.”

The wife, sighing, crosses the kitchen, slides the milk aside, and there, filled to the brim is a bottle of ketchup. “It wasn’t there earlier,” he says. It’s so obvious that you miss it.

It’s one thing to miss a container of tomato product because you aren’t paying attention, but it’s another to miss the God of the Universe because you are too busy with everything else that comes your way. And it’s not that God has hidden Himself away in some dark, inaccessible corner. To the contrary of that notion, He has revealed Himself to mankind. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). Creation itself testifies of God’s existence (“His invisible attributes are clearly seen”), His work as the Creator (“being understood by the things that are made”), His “eternal power” and divine nature (“Godhead”). Creation screams out the name of God, yet we sometimes miss the most obvious message of all.

Sometimes, when I’m at the point that I feel like I’m missing something (or Someone) in my life, much of the time, it’s the Eternal God that I’m overlooking.

How obvious is He to you?
Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles

I Was So Tired That I Started to Grimace...

2008-09-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

I have a close friend who was telling me once about returning from Jackson Hole, Wyoming near the end of a road trip. He was the only one awake in the car, and he was driving. Somewhere out in the middle of America, in the middle of the night, he had an encounter. He told me that as he topped a hill and began the descent, his headlights fell upon a 30-foot tall Grimace. The resulting conversation went something like this:
“You mean the big, purple, gumdrop-shaped guy on the kid’s McDonald’s commercials?”
“Yes.”
“So there was a McDonald’s nearby?”
“No.”
“What then, was it a statue?”
“No, it was Grimace.”
“I understand that, but what was it?”
“Grimace.”
“I know, you said that already. I’m asking you if it was a tourist attraction or something like—”
“No, it was Grimace…a live Grimace.”
(I didn’t know how to break the news to him that Grimace was not a living entity, not even in the Great Plains. I tried to be understanding.)
“You know that Grimace isn’t real, right?”
“Of course I do.”
“Look, I’m a little confused.”
“I was so tired, I was seeing things. Not only did I see Grimace standing on the side of the road, but there were a number of little baby Grimaces standing on the other side, waiting for me to pass by so they could safely cross. That’s what I saw, but nothing was really there. Later, when I thought about it, I realized just how exhausted I really was, what with seeing Grimace and so forth…”

We all have moments like that; we see things that aren’t even there. I’m not talking about seeing an exhaustion-created hallucination from a fast-food chain, but those times when we see an attitude, or intent, or a problem where none exist. Not only do we often “read into” things and see the non-existent, sometimes we do the opposite: we miss what is really there. Winston Churchill said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”

We too often miss the reality of the moment. For me, the saddest and most sobering moments come when I get so involved with something, whether good or bad, and, in the busyness of it all, I miss God. David told his son Solomon in II Chron. 28:9, “If you seek Him, He will be found by you…” When I reach those moments when I’ve missed Him, then I have really missed the point of everything.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org/ministries/singles