Tuesday, April 17, 2012

SPRING CLEANING


It's spring! In the name of “spring-cleaning” I've been attacking some shelves in the basement and came across a long-forgotten, unused, Christmas gift—a set of knives.

I don't remember how many years ago I received those knives, or why they got relegated to the basement.  My hunch is that I didn't have a place for them in the kitchen at the time, and as often happens, I needed to get things cleaned up in a hurry so stashed them on a shelf in the basement until I could make a place.  As life's distractions occupied my mind, I simply forgot about them.

However, I'm delighted to have found them. I can really use them since my current knives are old and rather dull. I also found several other useful items that I'd forgotten I had. Such finds make spring cleaning a far more enjoyable task—kind of like Christmas in April!

As I was reveling in my new-found gifts, I began to think about how I could have been using these items all along, making some kitchen tasks easier. But, unfortunately, there they were, sitting on a shelf in my basement, and of no use to me. It was as if I didn't even have them all that time. Yet, they were there, available to me, just waiting to be used.

I began to think of other things in my life that are available to me, but going unused. In particular, I began focusing on all that God has given us as believers in Jesus–“for by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8).

Through God's grace we've been given the gift of God. That gift, called salvation, was offered to us and we said, “Yes.” At that point, God put in us a “new heart” that opens up a whole new world of promises and gifts available to us through Jesus’ power (Ezekiel 11:19-20).

It's like there are lots of shelves in this “new heart” where all the gifts are stored. They’re ours—we possess them—but unfortunately, many of them can remain unused, either because we don't know they're there, or because we've forgotten about them. We learn about them through the study of the Bible, and use them through the power of the Holy Spirit.

But there's a catch in this story: “As we learn about the gifts that are ours, we have to want to use them and make them a part of our lives. This, however, is where the glorious secret comes in: God causes us to want to use the gifts, and then empowers us to do so. It's a joint effort between God and each of us.

Unfortunately, as in any good story, there’s a villain–an antagonist–trying to interfere and spoil things. And in the story of our lives it's no different. Our own self will can be our biggest enemy (influenced by Satan's deceptions). Rather than use God's gifts to live according to His plan for us (experiencing peace, joy, happiness, significance, purpose, etc. in the midst of life's trials), we are deceived into thinking we can live life according to our own desires and in our own strength.  Often we don’t even recognize we’re trying to live in our own power, and as a result, we ignore or are oblivious to God's gifts.

What's the solution? A Spring Cleaning of the Heart! Let's rediscover those unused gifts that are setting on the shelves in our “new hearts.” Pick them up, dust them off, and look in the User’s Manual to find out how to use them through His empowering strength!

As a result, we can all have a Merry April Christmas as we do spring cleaning in our hearts and find the unused treasures of God's gifts!

INFINITY


March 14 was Pi Day.  You know − π − the symbol that represents “the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.” 

We all learned in school that π = 3.14.  So, mathematicians, math teachers, math students, and even the rest of us who are interested, celebrate Pi Day on 3/14.  
Makes sense?

But 3.14 is really only an abbreviation. The real Pi is 3.14159265358979323846264338 3279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998.............. ad infinitum     

According to Wikipedia, it’s been figured up to five trillion digits and just keeps on going; it never ends!  It is one of the most important “constants” in mathematics.  

Let your mind follow those digits as though they were a long train, extending into eternity.  The train never ends. You just keep going−forever and ever and ever and ever and ever... Close your eyes and try to imagine it before you finish reading this post. Let your mind follow that train for as long as you can, realizing that it will never end.

That’s a picture of infinity!  

When we really concentrate on something going on forever, without end, we reach a point where we begin to feel panic.  Everything we know has a beginning and an end; our finite minds can’t sanely comprehend the infinite unknown.

That being the case, how can we even begin to understand God. The digits in Pi have a beginning; it’s just the end that’s infinite.  But God has no beginning and no end!  He calls Himself, “I AM.”  He exists outside of time!  He is eternal.

To stretch our thinking even further, that same God has infinite power, infinite love, infinite goodness, infinite mercy.  He is everywhere present; He knows all things; He is in control of all things.  He created all things−the vast universe being explored by astronomers down to the “God particle” being searched for by physicists at Fermilab.  

That God has a plan; and we, as His creation, are a part of that plan. It’s mind-boggling to realize that He extends to us the promise of infinite life, i.e. eternal life.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Just think of it! Life without an end!  Living forever, and ever, and ever, and ever...  A life that keeps on going, just like Pi.  

Do you suppose God has hidden examples of the infinite (like Pi) in His creation so we might gain glimpses of what He is like?