I picture it being a little like the ancient Byzantine Empire with its beautiful buildings and expansive borders encompassing a multitude of cultures and societies and worshiping first this god, then that god depending on who was ruling that day.

Any empire that lasts as long as that ancient one, almost by necessity has a huge amount of political intrigue with most of it not being of the warm and fuzzy variety. It’s more like factions growing and attacking other factions typically through the use of extreme cunning, deceit and trickery, to gain what they want. It’s like living a life on shifting sand always looking which way the wind is blowing, which way the sand is falling away under your feet and adjusting your position accordingly. Of course they wanted very much the same thing that our politicians want today, power to do what they want.

Sound a little familiar? Maybe not.

Most of us don’t relate well to politicians, or at least we don’t think we do. But, it has been my experience with many of those who go into elected public service, that they go into it for the service part of it. They are hard-working, usually intelligent people who want to make the world a better place, and they have the idea’s to do it.

The problem is unless those idea’s are based on what God says would help the human heart, namely Himself, they will end up freeing some and shackling others.

If we’re honest with ourselves, which can be a rare thing indeed, we’ll admit that we often play politics in our own hearts. While we are traveling along the road, we very often decide to turn from the way that God wants us to go and choose instead to do something else because it will help make the world a better place. We start out with a good idea that we know will help others, and possibly ourselves in the process. And, we don’t feel the need to talk to God about it because He couldn’t possibly disagree with it if it’s a really good thing that will benefit people, or so we think.

The next thing you know, you’re deeply embedded in what you’re doing for the benefit of others. But, you haven’t talked to God in a while, you haven’t looked at His Word and you definitely haven’t asked His opinion about anything because you know what you’re doing, right? What could He possibly add to it?

In the Byzantine Empire, as with the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the other empires of old, no matter what power grabbing plans the different factions cooked up, they knew that the ultimate authority and power rested with the one who ruled the empire. And they were always mindful of who that ruler was and how their plans fit or didn’t fit, with his.

As followers of the only living God, if only our hearts would be continually reminded of the same.

“When this happens, be careful that you don’t become arrogant and forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of slavery in Egypt.” Deuteronomy 8:14

Even if you don’t like cake, and are more of a pie or pudding person, some cakes are so beautifully created that they can be admired for just their aesthetic qualities.

I remember seeing a news program when I was small – a long, long time ago – about a woman in New York who made specialty cakes that she decorated like your favorite celebrity. She would take a regular sheet cake and “draw” on the cake any portrait that the customer wanted. Things have come a long way since the. Now, cake decorators can actually create 3-D renderings of anything you want, a person, place or thing.

When I happen upon them, I love to watch some of the shows on Food Network, like Ace of Cakes and the dessert making challenges, where they make incredible cakes that look beautiful on a table or resemble dinosaurs, castles and even Scooby-Doo.

Just the other night, I was watching a reality TV program where a woman made what looked to be a billion pink cupcakes for a party.  I was mesmerized by how beautiful the pink, white and silver creations looked when they were finished, sitting on tables and cupcake tiers waiting for the guests to arrive.

Since I do like to look at cakes, when I was looking around the internet I saw a blog about a rainbow cake (http://huckleberrystew.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/rainbow-birthday-cake/) and I just had to take a look.

The blog featured pictures of the creation of a, yes, rainbow cake. Every layer was a different color and flavor. When it was sliced, it was so amazing, it looked like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Layers of pink, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple were wrapped in a white robe of icing and garnished with fruit that looked like it should have sat on the table of the Mad Hatter.

The baker who found the overall cake recipe at  Rainbow Cake started out with a basic white cake recipe found at 1-2-3-4 white cake batter to which was added strawberries for the red layer, lemon to the yellow layer and grapes to the purple layer with other layers flowing suite with their colors matching the fruits they were made with, plus, a little food coloring to enhance the color.

Unlike so many other gorgeous cakes out there, this was also in the realm of the I-could-possibly-make-this for the average baker, like, well, myself. That only added to the charm of the colorful cake, that with some time, some ingredients, some cake pans and an oven, it was within reach of a regular person to create and enjoy.

And isn’t this so similar to the way the God works? Out of the blue, He shows us something amazing like the rainbow cake, then shows us that He has given us all we need to make it.

“He wanted a good life; you gave it to him, and then made it a long life as a bonus. You lifted him high and bright as a cumulus cloud, then dressed him in rainbow colors. You pile blessings on him; you make him glad when you smile. Is it any wonder the king loves God? That he’s sticking with the Best?” Psalm 21:1b-3 (The Message)

 Although it may not seem like it, rarely are there years that have gone by where everything has been one hitch after another, and just as rarely are there years that go by where everything has gone smoothly.

 Every year is a combination of those things that give us great joy and those things that cause us grief. Sometimes the scale tips to one side a little more than the other, but there is always the good and the not so good in everything, and every year.

 A friend of mine always says, ‘It is easy to thank the LORD in times of blessings, but shouldn’t we also thank Him in times of trial?’

 It doesn’t mater what it looks like is coming down the pipeline, or may already be here and present in our lives, everything the LORD allows or does for His people springs from compassion and love.

 Yet, because we don’t see the big picture, just a miniscule part of it, we have a hard time believing that. It is at those very times, that we need to focus on what we know about Him and continue to trust in His love, goodness and grace, which he has proven time after time, both in the events of human history and to His people individually.

 During this traditional time of reflection, I would challenge you to look at the storms you’ve been through in the last year and the times of blessings, and look for the hand of the LORD in both. Because He is there all the time, no matter what and He can be depended on to complete the good work He has started in you when you stand on the foundation of the Messiah.

 “But The God of peace shall make all of you perfectly holy and shall keep your whole spirit, soul and body without fault for the arrival of our Lord Yeshua The Messiah. Faithful is he who has called you; it is he who shall perform it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

“The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Quite a while ago I found myself challenged by a video I saw on in which a bible teacher, whose name escapes me, challenged the group of people he was leading through the ancient Roman ruins on a biblical tour through Israel, to spend at least 15 minutes in scripture everyday. Not only that, but to read one chapter in a gospel every day for the rest of their lives.

His basic premise was that the Jewish people were required to learn the Word of God, memorize it, by the time they were young teenagers, and by learning the Word of God, you learned about your God.

In other words, how can we claim to know who our God is if we don’t even know what He says in His Word?

So, I took up the challenge and since that time have read a chapter in the gospels every day. I go through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and when I’m done I start all over again. It’s not easy, in fact there are days that I feel like I’m just reading, then there are other days when something just jumps out at me.

By reading it in this way it certainly has given me a chance to see who Jesus was, and is, which is a little different from who many people think He is. I have always liked the saying that when you really read the gospels, and what Jesus had to say, you either decided that He is who He claimed to be, God, or you have to come to the conclusion that He was a madman. If you take Him in his totality in scripture and don’t carve Him up into what you want Him to be, He is either one or the other, there is no viable third option as to who He is.

He is God, He is the Word come in the flesh in order to do what we cannot, make a pathway that we can walk along with Him, so, we have a relationship with Him.

God’s Word is God’s Word, it is Him wrapped in words, it’s His breath caught on paper. How are we supposed to have a relationship with Him if we don’t even know His Word?

“‘This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’”

Jeremiah 31:33

Image via Wikipedia

The other day I wanted to ask my almost 12-year old son a question.

Instead of just doing the thing that the experts tell you that you should do, which would be to try to find him and look at him full in the face in order to communicate with him more effectively, I did what most parents do. I yelled my question from where I was in the office to wherever he was in the house thinking he would hear me.

“Here I am,” yelled my son from the other room after I’d called him for the umpteenth millionth time. In exasperation after there was no response to my question, I needed to know if he was even within earshot. I needed to know if he was there. So, I said, very loudly mind you, “Where are you?”

Now I don’t want to give you the wrong idea that we live in a large house where it is easy to not hear someone. No, my son and I live in a two bedroom, two bath home that is very small. In fact, I often refer to it affectionately as my little shoebox. So, the fact that I had to find out where he was in it was somewhat comical considering I usually know where my cat is at all times.

But my son, he’s a different story altogether. He’s always moving around, seemingly never in the same place for more than a second or two. In my mind, he never seems close by at all, but whenever he yells back “Here I am”(this little scenario happens more frequently than I would like to admit) inevitably he is much closer than I ever expect. Usually just around the corner.

Isn’t this usually how it feels with God? He always seems like He’s moving around, and fast too, like we just can’t get a grip on where He is only to find that He’s been right in the mix, next to us the whole time saying “Here I Am”.

“Therefore My people will know My name; therefore they will know on that day that I am He who says: Here I am.”     Isaiah 52:6

Image by Adnan Yahya via Flickr

Trees, what a wonderful part of God’s creation. Now, I’m normally not really a tree aficionado, I have a hard time distinguishing between an oak and a maple, but I do think they are amazing creations.

The fact that some of them are really quite spectacular to look at is only enhanced by the reality that they are an integral part of the oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange chain that allows those of us with oxygen grabbing lungs to, well, actually have something to grab onto.

Recently, I took a drive over the Carson Pass in Northern California. It, like many of the passes in the northern part of the state, is laden with a multitude of trees with some short and others so tall that you can’t see the tops of them from the ground, that stand along the ridges and slopes of the Sierra Nevada.

Because of the amount of rain we’ve gotten this year, the trees look a little bit more green and well watered even late in the season. But, even I, who isn’t a knowledgeable tree person, could see that the trees in the higher elevations were very different from their down the hill counterparts.

Lush green pine trees lined Silver and Caples lakes at an elevation level of over 7,000 feet above sea level, while down in the hotter regions of the foothills that run into the Central Valley, blackish scrub oak’s with their green leaves dominate the landscape, making it feel like you’ve somehow driven into regions of Africa when you take that trip.

A friend of mine, who is much more horticulturaly aware than I, always says, “you need to grow where you’re planted” a phrase I have often repeated to myself and my son at various times.

There is nothing that illustrates it more than driving down from a pass like Carson Pass and seeing so many pine trees and aspens into the foothills and Central Valley where the Valley Oak – able to get water that it 70 feet away from its main trunk – dominate the landscape.

Yet, no matter what the tree, or where it’s planted it, it still participates in that universal tree job as an oxygen factory. And, the same can be said of trees all over the world, no matter where they are, what they look like or what their other functions are, they all still participate in making this an oxygen rich world.

Sort of like us, no matter who we are, what we look like or where we’re planted, if we belong to Him we should be glorifying Him in and with all of our being.

“And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the LORD to glorify Him.”

Isaiah 61:3b

The January picture is one of David as he is in the action of slinging the pebble, or rock, that brought down Goliath. The thing that really strikes me is the moment in the piece. The muscles tensing before the throw underneath the smooth white marble skin. The stance of his body that is twisted, tensing, winding up for the throw because he only had one chance to get it right.

This was before David became king, when he was the youngest son of a family whose business was agriculture. A time when most of his days and nights had been spent in the field with his sheep, mastering the slingshot, singing to God. Little did he know that mastering the slingshot was going to bring down the most feared enemy of the Israelites, little did he know that he literally would have only one shot to bring down the giant. A bulls-eye of a space to hit, just a small space in Goliaths armor that bookies on the sidelines were probably giving a billion and one chance to hit its mark.

But hit he did, right out of the park, which just goes to show you that sometimes the mundane everyday life we all seem to live may be preparing us for that opportunity that God wants us to have, that one in a billion chance that God is preparing us to accomplish.

After all, in God’s world, where we live and breathe and have our being, one in a billion happens all the time.

“LORD, You are my portion and my cup of blessing, You hold my future.”

Psalm 16:5

But, do we ever really stop to think about what it means? I’m sure none of us would give the exact same answer to the question of ‘what does this statement mean?’. Yet, we would hit pretty close to the same mark that the eyes of a being reveal a lot about what goes on in the soul.

When we look into the eyes of another person, what do we see?

Those with kind, gentle eyes are few and far between, while those with eyes filled with sadness, anger, bitterness and even deadness are far more common.

No matter what your observational skills are, whether you notice a lot about another or just a little, chances are you have taken note of the times that you looked into another persons eyes and saw kindness, gentleness and love because the experience is so uncommon.

Yet, this is what I think of whenever I picture Jesus/Yeshua Himself.

When He walked among us, I imagine from the biblical accounts of Him, that He had with eyes full of love, kindness, gentleness and compassion, even in the face of the great pain, fear, hatred and confusion in the eyes and hearts of those who were around Him.

His eyes were so full of His great love for people that some of those same people couldn’t help but stop, take notice and respond. And, eventually after spending time with Him, it seems their eyes were changed, becoming more like His, seeing things He saw in the way He saw them.

Scripture tell us that God made us in His image, it also tells us that God breathed His own spirit of life into Adam and Eve. This is the same spirit He breaths into us when we come into relationship with Him through the redemptive sacrifice He made for us. The same life and love that He gives us that should be visible to others through our eyes.

Yet, what do you see when you look into another person’s eyes? Or, even your own in an unguarded moment? Do your eyes show others that you are a child of God who has spent time with Him in the light and love of His gaze?

“My son, give me your heart; And let your eyes keep in my ways.” Proverbs 23:26

In light of these thoughts about focus and our oftentimes random, unfocused way of being – I am constantly amazed at how easily we allow ourselves to be dragged hilly-milly here and there – I am resharing my own thoughts on focus from a long ago written piece.

—————

Focus.

When I first had my son, I remember one bit of parenting advice among many. I don’t even know where it came from, but, it went something like this, what you focus on when parenting is what kind of parent you will become.

At the time, I took it to mean that if I focused on the things that I didn’t like about my own parents parenting then I would repeat those same things. And, if I focused on the things I thought were good about their parenting, along with those things that I thought were important about being a parent, then I would be able to work towards the goal of what I thought a decent parent was.

Focus.

In time, the idea took on a mind of its own to me. I realized that what I focused on is what I became, even if I didn’t like the focus. If my focus was uncontrolled, and, I didn’t make sure my focus was on what I respected or held dear, then I inadvertently walked in a direction that I neither liked nor felt comfortable in because those paths weren’t what I wanted. But, because my focus was not controlled, that was where I went.

We all have this focus problem that ultimately translates into a behavior problem. Even Paul himself wrote the things he wanted to do, he didn’t and the things he didn’t want to do, he did. It’s all about focus. Our hearts may be in the right place, but, if our focus is off, we have a problem.

Focus.

God is very clear about where our focus should be. On Him. All the time. Without ceasing. This isn’t for His good, (after all He is whole in who He is, He doesn’t need us to focus on Him) it is for our good, because He knows how we are. Where our focus is, there we shall merrily go, until we find out we’ve actually gone too far, don’t know where we are and in our wanderings have lost our focus. Again.

“Sh’ma Yis’ra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad. V’ahav’ta eit Adonai Elohekha b’khol l’vav’kha uv’khol naf’sh’kha uv’khol m’odekha.”

“Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,”

Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Image via Wikipedia

I’m always struck by just how many times people do things and the downstream results of their actions are never at all what they think they will be, if they think about them at all.

It doesn’t matter if our actions are really big and have an immediate effect, or very small and seemingly inconsequential, there always seem to be consequences that we wholly don’t anticipate.

It sort of reminds me of the whole Butterfly Effect where a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world and sets of a chain reaction that ends up being a storm on the other side of the world.

I was reminded of this just recently on of all places, Facebook.

Being a collector of various bits of information, most of it coming from a cornucopia of sources – that because of my background, I deem either reliable or unreliable – I end up with quite a bit of information that I pass on to others who may interested. Usually I do this through a phone call, an email, or if I happen to run into them, I’ll just tell them about it.

Very rarely do I post something on someone else’s wall on Facebook, but, that’s just what I did with an interesting video about the actual effects of fiscal inequality, which according to the data collected are very different in tenor and tone than one might automatically assume.

If you’re interested in taking a look, you can view it here: richard_wilkinson.html

But, it wasn’t the video itself that led me to think about unintended consequences, it was what happen after I posted it on my friend’s page. First another friend saw the post, viewed it and reposted it to her 259 friends. Then a friend of hers saw her post and reposted it to her 193 friends, and I don’t know where it went from there, but you get the picture.

When I posted it I thought one person would view it, but instead 452 other people that I know of saw the posting, and I assume a fraction of those actually took the time to watch it, which was a far greater number of people seeing it than I ever intended. It really gave me a very small-scale view of how something could indeed go viral on the internet and end up affecting millions of people before a day is out.

All this got me thinking about how we live our lives as everyday believers in Christ. How our behavior has unintended, far-reaching and unseen consequences for either good or ill than we will ever know, which is why it’s so important to stay as close to the LORD as possible and live our lives in Him and for Him instead of for ourselves.

“…you should live in a way that proves you belong to the God who calls you into his kingdom and glory.”

1 Thessalonians: 2:12