Happy Birthday Nigerian-style

One of my Facebook friends shares my same birthday month. His birthday was yesterday. I admit that I have never learned the technique of doing all my birthday wishes at once, nor have I learned how to keep up with all the birthdays. Most of the time, I catch the event on the backside and send belated wishes. 

That was exactly what I did for my friend. He expressed his thanks for birthday wishes and I slid in on the back side. I wished him many blessings on his birthday, and I am ashamed at that paltry greeting. 

My friend lives in Lagos, Nigeria, and apparently birthday greetings have some meat to them there. As I began to read what his other friends had written, I was astounded. These were really birthday blessings. Some of them seemed like prophetic words. "Restoration will be the next chapter of your life."  He received wishes for the "new age". This was my favorite though: "In this new age, you shall run a good race, you shall fight good fights, and his grace shall be sufficient for you all the way. He shall bless those who bless you, even for your sake, so, many more shall arise and bless you speedily." 

Those are amazing birthday greetings, aren't they?  There was none of my usual, "Hope you've had a fun day." This man's friends didn't seem one bit worried about whether or not he'd had fun. They were interested in the impact he would have on the kingdom of God in the coming year. Judging by their comments and his posts, I'm pretty sure that his will be fruit that lasts. 

Don't misunderstand me here.  I like fun as much as the next person. I like cake, ice cream, and presents. I like birthday candles, especially sparkler candles. In the light of my friend's birthday wishes, though, those things don't seem so important.  

For my Nigerian friend, his birth day was more an opportunity to look toward the future than one to celebrate the past, and that's as it should be. One day, we will give an accounting of how we spent every day of our lives. I hadn't thought much about accounting for how I spend my birthday, but I will now. 

I've been pondering my birthday greetings, too.  I want to give "meaty" Nigerian-style greetings that look to the future impact on the Kingdom of God.  In case I've missed your birthday (or more likely when I do), here it is:  "May you bring more people to Jesus during this next age than in all your ages thus far combined. May God's path be clear and your feet stay on it. May you hear God's voice clearly and heed it completely."  Happy, happy birthday!

Loving without expectation (Luke 6:35)

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. (Luke 6:35 NASB)

This is the ninth verse in this section on loving your enemy, and there are more to come. You can see from the sheer bulk of words spent on this topic that Jesus meant business about it. When it comes to loving enemies, He was not kidding around. We have it to do. 

The marvelous thing about the God-man Jesus is that He not only told us what to do, He explained how to do it, and then He showed us what doing it looked like. As a little bonus, in this verse He told us what we could expect when we obey. 

There are three parts to this verse. The first is a summary of what we are to do. The second part is a promise for those who are obedient. The third part is the WHY of obedience. 

We will consider the initial section first. As before, we are to love, do good, and lend. There's an added phrase, though, that is vital to our acts of loving. "Expecting nothing in return".  Our tendency is to think that, if we love our enemies, it will bring about a transformation in them, and they will become dear friends. "Don't expect it," Jesus said. Don't expect anything at all. We can be hopeful that God will use our obedience to work in our situation, and He will, but we are not to be motivated by what we expect will happen. We are to obey without expectation.  

Ponder that a bit. We will discuss the promise tomorrow, but for today, think about obeying Jesus "just because He said to do it".  Our children don't like it much when that is our expectation, but it doesn't change the need for their obedience. It doesn't change the need for our obedience either. 

Love your enemy. Don't argue. Just do it. 

Pray today that we and our loved ones will have hearts willing to obey without complaints or arguing. Pray that we will " just do it".

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Link for last night's blog: http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2014/04/counting-your-blessings-by-dr-christy.html

Counting Your Blessings by Dr. Christy Lee

Intro from LH: This is an unusual Friday Night With Friends post. Dr. Christy Lee is not only my cousin, she is the little girl for whom I babysit as a teenager, and the daughter I never had. I love her dearly and am insanely proud of the woman she has become. She sent this to me after the blog post on counting your blessings, and I have listened to it over and over. I've saved the recording to a Dropbox link.  It's as safe as I can make it. Click on the link and then click download. You will be glad you did. It's ministered to me in ways you can't begin to imagine in the last few days, and I am immensely grateful for the wisdom in God's timing. Enjoy!!

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 My dearest friends, Phil and Caryn Marlowe, live in Knoxville and are a husband/wife singer team.  She did a production of White Christmas last fall at her high school and we recorded this late one night last August while goofing around.  Phil's dad was in the middle of progressing downward from pancreatic cancer, and my daddy had just gotten the diagnosis of tongue cancer.  Those were frightening times.  It was a very meaningful night, as we played and sang with all the emotion of both families welling up and threatening to overflow.  We shared this recording with both our fathers afterwards, and it has been a blessing to all of us.  Phil's daddy passed away in December.  My daddy is doing well now. 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8e1etq19mkoxc30/geYjg42AhE

Loosen the grip (Luke 6:34)

If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. (Luke 6:34 NASB)

This is the third of the examples of what loving your neighbor is not, and involves the lending of money. The practice of "sinners" was to loan money only to those they knew well and were certain could repay the debt. Jesus, however, said that if we lend only to those who are certain to repay, there's no credit in it. It was an astute play on words that indicates we are to loosen our grip on our financial resources and be willing to give to those in need regardless of their ability to repay. 

We want to receive with our hands wide open so that we can receive the maximum. We are to use those same open hands to hold our treasure, so that God can have access to it to do with as He wills. 

How tightly do we hold to our possessions?  Are we willing to give without expectation of return? 

Today, pray that we will loosen our grip on the resources God has placed in our hands and cheerfully allow Him to do as He will with what He has loaned us. Pray, too, that we can have that same freedom toward those we love, allowing God to move as He wills to bring transformative change to them. 

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The link to last night's blog is here; http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2014/04/bahamian-blogging-8-gift-of-song.html

Doing Good (Luke 6:33)

If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. (Luke 6:33 NASB)

This series of lessons from Luke 6 are focused on the "love your neighbor" teachings. The verse for today's study is one of three that teaches what loving your neighbor is NOT. Jesus repeatedly calls us to love the unlovely, the unfriendly, the unkind. He calls us to go beyond loving those who love us.  We are to love those who not only do not love us, but also those who hate us. It's the most difficult kind of love. 

Today, we see that this very hard love is not simply doing good to those who do good to you. Even sinners, He said, do that. The first thought, on reading this verse, is that we are all sinners. (As Romans 3:23, written years after the resurrection of Christ, teaches us, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God) Indeed, we are all sinners, but the word here translated as sinners is hamartōlos, indicating one who is a chronic sinner, one who is devoted to sin. In other words, even the worst of the worst people are good to those that are good to them. 

We are to go beyond what the one who is not constrained by Christ would do. We are to rise to a higher standard of love. It was while we were sinning, doing the worst that we could do, that Christ willingly died for us. We will not, of course, die on the cross for the sin of the world, for that job has been done once and for all. We are, however, called to love ceaselessly and give limitlessly. Are you loving that way?

Today, as a gift to Christ, make an effort to do good to the least lovely, most difficult person you encounter today, and don't tell another soul. 

Pray that our loved ones will be drawn to Christ because of the great goodness they see in His people. 

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Here's the link to last night's post. Feel free to share it. http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2014/04/shooting-at-fort-hood.html

Bahamian Blogging #10: the Gift of Song

When Ryan and I spoke at College of the Bahamas, we had a wonderful time. The class was filled with sweet, fun-loving students who welcomed us like family, and we fell in love with them all. After we spoke, we asked the students to take turns sharing their music. Someone sang the most beautiful song called "When the Road Seems Rough" and I was so moved that I asked them to sing it again and let me video it. "Sing from your soul and make me cry," I said, and that's exactly what they did. 

This song is written by a Bahamian composer, Clement Bethel. According to my cousin Dr. Christy Lee, "He and his family have a wonderful legacy.  His wife was the first president of the College of the Bahamas.  He studied in the UK and was the first Bahamian to get a PhD in music. His son and daughter are both currently on the faculty at the college."

The song speaks to the importance of persevering through trials and the understanding that all the seemingly insurmountable trouble of today will eventually pass. There is no need for despair.  It is a song filled with hope and endurance. Although God isn't mentioned, it reminds me of this passage from Isaiah. 

"He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40:29, 31 KJV)

When The Road Seems Rough

    By Dr. Clement Bethel

When the road seems rough

When you've borne enough

Don't faint. Don't sigh. 

Don't cry, wonder why. 

Just keep on trying. 

Cease your sighing. 

Look beyond the present way. 

This time will pass. 

Tomorrow's another day. 

I've posted the video to YouTube and here's the link. http://youtu.be/0q50QwQpjpk

Shooting at Fort Hood

The WTVA alert flashed on my phone just moments ago.  "Fort Hood Shooting - 1 dead, 14 wounded," it announced. My first thought was, "That was years ago!" It was quickly followed by the frightening thought that it WAS years ago, but perhaps it had happened again.  

In fact, it has. 

In 2009, an army psychiatrist opened fire at Fort Hood. When the shooting stopped, eleven people were dead. Two more would join them before the dying was done.  Thirty more people were wounded. There is no way to estimate the collateral damage in the lives of families, friends, and coworkers. A military trial eventually found the gunman guilty on all 45 counts and he is now on death row. 

Justice has been served and the maniac is behind bars. We are safe. Or so we thought. It turns out that there are more crazed gunmen and they are shooting again. There are more deaths and there are more injuries. Not only are there more deaths and more injuries, but those poor people at Fort Hood have been forced to relive their worst nightmare. 

I do not understand. I do not like this. 

I had enough of brutality as a child in rural Mississippi in the late 1960's, where the nightly news was filled with the horror of the Vietnam war and the daily count of young men who were either wounded beyond what we could believe or dying for something we didn't understand. Our days were filled not only with bomb drills designed to prepare us for a nuclear attack but also with the confusion of integration and the effort of blending two disparate cultures into a whole that would, one day, (we hoped) bring equality and unity to us all. 

Then there was Iraq and Afghanistan. If we are not fighting, the rest of the world is, and the war rages on.  I am sick of it, but in this world, there will always be wars and rumors of wars. There will be tragedy and humans will do the unthinkable. 

The problem is not guns, or alcohol, or fast cars, or any of the other convenient targets. The problem is US. We humans have a bent for wrong-doing that we refuse to deny, and the toll it has taken is absurd. It is senseless. It leaves the world a dark and scary place. 

We CAN be a light in the darkness. We are supposed to be a light in the darkness. If enough of us would choose right over wrong, and actually live accordingly, we could make a difference. The light could shine in the darkness and overcome it. We could. If we would. 

I, for one, am taking a stand against the darkness. Let your light so shine before men, Jesus said, that they will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. It's time we started shining, dear ones. The darkness has won enough. 

Shine your light.