Tag Archives: Heartlight

Junk Mail and Happiness

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[I’ll be away from the Internet for a few days, so I’ll share with you some of the articles I’ve written for Heartlight magazine. These articles also ran on theHopeForLife.org website, which is a ministry of Herald of Truth.]

mailbox

You can learn a lot about the world by looking at the junk mail folder on your computer. You’ll find offers of wealth, offers of health, offers of forbidden pleasures. It’s a world of illusion, spinning fantasies before your eyes of increased wealth, of increased sexual prowess, of unheard-of bargains and opportunities. Spam almost seems too nice of a term for it; it’s evil come calling, sin just a mouse click away. At best, it’s an annoyance. At worst, it’s an open door to a world of problems.
Some experts say that these unwanted messages may someday choke the Internet to death, making it virtually unusable. Those of us who use e-mail a lot must work with spam blockers and spam filters, running the risk of missing valid messages as we wade through a swamp of junk. I don’t know anyone who likes getting junk messages. So why do they keep coming?

Because somebody out there gets taken in. Someone lets greed overpower them, buying that illegal software or falling for that scam message that offers them millions of dollars for no work at all. Someone else gets deceived by the message that love can be found through physical enhancements and that the necessary enhancements are available in that pill, that cream or that herbal supplement. Others are fooled by voyeuristic desires, tempted by offers of pornographic material.

The sad thing is that these people don’t realize that they’re going about it all wrong. They are trying to fill a spiritual void with physical things. They need things like love, companionship, and meaning in their lives, none of which can be found in junk messages. Even though they don’t realize it and would probably deny it, what they crave above all is God.

In the book of Psalms, the Bible says: “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalms 37:4). It’s easy to focus on the second part of that verse and miss the whole message. It’s saying that when we realize that our greatest desire should be God, when we make Him our greatest delight, then all of the other things that we’ve been longing for will be taken care of. Some will be granted to us, others will no longer seem desirable. But only if we take care of that one need that every man has — the need for a relationship with God.

Happiness isn’t found in your e-mail. Lasting happiness, the kind that reaches to the very core of our being, is found only in God.

Becoming a citizen

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[I’ll be away from the Internet for a few days, so I’ll share with you some of the articles I’ve written for Heartlight magazine. These articles also ran on theHopeForLife.org website, which is a ministry of Herald of Truth.]

passport

A friend of mine recently became a citizen of the United States. After living in this country for a number of years, she decided to become a citizen. She filled out the necessary forms, took the tests, made the pledge of loyalty to this country and, of course, paid the required fees. It’s quite a process.
I did the same thing in a much simpler way: I was born a citizen. No forms (at least not filled out by me!), no tests, no pledge, no fees. All I did was be born in the right place. My children did me one better. Not only were they born citizens of the United States, they were also born Argentine citizens. Two kids, four passports.

They’re not the only ones with dual citizenship, however. Even though I don’t have the passport to prove it, I am also a citizen under another jurisdiction. I’m a citizen of God’s kingdom. I’m not a naturalized citizen; I was born into that kingdom. In fact, there are no naturalized citizens in God’s kingdom.

During Jesus’ public ministry, a man named Nicodemus came to see him. While talking with Nicodemus, Jesus told him, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). It takes a second birth to become a citizen of God’s kingdom, a birth involving water and the Spirit. The apostle Paul talked about this new birth when he wrote: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4). When a believer in Jesus is baptized, he is buried under the water and comes out with a new life. It’s a new birth. In writing to Titus, Paul called this act “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Rebirth… new life… born again… it’s all the same concept.

Years ago I was born into this world, becoming a U.S. citizen. Almost 13 years later, I was born a second time, when I was baptized, becoming a citizen of God’s kingdom. Despite my lack of a passport, my second citizenship is every bit as real as my first one and much more important. Long after all passports have turned to dust, I’ll still hold my heavenly citizenship.

If you want to become a citizen of God’s kingdom, there are no tests to take, no forms to complete, no money to pay. There are no naturalized citizens in God’s kingdom. The only way to enter is to be born again, born of water and the Spirit.

The Healing

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[I’ll be away from the Internet for a few days, so I’ll share with you some of the articles I’ve written for Heartlight magazine. These articles also ran on theHopeForLife.org website, which is a ministry of Herald of Truth.]

It was Sunday, March 9, 2008. Steve Ridgell and I had traveled with Herald of Truth Ministries to the island of Cuba. We were speaking at a church service in the town of Matanzas. I used the text that I had chosen beforehand, Mark 2:1-12. The first part of the text seemed very appropriate. Verse 2 says, “So many gathered that there was no room left.” We were speaking to a group of well over 400 people when there were only seats for about 300. However, I was a bit uncomfortable with other parts of the text. As I read about Jesus healing this paralyzed man, I was acutely aware of the people in wheelchairs at the back of the audience. I couldn’t help but wonder how they felt. Like other times when I’ve spoken on this passage, I talked about how Jesus put more emphasis on forgiving the man’s sins than He did on healing his handicap. I explained that our physical needs can’t begin to compare with our spiritual needs. As I preached, I couldn’t help but wonder how my words were being received by these people whose physical needs were obviously great.

After the sermon, one of the local members invited any who needed to respond to the message to do so. Nine people came forward to be baptized into Christ. One especially caught my eye. She was one of the people in wheelchairs being wheeled forward by one of her friends, much like the paralyzed man in the story had been helped by his friends. This woman was connected to an IV bag. She was in the wheelchair because she only had one leg. It was obvious that she had major physical needs.

She was the first to be baptized. I stood in the water, and someone handed her to me. She professed her faith in Jesus, then I immersed her. When she came out of the water, no one looked at her leg. Instead, all eyes were drawn to her face. Seldom had any of us seen such joy, such pure and unrestrained joy. She was still unable to walk. She was still a sick woman. But her sins had been forgiven. My sermon about the importance of the forgiveness of sins versus physical healing was probably soon forgotten. But her sermon will long be remembered, even though it was preached without words. She knew. She understood. Her physical infirmities remained, but she had been healed in the way that mattered.

Spam, spam, spam

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can-of-spamAs of this morning, there have been 551 attempts to post spam on this blog just since February. To be honest, the Akismet plugin is one of the great arguments for using WordPress; it does an excellent job of screening out the junk. In that same time frame, it’s only stopped one message that should have gone through. I run 4 blogs at work. Three of them use WordPress; the other uses something else (I have no idea what). I have to go onto that blog several times a week and remove the spam comments.

Why does spam continue and even grow in popularity? Because someone, somewhere, clicks on those links. (I even wrote a Heartlight article about that) More than that, they buy the junk being peddled. When it comes down to it, it’s those people that bother me. Without them, there would be no spam. But there are enough people using the Internet, that the actions of that fraction of a percentage complicate life for all of us.

[I was a Monty Python fan as a teenager, so I remember the “Spam, spam, spam” skit from whence this annoyance gets its name.]

Home again, home again

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pink-cloudsOK, we made it home from Argentina, physically, at least. The week before we left, there was a four-hour difference between Abilene and Córdoba. Then, on the day we left, the U.S. started Daylight Savings, cutting the difference to three hours at the cost of an hour’s sleep. We then flew all night, spent over 24 hours traveling and arrived exhausted (but happy) to Córdoba. We spent a busy week, then gained an hour’s sleep when Argentina started their Daylight Savings (cutting the difference to two hours). We flew all night, did the long trip home, and now we’re back. It was quite a week.

Enough to keep me from being able to write anything coherent. (Just see the above paragraph, if you don’t believe me). So, if you’re just dying to read something brilliant I’ve written, my article is up today on Heartlight. You can read it best on our HopeforLife blog: http://hopeforlife.org/blog/entry.asp?ENTRY_ID=82