So how are you feeling today, are you suffering from PVS?  Ha !!  Yes, I know, another weird disorder the “experts” have come up with, huh?  What its stands for is “Post Vacation Syndrome”.   Aside from the screwy labels I would wager to say you have actually felt a little sluggish after a vacation or time off and as you try to get back into your duties it is a little more difficult. You enjoyed the break but now its back to reality ! You may’ve felt or today feel even a little depressed.   Well I suppose thats more what I’d call NORMAL rather than some odd acronym.

I think what can lift us out of such post-holiday doldrums is three basic things: (1) a genuine and repeated thankfulness for the opportunity God gave you to “kick back” yesterday  (2) gratitude for the opportunities He gives today & (3) looking ahead with anticipation at our glorious future and “rest” as believers !

In the book of Hebrews the writer addresses the “rest” we’ll ALL have as children of God: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. . .let us labor therefore to enter into that rest” (4:9-11).  Holdiays can be very enjoyable and needful to recharge us.  Aren’t you glad for them? Have you told God today “thank you” for a recent rest? Or are you just bemoaning the work you face today?  Aren’t you glad He does give you work to provide an income  when maybe others are unemployed or struggling to make ends meet? “In EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS for this is the WILL OF GOD in Christ Jesus CONCERNING YOU.” [1Thess.5:18].   Aren’t you thankful He chooses YOU to serve Him and part of that may just be in the “work place” as well as church !  He give many of His own mission opportunties Monday through Friday and other days depending upon your schedule. Do we see those as well as the work our employer doles out to us?

How about when this old body’s tasks are done.  As a Christian you will receive a new and eternally enduring one, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. . .”  (Phil.3:20,21).   No PVS then, for sure !    What’s in store for you is far far better than the BEST rest you have ever exprienced, so keep that in mind today if you’re dealing with a mountain of work after a great time off.   Labor on !!

 

Hey guess what I tried today?  A new Chinese food ! Here in America we have a name for it, a chicken foot !  And no, I won’t ever plan on trying one again, unless of course I’m stranded on a desert island and a chicken is the only life there.  We’ve had some wonderful Chinese folks who have been attending our church and this was their first church dinner with us and so that was one of the specialities they brought.  Ahh, potluck, now I know why they truly call it that !  I’m glad they also brought other Chinese dishes though, quite tasty !!

   I admire many of the qualities in the Chinese I’ve met in my life.  One that has struck me is the intense respect they show to pastors. How much missing is respect for authority in general these days. And indeed as Paul wrote one of the signs of a decaying society, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”  (2Tim.3:1-4).   In this long, sordid list of spiritual maladies Paul initiates it with the basic problem from which all other the problems flow, namely when we choose to love self more than God ! This is  a reversal of the greatest commandment !!

I tell you what, I’d heard of the eating of the chicken’s foot several years ago from a pastor friend whose girls took a missions trip to China. My first thoughts – “That’s gross ! I’d never try that !”    Never say never, thats rarely accurate for humans, always so with God though when He says it !   My friend told me they tried them (and also didn’t like them, ha) out of courtesy for those they were ministering to in that country.  Mostly, that’s why I also gave it a shot.  So I guess i “ate my words along with some chicken’s feet” ! 

 We all made the decision to put aside self for not just a culinary adventure but to minister, believe it or not !   Does this mean I should try anything I perceive to be nasty in taste?  Am I in sin if I don’t?  – well the bottom line here is I must love God and others more than self.   Think of some ways this  Labor Day weekend that you can be better at that.  Could you speak better to others, showing them more respect?   Could you treat others more considerably?   How about saying thank you with more regularity, especially to those closest to you (those we often neglect to show our appreciation and gratitude to)?   Take some time and read Philemon or Romans 16 and see how appreciative and considerate Paul was towards others, its challenging !     So my advice, stay away from “certain” oriental delicacies, but strive to mimic those qualities they do practice that are scriptural !!   🙂

Have you been paying attention to the news lately?  There have been a couple of related stories about violence in sports. One story was at a pro game in San Francisco where fans started to violently flail away at each other and the other just happened in Florida as thirteen year old football players attacked a referee over what they considered a “bad call” !  

What is going on?  Something that is also much related: the absence of the Lord controlling the heart ! And what should we really expect when God is not allowed in our schools, when any semblance of God in public is ridiculed or removed.  So what can you do as one person to effect change?   Make sure the world sees Jesus in you !!  

I often think of how Daniel must’ve felt going to school then working and worshipping in a pagan land.  His cronies saw the Lord in his life. They said, “We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”  (Dan.6:5).  High praise indeed, from dastardly men even !

Some years ago I took a new convert to a Penn State football game. It’s since been called the “Ice Bowl” because a snow storm happened a day or two before this big game between us and Michigan.  And of course,with no love lost between fans typically, people began to make snowballs from the snow at their feet which compacted quickly turned to ice balls !  Two drunks a few rows in front of us actually hit an elderly lady on the head below them and I had to speak up.  I told them what they’d just done and that if I saw more I would call the stadium police on them.  My friend was worried I had just gotten us into a fight.  And at first I thought maybe he was right but I told the drunks I was a Christian and a pastor and I didn’t appreciate their language or actions. Immediately, even in their state, they apologized, my friend was greatly relieved and things got very calm around all of us in that section, ha !

I’m not advocating the agitation of intoxicated “morons” (the biblical Greek of the KJV ‘s “fools”).I took a chance to reason with drunks !  But I am encouraging us to stand up and be counted as believers.  People need the fear of the Lord in their hearts, they need to see the presence of Him in yours !   When Jesus spoke His incredible “Sermon on the Mount” He urged us to be  “the salt of the earth” & “the light of the world”  (Matt 5:13,14).    Don’t minimize the effect you as one person can have upon a dark and decaying world, two evil properties which can be effectively checked and changed by light and salt !

Take each day at a time to spend quality time with the Lord and stay in fellowship with Him.  As you do, you will make a mark for the Master just as Daniel did.  This old world is looking and longing for people who will shine for Christ, be that person today !!

 

This week there’s been a lot of activity near our house. The neighbors are fencing themselves in ! Yep, you read it right but thankfully their not upset with us.  So this week I’ve heard the buzzing of circular saws, the slamming together of lumber being stacked, and all kinds of other noises to boot, ha !  I was talking with one of the workers on the project yesterday and he told me he has never built such a high fence before — ten feet !!  Thankfully, not on our side !    What’s the fuss?  Two homeowners unable to get along.  It’s sad but it’s our world.

The whole situation reminds me of what Paul admonished us all about in Romans 12:18, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peacably with all men.”    Unfortunately sin is a reality and there will be times that as much as you try to do right, some people won’t respond in kind.  Paul goes on to write that when this occurs we’re not to lash out, for “vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.” (vs.19).  Instead we’re to rise higher, and not by building a bigger wall, but by responding scripturally as verse 20 states, “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thous shalt heap coals of fire on his head. ”   Your giving him what he needs, out of the love of God, will shame him if he has any kind of a conscience !   Lastly, Paul ends the chapter with the reminder, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (vs.21).

Is there someone you’re feuding with?   Do you have walls up that need to be torn down? Sometimes walls are good. Contrary to the ecumenical birds out there, we do need to hold fast to the truths of the Word of God rather than “tear down any walls” dividing us doctrinally.  If we don’t stand for Christ and the truth we’ll fall for anything. So we need to stake out our position on the truth of Scripture but the walls we don’t need are  the walls of sin and refusal to do what is right.  Have the courage to do what’s right and deal LOVINGLY with those with whom you have differences, if they do right you have glorified God and patched up a rift. And even if they won’t do right, you have done your best and God will handle them in His perfect way.

 

Recently I was watching news of the aftermath of Hurrican Irene. They had switched from the main office to a reporter on site who was to talk about the damage and show pictures where he was and as they’d asked him to start his report there was this long pause. I’m sure we’ve all seen those. Usually there’s something wrong with the equipment or the man for some reason doesn’t hear in his earpiece that he’s now on air.  So there’s this embarrassing (for them) long pause and then likely someone from the network is probably shouting in their ear to “TALK !!!!”    But the signal isn’t yet getting through to them so they don’t speak up until that time.   But all of a sudden when they do you can just imagine what they have just heard, ha ! 

The writer of Hebrews warned his readers that they had become “dull of hearing” (Heb.5:11). He went on to say they, by then, should be mature enough to be teachers but instead, due to their unwillingness to listen well, still needed to be taught the basics needing as he put it “milk, and not of strong meat.” (vs.12).   Sometimes, we older Christians suffer from a spiritual malady that newer ones don’t. We hear but we don’t hear, we listen but we don’t apply it, we get used to the sermonizer but fail to utilize what is preached into our very own life ! We’re like that technologically challenged reporter. We’re being spoken to in one way or another by God and we just stand there rigid and inactive not realizing that the world is still looking at us expecting some appropriate action from us, some biblical response but we are stuck in the idle position, “awaiting God to signal us” while all the time He’s been screaming in our ear ! We, like those first century Hebrew Christians, can and maybe we already have become, “dull of hearing” !  We like to think not but if they became so, we can too.

So what do we do?  You read and listen to the Word and you do so for YOU. Because He is speaking to YOU. He is trying to mature YOU.  Yesterday a person spoke to me about the sermon I’d just preached, tears were coming down this dear saint’s face, apologies were made for sinful behavior in the past. There was no dullness of hearing in this Christian, quite the opposite – they had allowed God to penetrate their heart and do His work, He had spoken, they had listened !!  Simple as that !!!!    This was also Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 for his friends there, “For this cause I bow my knees. . .that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to COMPREHEND with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. ” (vss.14-19).   Has it been a while since you raised your hand to make a spiritual decision ?  What about after reading the Bible, have you made some application into your life?   You’re on deck, the world needs you to report for Christ. He’s communciating. But are you listening well?