Success

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Mike Benson

BOOKSTORE SHELVES ARE full of books on marriage, many of them describing the reasons marriages fail…
Such books are usually written by therapists, who spend their time working with clients whose marriages are experiencing meltdown. A great deal can obviously be learned from marital pathology. We need to know why marriages fail. But the absence of death doesn’t mean the presence of health. Many marriages are sick but never die in divorce or separation. So the most important question is why some marriages thrive and enjoy vigorous good health. Models of succes are priceless in a world filled with failures. That’s why Ephesians 5 helps us, by illuminating three essential qualities of a thriving marriage: sacrifice, intimacy, and Christ. Gary Inrig
KneEmail: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”‘ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:21-33
Bible reading for 10.14.09: 1 Thessalonians 2; Isaiah 43, 44
Recommended reading: http://www.glasgow-coc.org/sermons.html
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Contentment

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Mike Benson

vietnamese mother.jpg MY DEAR FRIENDS…,
You know around here we are experiencing hardships, but we thank the Lord He is comforting us and caring for us in every way. When we experience misfortune, adversity, distress and hardship, only then do we see the real blessing of the Lord poured down on us in such a way that we cannot contain it.
We have been obliged recently to leave our modest apartment and for over two months have been living on a balcony. The rain has been beating down and soaking us. Sometimes in the middle of the night we are forced to gather our blankets and run to seek refuge in a stairwell.
Do you know what I do then? I laugh and praise the Lord, because we can still take shelter in the stairwell. I think of how many people are experiencing much worse hardships than I am. Then I remember the words of Scripture, “To the poor, O Lord, You are a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat” (Isaiah 25:4), and I am greatly comforted.
Our Father is the One who according to the Scriptures does not break the bruised reed nor put out the flickering lamp. He is the One who looks after the orphan and the widow. He is the One who brings blessings and peace to numberless people.
I do not know what words to use in order to describe the love that the Lord has shown our family. I only can bow the knee and my heart and offer to the Lord words of deepest thanks and praise. Although we have lost our house and possessions, we have not lost the Lord, and He is enough. With the Lord I have everything. The only thing I would fear losing is His blessing!
Could I ask you and our friends in the church to continue to pray for me that I will faithfully follow the Lord and serve Him regardless of what the circumstances may be?
As far as my husband is concerned, I wass able to visit hiim this past summer. We had a 20-minute conversation that brought us great joy…
I greet you with my love.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi An (Letter found in “Margin,” by Richard A. Swenson)
(Note: Mrs. An’s husband was a preacher in Vietnam. Their church was closed by police, he was thrown in prison. Without official papers, she and her children were forced to live on a balcony outside an apartment.) THOUGHT: Could you pray Mrs. An’s prayer? Do you have her faith? Could you be content in her circumstances?
KneEmail: “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” Philippians 4:11
Bible reading for 09.30.09: Ephesians 3; Song of Solomon 9, 10
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Free

Posted on July 10, 2009 by Mike Benson

JESUS DOESN’T FORCE us to be His disciples…
Never does He coerce anyone into His service. His invitation is free, His offer of eternal life is free, the opportunity to serve Him is free. He freely took the initiative in giving His life as the substutionary payment for our sin. In obedience to the Father, He gave everything, setting aside His heavenly state to be robed in human flesh. He lived perfectly, died sacrificially, rose again triumphantly and ascended back to heaven gloriously. And He didn’t charge us a thing, which is good because we couldn’t pay the price anyway. However, what we can do is serve Him out of grateful hearts and loving devotion. He has given beyond measure, all at His personal initiative. How can we not as stewards choose willingly to give our all for Him? (Dave Sutherland and Kirk Nowery)
KneEmail: “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17
Bible reading for 07.10.09: Acts 16:22-40; Job 41, 42
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War

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Mike Benson

…I HAVE NO alternative but to bluntly call it a war…
The prize is the inner spirit of my children, and the stakes are high. Arrayed against me are those who wish to extract money, loyalty, and the strong creative energy my son or daughter may have to give. In the eternal dimension, the prize is the soul of my children. I am not prepared to compromise or negotiate. Until my children are old and wise enough to distinguish their enemies from their friends, I hold the responsibility to conduct both a defense and an offense on their behalf, demonstrating all the time how and why it is done for their benefit.
It is not a phony war the effective father faces. It is often a jungle conflict fought with the stealth of a modern day “guerrilla” who appears in the day as an innocent friend, only to return in the night as a bitter and exploitative foe. My eyes return to the war photo of the squad’s leader, mine detector in hand, leading the way. Behind him are men; they follow because he has the capacity to discern the safe path. There are no careless steps; mistakes are fatal. Gordon MacDonald
KneEmail: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
Bible reading for 06.17.09: Acts 3; Nehemiah 7-9
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Carry

Posted on May 14, 2009 by Mike Benson

FOR THE FIRST time in her life, Western Oregon University’s Sara Tucholsky not only hit a home run in a game against Central Washington University, but she hit it over the fence…
She had passed first base and was on her way to second base when she collapsed. Something had happened to her knee and she couldn’t run. No one on her team could help her around the bases because if they touched her, she’d be out. That’s when her opponents from Central Washington picked her up and carried her around the bases and across the home plate. “My whole team was crying. It touched a lot of people,” says Tucholsky.
KneEmail: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2

Tyndale

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Mike Benson

WILLIAM TYNDALE WAS born in A.D. 1494, near the middle of the Dark Ages…
The times were dark because the Scriptures had long been kept from the people by the Roman Catholic church. Church leaders believed that only members of the clergy should read the Scriptures. For that reason, the Word of God was neither taught nor made available.
Tyndale devoted his life to changing all of that. He built on the work of John Wycliffe, a man who died a hundred years before Tyndale was born. Wycliffe risked his life on a daily basis to translate the Bible from Latin to English, then to have handwritten copies distributed to the people. Wycliffe was so hated for making the Bible available that several decades after he died, his enemies condemned him for heresy, dug up his body, burned it, then threw the ashes into a local river.
Tyndale built on the foundation Wycliffe laid down, except that Tyndale bypassed the Latin version entirely ad translated the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek, directly into English. Because his work was so violently opposed in England, the land of his birth, he fled to Germany. In answering a priest who criticized his work, Tyndale said, “If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that drives a plow to know more of the Scriptures than you do.”
Like those in the time of Josiah, the people did not know the Scriptures, but neither did the priests. Most of them were ignorant of the Bible. Their source of “truth” was the Pope.
One bishop in Tyndale’s time did a survey of the 311 priests in his diocese:
. 168 of the priests couldn’t repeat the Ten Commandments.
. 31 of the 168 had no idea in where in the Bible the Ten Commandments could be found.
. 41 could not locate the “Lord’s prayer.”
. 31 of the 41 could not name the author of the Lord’s prayer.
When Tyndale completed his translation of the New Testament in 1525, more than 15,000 copies were smuggled back into England over the next five years. Officials did their best to stop the distribution. They delighted in burning Bibles whenever they discovered any. In May of 1535, Tyndale was finally captured and thrown into prison. Approximately one year later, he was burned at the stake. And why was he burned in the flames? Because he was committed to the idea that average people should be able to read the Bible. That was his crime. (Steve Farrar)
KneEmail: “Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. The king went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem–the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD. Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.” 2 Chronicles 34:29-32

Closet

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Mike Benson

HOW DO YOU build a “sanctuary” in your busy life; a place where you can meet with God…?
Build a “closet.”
Isaac’s closet was in a field (Genesis 24:63). Peter’s closet was on a housetop (Acts 10:9).
You must fashion your own.
It may mean leaving the kids with your spouse, while you sit out on the back porch with a cup of coffee and your Bible for fifteen minutes.
It may mean snatching a few minutes when your baby is taking his or her afternoon nap.
For those who have a long drive to work, your sanctuary may be in your car with a CD player. It may mean posting a passage of Scripture near your steering wheel, where you can meditate and pray about it during the time that you drive.
It may mean reading your Bible during your lunch break at work.
It may mean taking the first ten minutes to read and pray in your office each morning.
It may mean putting your tennis shoes on and going for a walk with your Bible in hand.
It may mean sitting in your garage or workshop with a CD player to listen to sermons.
THOUGHT: It’s not what the sanctuary looks like or where it is that matters. It’s what you do there that makes it a meaningful place. The sanctuary does not provide rest. What takes place there in the desert is what refreshes the inner man. (Steve Farrar)
KneEmail: “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Matthew 6:6

Habits

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Mike Benson

ARISTOTLE SAID, “WE are what we repeatedly do…
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” We are creatures of habit. Habits–overeating, thumb-sucking, breath-holding, nail-biting, smoking, and the like–run the gambit from unpleasant to unhealthy. Other habits, like reading, healthy eating, exercise, money management, and getting adequate rest, greatly improve our quality of life.
Our lives are all composed of habits from the time we wake up all the way up to bedtime. If a habit is negative, a cycle that includes triggers, feelings, and impulses can be broken anywhere along the way. If the habit is positive and needed, we can nurture that cycle by continuing in it.
Think about certain spiritual matters that are matters of habit–faithful attendance, daily Bible study and prayer, pure speech, visitation, welcoming visitors at church services, involvement in church works, controlling the tongue, and any number of personal growth matters.
Aristotle was right. Excellence does not consist in doing something once. it is not even found in sporadic, occasional engagement. We cultivate excellence by focusing on certain areas with repeated, persistent effort.
Paul urged the church at Thessalonica to “abound more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:1). That consisted in knowing how “to walk and to please God.” Peter told the Christians dispersed abroad to keep their “behavior seemly among the Gentiles” (1 Peter 2:12). In the second letter, he included excellence–virtue–as a Christian grace (2 Peter 1:5).
Excellence is not something we are born with or just wake up possessing. It is, as Aristotle said, a matter of our habits! (Neal Pollard)
KneEmail: “Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12).

Jacket

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Mike Benson

IN 1995, OUTSIDE THE Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, D.C., the son of a former embassy employee lost his life…
Walking with his friends, he was confronted by muggers. Apparently, however, his murder could have been avoided. The thieves only wanted his jacket, but he resisted and fought until one of the agitated criminals killed him.
I wonder what was so special about that jacket? What made it worth a human life to its owner–its age, design, brand, or material? Why didn’t he just give it up? It seems to have meant too much to him.
THOUGHT:
Lots wife gave up her life for a single glance back at Sodom.
Korah gave up his life for a run at power.
Achan gave up his life for a few items of clothing and a little wealth.
Samson gave up his life for relief from the nagging of a wicked woman.
Absalom gave up his life for a seat on a throne.
Abab gave up his life for a grape vineyard.
Haman gave up his life for a bow from Mordecai.
Judas gave us his life for approximately $30.
Ananias and Sapphira gave up their lives for an infinitesimal percent of the world’s riches. (Neal Pollard)
KneEmail: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”(Mark 8:36).

Died

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Mike Benson

THE SALMON NEARLY leaped onto to their hooks…
That was a far cry from the day before when the four anglers couldn’t even seem to catch an old boot.
Disappointed but not discouraged, they had climbed aboard their small seaplane and skimmed over the Alaskan mountains to a pristine, secluded bay where the fish were sure to bite.
They parked their aircraft and waded upstream, where the water teemed with ready-to-catch salmon. Later that afternoon, when they returned to their camp, they were surprised to find the seaplane high and dry. The tides fluctuated twenty-three feet in the particular bay, and the pontoons rested on a bed of gravel. Since they couldn’t fly out till morning, they settled in for the night and enjoyed some of their catch for dinner, then slept in the plane. In the morning the seaplane was adrift, so they promptly cranked the engine and started to take off. Too late, they discovered one of the pontoons had been punctured and was filled with water. The extra weight threw the plane into a circular pattern. Within moments from liftoff the seaplane careened into the sea and capsized.
Dr. Phil Littleford determined that everyone was alive, including his twelve-year-old son, Mark. He suggested that they pray, which the other two men quickly endorsed. No safety equipment could be found on board–no life vests, no flares, nothing. The plane gurgled and submerged into the blackness of the icy morning sea. The frigid Alaskan water chilled their breath.
They all began to swim for shore, but the rip-tide countered every stroke. The two men alongside Phil and Mark were strong swimmers and they both made shore, one just catching the tip of land as the tides pulled them out toward sea.
Their two companions last saw Phil and Mark as a disappearing dot on the horizon, swept arm-in-arm out to sea. The Coast Guard reported they probably lasted no more than an hour in the freezing waters–hypothermia would chill the body functions and they would go to sleep. Mark, with a smaller body mass, would fall asleep first in his father’s arms. Phil could have made the shoreline, too, but that would have meant abandoning his son. Their bodies were never found. (Patrick Morley)
KneEmail: “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8; cf. Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34

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