Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Real Thing

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;
to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life And who is adequate for these things?
For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.
2 Cor. 2:15-17

A beautiful morning led to an inspiration…fire up the smoker! There is nothing sweeter to me than the smell of wet hickory chunks creating a wave of smoke that makes the neighbors envious. My weapon of choice on this day was lemon pepper and Cajun chicken wings, pork tenderloin and venison.

As you can see, it was downright irresistible to my dogs. Millie and Belle spent the afternoon camped out by the smoker. It reminded me of the scripture above… I will comment on that later.

Recently, I re-established contact with my first pastor and his wife (Major T and Jeanie) by email. They were the people who laid the spiritual foundation for my life. My wife Annie and I met in their small church. I actually decided on a career after spending time in their group home back in the late 70’s. They took in homeless kids in addition to their own 5 children. Many of us who had come to know the Lord in the Enterprise, Alabama area practically lived in their home. In one of my emails recently, I told them that I regretted ‘invading’ so much of their family time back then, but they never saw it that way.

Over thirty years later, they continue to serve the Lord in ways that only He knows. They established a small church on an Indian Reservation in Alaska, enduring years of primitive conditions. They didn’t have running water for a long time. Over the years, they adopted three indigenous boys from the local reservation.

Over time, I have seen much in the American church culture that doesn’t impress me. After going off to college, I became associated with a group whose founder seemed fixated on the ‘sharp people’ of this world, thinking their attractiveness would draw people to Christ. It reeked of the smell of death, if I can be so blunt.

I have concluded, that like my dogs and the sweet smell of hickory, people are drawn to the simple sincerity of the Gospel. My dear friends Major T and Jeanie were folks who were drenched with hickory, and still are. The sincerity of the Gospel is an overwhelming scent. It is what Jesus called abundant life.
The Kingdom of God runs in conflict to our human thinking many times. Jesus made this statement: "So the last shall be first, and the first last." My friends seek no recognition from man, but will be moved to the front of the line, I think. Many of the TV preachers/peddlers have had their reward in full.

One thing I noticed as I sat on the back patio taking in the hickory chips. I came in the kitchen and Annie said, “Wow, you smell good!” I was close to the smoke. The smoke permeated my clothes.

My prayer is that I smell good in the nostrils of God. But I can only get that way by getting close to Him. I am sure my dear friends in Alaska give the scent of a slow cooked lemon pepper chicken wing…
Mark

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

The Sound of Snow

Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow…” Is: 1:18

Our weather man here in Alabama's Capital has a nickname. We all call him Chicken Little. He gets so excited about weather events that my dad phones me to let me know that the sky is falling…again. He gets a charge out of the guy. The local news brought on the SNOW frenzy for Sunday, the first day of March. Annie and I looked at each other and nonverbally communicated: “Yea, right….” After 30 years of marriage you can communicate this way. I hope she can’t read my mind too much however.

Like a kid, I still got up with the chickens at 5 AM Sunday morning to see if the snow had started. To my surprise, the fat flakes were coming down like parachutes over Normandy. Belle has seen snow on rare occasions in her 12 years and made an obligatory snap at a few falling flakes. Millie on the other hand, tore donuts in the backyard and snapped like a cornered turtle at the flakes as they fell.
“Get up, it’s snowing!” I exclaimed to Annie and her best buddy Blue, the cat.


"Make some coffee and I might….” she replied sleepily.
I then opened Stephen’s door, kicking baseball cleats and sweats out of the way and told him if he wanted to see some snow, he'd better get up.

The dogs and I returned to the backyard to play. I threw the Flippy-Flopper a few times and noticed Annie and Stephen standing at the French doors watching us frolic, smiling. Another one of those moments to cherish.

For any of you Yankees, by this of the year, you are sick of snow. Your prayer is for God to remove this dreadful stuff from the streets and sidewalks. But for your average southerner, it is high cotton. Of course, the first thing we men-folk do is ‘start our engines’ and see if we can spin our tires. My dad, the Pittsburgh-yankee-convert-to-Alabama-redneck knows not to get on the road in Alabama during snow events. I ignored this well founded warning and threw caution to the wind. I took to the highway in my trusty steed and just enjoyed the ride.

There is one thing I have noticed about snow when it is falling. It has a sound yet you don’t ‘hear’ it. The delicate descent pierces the ear with sound of purity. Have you ever gone off by yourself and ‘listened’ to the snow? It jars you with peace, surrounds you with a deep sigh, it sounds….
beautiful… resplendent.

Many believers have heard the scripture above since childhood. “White as snow” is synonymous, now a common and colloquial saying that serves as a figurative substitute for purity. I ‘hear’ it now as much as I see it and feel it. The peaceful sound of forgiveness, of knowing that our Father sees us not with the shame of a scarlet letter, but as a happy, peaceful, early March day filled with the whispers of snow. His presence touches all of our senses...
Mark

(Tomorrow the forecast is for sunny skies and 70 degrees.)