Thank God It's Friday: Thank God for a bowl of cereal

As I continue my series of thanking God for a variety of things, today I thank God for a bowl of cereal.

At least during the week, a bowl of cereal is a pretty standard breakfast for me. It's a pretty simple breakfast and it doesn't take too much thought when you have to fix yourself breakfast and the sun's not even up yet. Lately my cereal of choice has been Cheerios (plain or honey nut). I usually will have the same cereal every day until we go grocery shopping again and get something new. And then it might be another box or bag of the same thing we just finished.

I have posted about a bowl of cereal before, back when I had a cast on my right ankle, and I am thankful that it's a bit easier for me to make a bowl of cereal nowadays.

But where's the deep spiritual significance that I often tie into these posts? Well, I suppose you can look at it a couple of different ways each of which reach the same point. You could compare my daily bowl of cereal to the Israelites daily manna as they wandered through the desert. Both might be described as a little bland and in both cases it was the same thing day after day. I could also point you to the Lord's prayer. Jesus taught his disciples to pray for their daily bread - not cereal. But like the manna, the daily bread testifies to God's provision. I am definitely thankful for God's provision. If I weren't sitting at the office right now, I might even go and have another bowl of cereal!

Thank God It's Friday: Thank God for perfect games

Today I continue on in my series of posts thanking God for things that we sometimes may not think to thank God for. Today I am thanking God for perfect games.

Mark Buerhle of the Chicago White Sox pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. 27 batters up, 27 batters out. It was only the 18th time in Major League Baseball history that feat has been accomplished. The last time a Chicago White Sox pitcher threw a perfect game was in 1922! A perfect game is an amazing thing and an example of an incredible individual performance but it is not just an amazing performance by the pitcher. Buerhle pitched a great game, he avoided walking anybody even though he went to three balls on a few batters. Even if he struck out all 27 batters, there's still gotta be somebody behind the plate calling pitches and receiving the pitches and making sure they drop a third strike and then have to make the throw to first to get the batter out. Of course there were the ground outs which invovled one of the infielders and the first baseman and the fly outs - some of which required the outfielders to run, dive, catch the ball, crash to the ground, and still come up with the ball in their glove. Yes, a perfect game is an amazing performance by the pitcher, but there were also eight other guys on the field any one of whom could have made a mistake or been a step away from making a play and the perfect game would not have happened.

This week in our family devotions we've been looking at Christ as our redeemer. Last night we looked at Hebrews 4:14-15 and how Jesus can sympathize with us and had been tempted in all things but yet was without sin. No matter how greatly I may be "pitching," it takes a team for a perfect game. With Jesus on my team, I won't be waiting for a call from the president after the game is over. But with Jesus on my team, I hope to hear "well done my good and faithful servant" when my game is over.

So play ball and praise God. Thank God for perfect games!

Thank God It's Friday: Thank God for little lies

OK, now I must be officially off the deep end. Thank God for little lies?!?! Maybe my title is a little off (and in fact, I'll probably suggest another one before I finish rambling), but be patient and bear me out.

So, one of my kids was told to do something the other day. He gave the appearance of having done it, but evidence quickly exposed that he didn't no it and had lied about it. So, my wife, being the graceful parent she is, gave him the opportunity to rectify his mistake. He again gave the appearance of having done what he was asked and at that point no evidence was found to the contrary. At least until a few minutes later and we got home. He lied again. Now at least it wasn't one of those big life-threatening lies, but it was a lie. As dutiful loving Dad, it fell to me to administer appropriate punishment. So, we talked. We talked about lies, we talked about sin, we talked about how we'd been reading about the consequences of sin in our family devotions time, and I punished him. As we talked, I found myself thinking "Come on son, don't you see that you're becoming a habitual liar and I am increasingly finding it hard to trust you? Don't you see that it breaks my heart to see you do so? Haven't we been teaching you to tell right from wrong?" and so on and so forth.

After we put the kids to bed and I began to reflect on the events of the evening, I was reminded that God has every reason to think the same thing of me and yet in his overwhelming love and grace, He sent His Son to redeem me and bring me in right relationship with Him. So, maybe it's not the little lies that I'm thankful for. Maybe I should have titled this post "Thank God how our children's sin reminds us of God's love for us."

⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:8-9

Fired Up!

As we begin the All-Star Break, we find the Washington Nationals sans manager.  It seems that after last night's loss to the Houston Astros, manager Manny Acta was fired.  The formal announcement and presumably the announcement of his replacement is expected to come today.  It really doesn't come as much of a surprise since it's been expected for weeks now.  Acta may have bought himself a few extra weeks when the Nats took two out of three from the Yankees in the Bronx, but that momentum didn't carry on to many more wins since.  Sure we've had some highlights since them - some quality starting pitching, some tape measure homers from Adam Dunn, the addition of Nyjer Morgan - but we've still seen the bullpen repeatedly collapse and pull defeat from the jaws of victory as well as some defense that might be excused on a T-Ball field.  From reading the blogs and comments, the reaction ranges from he's a bad manager and it's about time to Acta did the best with the hand that was dealt him.  I'm not sure where I fall in that continuum (probably closer to the latter than the former), but as is common with me, I try to look at it and see how it reveals what's in my heart.

Psalm 14:3 says "All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one."  I'm a sinner.  I deserve to be fired, don't I?  It's about time isn't it.  Even if I were to say I've done the best with the hand I've been given, I am reminded by Isaiah 64:6 "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."  Though the firing of Manny Acta (and my daily life) may lead me to dwell on this, I rejoice as I am reminded from Ephesians 2:8-10 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  I have been saved.  Not by my filthy rags, but by the grace of God.  Though I may struggle daily with my inadequacies, I must remember that I am meant to do good works - not just meant to do, but created to do and prepared to do good works.

As Manny Acta finds himself with some free time on his hands, my hope for him is that he would find those good works that God has created him to do.

Thank God It's Friday: Thank God for winning when you don't deserve to be in the game

Thank God for winning when you don't deserve to be in the game????  OK, you're wondering, what the heck is he talking about today?  Last night the Nationals won the completion of a game that had been suspended back in May.  The winning pitcher, Joel Hanrahan, was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates a week ago.  The runner who had been on first when the game was suspended, Elijah Dukes, was demoted to the minor leagues a week ago.  The Nationals had effectively given up on both players.  They weren't cutting it as part of the worst team in baseball!  (Yes, they're still the team I root for.  I rooted for the '88 Orioles and lived to tell about it!)  They were no longer part of the plan.  Yet, both players contributed to the win, even though neither was with the team at the completion of the game last night.

 

As an aside, I have been pondering, what would have happened if the game had been suspended prior to the Nationals taking the field in the bottom of the inning (in other words no runner on first) and Joel Hanrahan had been traded to the Astros (instead of Pirates) and the Astros sent him to the mound in the completion of the bottom of the inning and the Nationals had still won the game.  Would Hanrahan have both picked up a win (having been the pitcher of record when the game was suspended) and a loss (having given up the winning run)?  I suppose he might not have been allowed to enter the game since he had already been in the game with the Nats, but still I wonder.  [These are the kind of things that run through my mind when I'm waiting for a program to finish running that crashed overnight due to insufficient disk space at the time.]

 

Anyway, back to winning without deserving to be in the game.  Based on the way I live my life - I fail to do the good I should do as well as do things I shouldn't do - it's no use in trading me, I should be sent to the minors!  My righteousness is like filthy rags.  Heck, when it comes down to it, I'm a washed up never-was low-class-A minor leaguer who probably only made it out of Rookie league because management got tired of me there!  Yet, when my life is over and I stand before the throne, the Accuser will say "He's a washed up never was!  Send him down!"  But Jesus will say "I died for Him, He's mine!"  And I'll spend the rest of eternity rejoicing in the Victory though I didn't deserve to be in the game!

Thank God It's Friday: Thank God For Freedom

Tomorrow is July 4 - Independence Day. So today as I continue my Thank God It's Friday series, I must say "Thank God For Freedom." There are many things about the freedoms I possess here in tbe United States that I am thankful for.

I am thankful that my vote counts. Not everybody I voted for in the 2008 general elections won. Not everybody I voted for in the primaries before that won. But, I believe that the results of those elections were valid. I don't believe that anybody deliberately rigged the elections to get the result they wanted and I've never felt the need to protest in the streets because I didn't feel my vote counted. Yes, there are things here in the USA that aren't the way I'd like them to be but I know I have the freedom to speak up and protest as I feel appropriate. But the most important way I have my say is my vote. So, I cast my vote on election day and I am thankful that it counts.

I am thankful for the freedom to worship. In my lifetime, I have regularly attended Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Evangelical Free, and non-denominational churches. Nobody has ever tried to kill me because I switched from one church to another. Nobody has ever legislated and said that I must go to a certain type of church. Nobody (except for my parents as I was growing up, thanks!) has ever told me that I MUST go to church. My family and I go to a church that we have chosen and believe that God has led us to.

I'm thankful for God's Word. We read the Bible daily and in-house and on-line we have access to more different translations of the Bible than you can shake a stick at (not that I'm much of a stick shaker). When our senior pastor is preaching from the New American Standard translation, I've got that. When someone else is speaking from the NIV, I've got that. ESV, check. My younger son has NIrV. We've got KJV, NET, TEV and other sitting around the house. On-line there's great tools like BibleGateway and BlueLetterBible. I can read and study God's Word as much as I want.

I could go on and on, there are more freedoms we have in the USA that I am thankful for. But now I am "free" to go make breakfast and get ready to take the family to today's swim meet ;-)