Having a Creator is inconvenient and problematic. Someone superior to me exists and this someone, based on the rights granted all originators, has claim to benefit from my existence. The clear indication is that there is someone to whom I must answer. With an authority I am answerable to, I have responsibility.
When you see a toddler grab a toy and wrestle it away from a playmate, you swat his seat and say, “Share!” He cries. He does not wish to share at all. So he attempts to exert his will again and does so as soon as he has opportunity. What he is communicating is his authority to command what he wishes and the responsibility of others to provide him with whatever he wants.
As adults we try the same thing. We want to be in charge of our own lives and we want others - God Himself included in the pantheon of those who stand about to do our bidding - we want others accountable for our happiness.
We have reversed the natural order. Do you see any essential difference between this behavior in adults and that of a possessive, thieving, egocentric two-year-old?
In the real world, not in the recesses of our shaded hearts, God is the authority and we are designed to please Him. As difficult as this arrangement is to accept for each of us who prefer independence and some expression of control, it is still the one the Creator’s existence dictates.
As long as God exists, you and I must choose. We will select the divine order as our paradigm, or we will opt for the arrangement that clashes with it at every turn. Said differently, the Creator has authority and the creation responsibility, or the creature usurps authority and wrongly places responsibility on the Creator. In the first, we recognize the God who is. In the second, we recognize as god one who is not. “Mine!” is speech reserved for God.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
South Haven Baptist Church
Belton, Missouri
July 28, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
A Late Summer Bounty
We sat and we talked. We spoke on themes of great importance and others of equal unimportance. We passed a couple hours on a summer afternoon which invited both laziness and the conversation of friends.
When our talk was over, he said, “Do you garden?” and I replied, “Do you garden?” Since we were at his home, my question was easily answered in a stroll from the living room sofa to the rear-of-the-lot chain link fence and then back to the front line of his property.
We admired iris and pinks, roses and day lilies. We inspected peppers, tomatoes, scallions, and cucumbers. But the most fascinating plant of all was one Concord grape vine.
From a single twisted stalk ten inches across at its base stretched out a vine whose total length exceeded seventy feet of fence top. It is warmed and watered by nature’s gifts. The vine is routinely sprayed -just once- each summer as soon as the purple fungus appears. And it is pruned radically each season by its long-time owner and care-giver. The result is a vibrant, leafy vine with multiple healthy clusters of grapes that promise a late summer bounty.
My conversation partner has long tended this one vine. He knows the secrets of its annual productivity. He says that you may leave it unpruned, but its yield is vastly curtailed. Instead of full clusters with thirty to forty or more grapes each, the unpruned vine offers a scraggly and meager bunch of ten or twelve small grapes. Only the new growth of a new season is copiously prolific.
This gardener has seen in God’s nature the picture of God’s truth, a truth we see preserved in Scripture. Unless the plant is pruned it is unproductive. Further, until our lives are tended by God, we cannot expect a significant crop. The harvest is dependent on God removing the old from our lives. Once that is done the new can take its place. Only the new growth yields abundance. Each new season demands a renewed effort. And each first-time effort is rewarded later as the intent of the Gardener is fulfilled in us.
Pruning is only the exciting proof of a pristine cycle where life is meaningful and God is still at work.
Tim Gramly
South Haven Baptist Church
Belton, Missouri
July 21, 2009
When our talk was over, he said, “Do you garden?” and I replied, “Do you garden?” Since we were at his home, my question was easily answered in a stroll from the living room sofa to the rear-of-the-lot chain link fence and then back to the front line of his property.
We admired iris and pinks, roses and day lilies. We inspected peppers, tomatoes, scallions, and cucumbers. But the most fascinating plant of all was one Concord grape vine.
From a single twisted stalk ten inches across at its base stretched out a vine whose total length exceeded seventy feet of fence top. It is warmed and watered by nature’s gifts. The vine is routinely sprayed -just once- each summer as soon as the purple fungus appears. And it is pruned radically each season by its long-time owner and care-giver. The result is a vibrant, leafy vine with multiple healthy clusters of grapes that promise a late summer bounty.
My conversation partner has long tended this one vine. He knows the secrets of its annual productivity. He says that you may leave it unpruned, but its yield is vastly curtailed. Instead of full clusters with thirty to forty or more grapes each, the unpruned vine offers a scraggly and meager bunch of ten or twelve small grapes. Only the new growth of a new season is copiously prolific.
This gardener has seen in God’s nature the picture of God’s truth, a truth we see preserved in Scripture. Unless the plant is pruned it is unproductive. Further, until our lives are tended by God, we cannot expect a significant crop. The harvest is dependent on God removing the old from our lives. Once that is done the new can take its place. Only the new growth yields abundance. Each new season demands a renewed effort. And each first-time effort is rewarded later as the intent of the Gardener is fulfilled in us.
Pruning is only the exciting proof of a pristine cycle where life is meaningful and God is still at work.
Tim Gramly
South Haven Baptist Church
Belton, Missouri
July 21, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
What You Can Do
Saw it again recently. Same fellow, same dynamic, same outcome. It is getting predictable. And that is a good thing.
Whatever this brother of mine does, it has a winsome quality to it. He is capable in his tasks, but that is not what shines through. He is good at what he does, but not that good. There are individuals that out produce him and others whose technical proficiency exceeds his.
My point is not how well he does his job, how well he fills his role in the life of the church. My point is that who he is remains more important than what he achieves.
What I’m learning from this is that a polished performance is a shallow substitute for a polished heart. We get so caught up in what people do well that we forget who people are. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks*.” And out of the treasures of a life centered in and lived for Christ, a beautiful authenticity unavoidably escapes.
In the empire of the Eternal One it is not what you can do, but what He has done, that matters. If He has changed your heart and your heart glows from His dear touch, that reality is reflected in all you are a part of. Choose a man or woman who walks well with God over a man or woman who walks well on his or her own. Make that choice every time and know you will so rarely be disappointed.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC, Belton, MO
July 15, 2009
*Matthew 12:34
Whatever this brother of mine does, it has a winsome quality to it. He is capable in his tasks, but that is not what shines through. He is good at what he does, but not that good. There are individuals that out produce him and others whose technical proficiency exceeds his.
My point is not how well he does his job, how well he fills his role in the life of the church. My point is that who he is remains more important than what he achieves.
What I’m learning from this is that a polished performance is a shallow substitute for a polished heart. We get so caught up in what people do well that we forget who people are. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks*.” And out of the treasures of a life centered in and lived for Christ, a beautiful authenticity unavoidably escapes.
In the empire of the Eternal One it is not what you can do, but what He has done, that matters. If He has changed your heart and your heart glows from His dear touch, that reality is reflected in all you are a part of. Choose a man or woman who walks well with God over a man or woman who walks well on his or her own. Make that choice every time and know you will so rarely be disappointed.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC, Belton, MO
July 15, 2009
*Matthew 12:34
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Photogenic
Impressing God with all those facts you have stored in your brain is not likely. The internet or a public library are both places where facts and knowledge abound. The facts stored there exceed what you know and are growing faster than your knowledge base can expand. Besides, God knows all that and more. There is nothing on or off this planet He does not already fully comprehend. He has all the facts and understands what they mean as well. He is brilliant!
Pleasing God with what you have stored in your heart, however, does have a higher probability. Jesus said out of our hearts come those things which please and honor the heavenly Father. When we desire what God desires, our hearts are aligned with His, and we have His promise to receive what we together are both longing for.
A proud grandpa related to me his grandchild’s almost astounding ability to hear once and then recall a song. He misspoke, describing this mental agility as “photogenic memory” when he meant “photographic memory.” Who knows, maybe the kid was good looking and talented? Referring to an individual’s ability to hear and recall completely what they have heard, I wonder if for the sake of exactness we should coin the phrase “audiographic memory”?
This series of thoughts took me in a new direction. With what I retain in my heart and God’s ability to recall all He sees there, does God view the content of my soul as photogenic? When He looks at me, does He find the view picturesque? He would if my heart flowed to the themes His heart prizes. You know, it’s true - beauty is in the eye of The Beholder.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor, SHBC
July 7, 2009
Pleasing God with what you have stored in your heart, however, does have a higher probability. Jesus said out of our hearts come those things which please and honor the heavenly Father. When we desire what God desires, our hearts are aligned with His, and we have His promise to receive what we together are both longing for.
A proud grandpa related to me his grandchild’s almost astounding ability to hear once and then recall a song. He misspoke, describing this mental agility as “photogenic memory” when he meant “photographic memory.” Who knows, maybe the kid was good looking and talented? Referring to an individual’s ability to hear and recall completely what they have heard, I wonder if for the sake of exactness we should coin the phrase “audiographic memory”?
This series of thoughts took me in a new direction. With what I retain in my heart and God’s ability to recall all He sees there, does God view the content of my soul as photogenic? When He looks at me, does He find the view picturesque? He would if my heart flowed to the themes His heart prizes. You know, it’s true - beauty is in the eye of The Beholder.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor, SHBC
July 7, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Clock Hands
Looking at the human race, we sure can pick some funny places to go for useful guidance. When selecting their advisors, the wise man/wise woman is finicky.
When the same corporation owns the news network and the movie company and the feature news story ‘covers’ the movie, are they reporting news or am I getting advertising? If the details are revealed in a tabloid which routinely sensationalizes all its content, should I consider believable the substance in any one single story they publish? If my friend has a stock tip and can’t explain what “dividends” and “margins” are, do I rush out and invest in his latest recommendation? None of these qualifies as reliable sources; they lack objectivity.
Not only do we choose odd sources, we also presume information from someone whose knowledge is valuable in one area to apply as equally valid in another. As if we could look at the needle on a bathroom scale and expect it to supply the time of day. Or we observe the hands on a wall clock and from that source insist we can know how much we weigh.
For what we gain to be useful, reliable input, we will have to turn to the proper source for the proper data. Hollywood actors are not qualified to speak on religion because they have had success in acting. I will listen to them about acting based on their successful careers. I am not nearly so ready to let them tell me how important or unimportant the words of Jesus are. Politicians may know what it takes to get elected and a lot about the effects of legal decisions or public policy implementation, but that does not mean they know, as an example, what God’s standards are for my personal behavior or what His design for the healthy home is. Once they have sat at the Master’s feet and learned from Him, then I can value their insights in to matters of faith and morality.
There are way too many self proclaimed experts in the field of religion and way too few humble individuals who have walked a life-time seeking God. When I need meaningful, accurate information to guide me in life, I will turn to God’s Word and godly people. I am confident my finicky selection process will yield useful advisors.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
July 1, 2009
When the same corporation owns the news network and the movie company and the feature news story ‘covers’ the movie, are they reporting news or am I getting advertising? If the details are revealed in a tabloid which routinely sensationalizes all its content, should I consider believable the substance in any one single story they publish? If my friend has a stock tip and can’t explain what “dividends” and “margins” are, do I rush out and invest in his latest recommendation? None of these qualifies as reliable sources; they lack objectivity.
Not only do we choose odd sources, we also presume information from someone whose knowledge is valuable in one area to apply as equally valid in another. As if we could look at the needle on a bathroom scale and expect it to supply the time of day. Or we observe the hands on a wall clock and from that source insist we can know how much we weigh.
For what we gain to be useful, reliable input, we will have to turn to the proper source for the proper data. Hollywood actors are not qualified to speak on religion because they have had success in acting. I will listen to them about acting based on their successful careers. I am not nearly so ready to let them tell me how important or unimportant the words of Jesus are. Politicians may know what it takes to get elected and a lot about the effects of legal decisions or public policy implementation, but that does not mean they know, as an example, what God’s standards are for my personal behavior or what His design for the healthy home is. Once they have sat at the Master’s feet and learned from Him, then I can value their insights in to matters of faith and morality.
There are way too many self proclaimed experts in the field of religion and way too few humble individuals who have walked a life-time seeking God. When I need meaningful, accurate information to guide me in life, I will turn to God’s Word and godly people. I am confident my finicky selection process will yield useful advisors.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
July 1, 2009
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