I’m so glad Jesus likes golf!

There is a term used in golf called a mulligan.  The best way I can describe this is a “do over”!  That’s why I believe Jesus likes the game of golf!  You see when you’re playing golf with your friends, there are times when you have a terrible shot and they either tell you to take a “Mulligan” or you ask them to allow you to take a “Mulligan”.

In our human walk, isn’t it nice to know that Jesus grants us many, many “Mulligans”?  And to top it off, many of the times he grants us one, we REALLY, REALLY don’t deserve a do over!

It is such a comfort and relief to know that my belief that Jesus died for all of my sins and all of my mess ups, that I am forgiven if I believe in him through the power of his blood sacrifice for me!

“Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is declared right with God—something the law of Moses could never do. Acts 13:38-39

Also, lets look at John 8:1-11,

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.

As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”  Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Here we find Jesus with a woman who had sinned terribly, but yet Jesus in his great mercy has forgiven her.  He gave her a do over – “Neither do I (condemn her) go and sin no more”

That is truly amazing and truly inspiring.  I am so undeserving of His grace but He loves me that much, that I too, can have a “Mulligan” to try again tomorrow

Friends, we all try hard to do what is right and good, but as humans we all mess up, we all make mistakes and we all fall short before God.  The great thing is that thru Jesus Christ, and what he did for us on that day, we are forgiven, if we believe.  We are forgiven by Gods grace and mercy and given the chance to have a Mulligan, a “do over”.

I have one more request, if you are a reader of this blog and have not given yourself to Christ, I encourage you to really pray on this and take that step.  It will profoundly change your life, that I promise you, because I can tell you He has changed mine and it is fantastic!

If you ever need someone to talk to about your faith or have any questions, please feel free to contact me, my email for this site is thecatholicdropout@comcast.net

May His grace and mercy be over you in this next week and always.

“Lord, how may I serve you today?”

I can’t take any credit for this.  This is a little prayer that my wife Elaine says every day.  Guess what?  The Lord always answers this one!  It’s become a running joke with us, I keep telling her, you’ve got to stop asking him so much!  Some days it is a constant job!

But, isn’t this what Jesus asks of all of us?  Didn’t he say in Mark 10:45 “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many”?

So, I ask you, how can we not ask the question – “Lord, how may I serve you today?”

This isn’t just a challenge but a direct instruction from Jesus. In verses 43 and 44 of the same chapter in Mark, He is addressing  the disciples after they started to argue about who would sit at His right and left hand in heaven. He said: “But amoung you it will be different.  Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to everyone else.”

Our responsibility is to serve, not be served.  Our leadership in our families, our work, our church and our communities is in the example of service we give to others.  To me that is the sign of true leadership.  Someone who is willing to server his brothers and sisters, no matter what the task, is in my eyes a leader.  Someone who just talks the talk, and seems to always say the right words, but never gets in the mix of what they are asking everyone to do is no leader, they are like the chief priests, the scribes and  Pharisees of Jesus’ time.  They were big on appearance, big on all the talk and proclamations, but were of the opinion that they  were “above” doing any of the work.

I’m afraid we have a lot of the same in our present society.  We have government leaders, federal, state, and local that are big on all the suggestions and ideas of what to do but are not willing to truly “serve”.

I’m drawn to another favorite book – Romans and in particular Chapter 12.  I won’t take up the space to list the entire chapter, but do take the time to read it!  There are very good life principles here, spoken by the apostle Paul to the Romans.  In essence he is giving us examples of how to use our God given gifts in service to each other!

In the second verse, he tells us not to copy the behavior of the world, boy that can be a tough one!  How often do we get caught up in the marketing of what’s “right”, the latest and greatest or what society deems correct?  And how often does this go against what we know to be true and right as taught in the Bible?  He goes on to explain in verse 4 that we all are truly in this together!  We all are parts of the body of Christ.  We really, really need to remember this!  We need to remember that we are here for each other; our actions always have an effect on those around us, and many times much more than we realize.  We all have a skill set in God’s eyes that we bring to the body.  It is our responsibility to use it wisely and well. He continues to explain this further in verses 5 – 8.

In verses 9 & 10, he then tells us that we are to love one another with genuine affection.  This can be another hard one for us to  take.  Human nature again gets in the way!  Not many of us can say that they love someone who has just “thrown us under the bus” at work can we?  Same way if comments are made that really hurt or cut into someone’s character or reputation, not really showing much love there either.

Just continue reading verses 11 thru 18, after you read them take a close assessment of yourself.  If you’re anything like me, there are many times I wish I would be better at living as Paul spoke.  I fall short every day, but I rest assured that in Christ, I get to try again the next day!

Now, a tough one, let’s look at verse 19 “Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, “I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it,” says the Lord.”  How often do we joke, I don’t get mad I get even?  Probably not a good thing based on what the Lord is saying!  I think He’s definitely making the point here, that this is HIS job and based on some of the writings in the Old Testament, He’s pretty good at it!  I don’t want to be on the wrong side of that equation!

In the last two verses he then goes on with another great example of service.  One that is again a challenge, but has its rewards in God’s eyes.  Paul states: 20 Instead, do what the Scriptures say: “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink, and they will be ashamed of what they have done to you.” 21 Don’t let evil get the best of you, but  conquer evil by doing good.  How hard it is to help our “enemies” ?  This is  an outward sign of what we are called to do as Christians isn’t it?

One of the last teachings of Christ at the last supper is another example of the importance of being a servant.  In John 13:15-17 Jesus says, “ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

So, in closing today – think about the short prayer Elaine says every day.  I challenge you to try it!  Ask the Father – “Lord, how may I serve you today?”  I think you will be surprised and blessed by the opportunities he presents you!

May the Lord bless you with days full of cheerful service to those around you, let Him fill your heart with the compassion of Jesus Christ and the willingness to be a faithful, loving servant!

Prayer, it’s not as hard as you think!

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Probably one of the first prayers we all remember!

From this point on, most of us have it in grained in us that  prayer is/needs to be a formal written or formally spoken recitation of the same verse(s) to qualify. Not so, God is with us all the time, whether we want Him to be or not. He hears all, sees, all and knows all. So why do we feel that prayer needs to be so formal?

I’ve found that some of my best prayer time has occurred in some of the most unusual places! Like my morning shower, building a campfire, hiking, driving to work, that 4 a.m. wake up whisper from Him, etc. He’s always there, listening and waiting so why not?

Some of my prayers are long conversations with Him, and some are just…God, HELP, I need you! Sometimes he answers right away, sometime He answers loudly, but more often than not, it is a soft, quiet voice and it is always when He knows it’s the right time to answer. We don’t like that part because we live in a society of instant gratification, so we want the answer immediately after we ask the question. God doesn’t work that way! He has the plan, He makes the rules, and He’s always in control.

Prayer, it’s one of the core principles in the Bible. You can’t go a chapter without a reference to the need to pray, the need to talk to God and more so, the need to listen. Too often we are too busy “speaking” to hear God when he does talk to us. We are too busy talking to hear the answer when He gives it to us! Then we’re upset when we feel He isn’t answering or He’s taking too long to answer us.

In scouting, we have a native American story we tell, that is a perfect example of this. I’ll paraphrase it, but it goes something like this:

There was a brave hunter out on his own, hunting for his family. While he was near the river, a storm started brewing. It began to rain and the river began to flood. He prayed to the “Great Spirit” to protect him. A rabbit came by and said to him, “follow me and I’ll lead you to safe ground”. The brave said, No, I’ve prayed to the Great Spirit and he’ll protect me.” The water continued to rise and he climbed up on a rock to be out of the water. A deer came by and said, “climb onto my back and I’ll take you to safer round.” Once again, the brave said “No, I’ve prayed to the Great Spirit and he will protect me.” Now the water continued to rise and the brave had to climb to the top of a tree to stay out of the raging water. An otter swam up to him and said, “Grab onto my tail and I’ll swim you to safety”. He again said “NO, the Great Spirit will surely keep me safe!” The waters continued to rise and at last just as the water was about to sweep him away, a hawk flew to the brave and said, “Grab hold of my talons and I’ll fly you to dry land!” The stubborn brave said “No, I’m sure the Great Spirit will save me, I’ve been praying to him throughout the storm”. The waters continued to rise and the brave went under the water and he died, when he met the Great Spirit, he asked, “Why did you not answer me when I prayed to you for safety?” The Great Spirit, just looked at him and said, “Who do you think sent the rabbit, the deer, the otter and the hawk?”

How often are we like this brave? The Lord, answers us, many times we are just too “noisy” to hear the answer, or He’s giving us the answer we need to hear, but don’t want to. Let’s look at two examples from the Bible, one that shows the result of a prayerful life and one that shows the results of stopping prayer.

Probably one of the most prayerful people in the Old Testament is David.  The Psalms are some of the greatest heartfelt prayers!  The Psalms provide great examples of prayers for many situations, for comfort, forgiveness, praise and thanksgiving, and more.

As for examples of stopping prayer,  just look at the Israelites in general.  Every time they stayed in prayer the Lord blessed them with prosperity and happiness. Then they would “forget” and go back to worshiping idols, living lives like they wanted and not as God instructed. When this happened God was very hard on them.  He’d bring famine, war, and exile.

Prayer is such an important part of our Christian life, it is our most intimate time with the Lord.  When we slip away from prayer we are missing out on a renewal of our spirit by our time spent with Him.