EAGLETS!?

Eastwood Eagle Watchers

In our last posting I mentioned how Jim and Cindy are staying close to the nest and conserving energy for the feeding frenzy that is rapidly approaching. Well, one thing that will always thwart that plan is the need to defend the aerie and their territorial claim. Great Horned Owls are a known threat to the eggs, but other owls and hawks can also threaten their home as well as hungry and foolhardy raccoons. But the biggest territorial threat is posed by other eagles. That was the case on the very day of my last post.

This is a wandering adult Bald Eagle that encroached on the Eastwood area on Tuesday.

A poor, wayfaring stranger.

This is the same nomadic bird fishing from the waters of Eastwood Lake minutes later.

Stealing a fish.

This is Jim arriving in mere moments to chase away the poaching intruder.

Jim arriving to enforce his…

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Thoughts on 2 Chronicles 20 – To Be King for a Day

Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.

 

All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord.

 

Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:

 

“Give thanks to the Lord,
for his love endures forever.”

It must have been nice as a king to proclaim a fast or appoint men to sing and worship before the army. Trying to establish a worship team / organization is proving to be extremely difficult. Coordinating scarce resources, planning around life events and work schedules, people leaving for no apparent reason, others questioning your motives… It certainly would make things easier to have lordship over others to direct their footsteps as needed.

This process is teaching me to rely heavily on prayer. Even though I am not a king who can direct others, I can pray in the name of the King who touches the hearts of others and makes things happen when all seems lost. It’s when I realize that I am powerless to make anything happen that things always seem to work out in unimaginable ways. Note to self, even when the deck seems stacked against me and I am outnumbered, God is bigger than it all. Let Him fight the battles that need to be fought.

Lord, let my eyes be open to Your kingdom. Direct my footsteps so that Your ways become my ways. I don’t want to waste time, but I want to work in Your timing. Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus name.

Thoughts on Kings 4 – Poison Soup

The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

 

Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

I was intrigued by the story of the poison in the pot. Was it really poisonous, or did it just taste bad? It is believed that the gourd was coloquintida which can apparently be fatal in large quantities. It appears that was the case since he filled his shirt with them. I imagine the lack of other stuff to put in the stew drove him to grab as many as he could. Elisha doesn’t panic like the others who sounded like they were ready to throw it out. Instead, he relies on a word from God (making a presumption here) and asks for some flour. The flour most likely offset the bitter taste, but removal of the poison would have been miraculous.

It seemed trivial that I was led to this section of the scripture, but as I was researching, it made me think of all the times that I have given up when the going got tough. Throughout the bible, we see evidence of God doing amazing things by providing words of knowledge and miracles. Why is it so hard to think that my problems, big and small, are too much for Him? Elisha did not give up when praying for the dead child. He could have went in, prayed, and left saying, “God works in mysterious ways. Sorry, but I tried.”, but he pressed on in prayer. Note to self, when you know that God has put his stamp of approval on something, don’t give in. Press on and press through.

Lord, I know that I let doubt and uncertainty creep into my head too easy. Help me to put my faith in You instead of man.

Thoughts on 2 Kings 2 – Elisha’s Curse

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

Reading through Elisha’s curse of the “boys” it’s easy to assume that they were innocent young boys having a little fun. Reading through the commentaries on this paints a much different picture. They were likely older boys and were not so much lightly picking on Elisha as they were directly challenging him as a prophet / religious leader if not God’s authority directly. Other commentaries suggest that the 42 who were mauled were only the portion of a larger group who deserved punishment. Given the emergence of idolatry at the time, it’s not too unreasonable to think that they would seek to test and challenge Elijah’s predecessor.

I think if I was walking down the street and was accosted by a group of at least 42 hostile teenage boys, I think I would be praying for police to show up and arrest them. Or bears…

Lord, we know your judgments are just. Thank you for Your mercy given through Christ our savior.

Thoughts on 1 Kings 16 – Asherah Poles and Conspiracy Theories

King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

As I read more and more about Asherah poles, I turned to Google to see what one looked like since they are so detestable to God and should be avoided. I stumbled into a world of conspiracy theories claiming that Christians have been duped into worshiping pagan gods. The Asherah pole is a phallic symbol used to worship a pagan goddess of fertility. There are those who claim that the Christmas tree, the steeple, etc. are all examples of modern day Asherah poles and that by their use, we are engaging unknowingly in pagan worship. There are accusations that the Washington Monument is a pagan obelisk (used to worship the sun god, Ra).

It’s easy to get caught up in all this and possibly be afraid to go to church. Getting fixated on things like this serve more to shatter our faith than build it. God knows our heart. When a group of Christians gather around a flagpole to pray for our country, it is not a pagan practice. When we pray, no matter where it is or the circumstances, when we pray in the name of Jesus, His name supersedes all else. Philippians 2:9-11 says

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

I think I can rest assured that when we put up a Christmas tree in our home, we do so to remember and celebrate of the birth of Christ Jesus, the Lord and the savior of my soul. I certainly do not feel any conviction from the Holy Spirit that there is anything wrong with doing so. When I put the tree and begin preparing for Christmas (only 192 days left btw) my soul gets and extra dose of happiness and joy. The bottom line is that Jesus reigns over ALL creation.

Jesus, You are the Lord of all creation. You know our hearts and our motives. Whatever sacrifices we offer, we do so in your glorious name.

Thoughts on Kings 13 – Fairness and Obendience

The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (But he was lying to him.)So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

There are just certain things that don’t seem fair. The man of God is doing the right thing and is punished (death by lion) only because he trusted the old prophet who lied to him. The old prophet who is supporting Jeroboam’s evil ways appears to get off the hook and blames all the bad stuff on the man of God and sidesteps responsibility.

This makes me think of my kids when they start the yeah-buts. I ask, “Did you do <insert illicit activity here>?” They’ve learned not to lie to because my powers of interrogation are exceptional but will often reply with “Yeah-but so and so did such and such.” It doesn’t matter what the other kids get to do or tell us to do, to be obedient, we have to listen to what our parents (or heavenly Parent) are telling us and tune everything else out. I hate to say that I should not trust others, but when it comes hearing the voice of the Lord, I certainly want to seek confirmation.

Lord, even though I am running the race, I need to hear Your voice telling me when to turn to the left, when to turn to the right, stay, or go. Open my ears to hear Your directions.

Thoughts on 1 Kings 12 – The Easy Way Out

Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”

The kingdom is divided. Jeroboam is afraid that people will turn from him and kill him if they have to go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and then revert to the house of David (most likely they would have), so he builds his own places of worship that just happen to be based on worshiping idols… again. I wonder if the infusion of Solomon’s wives had anything to do with idol worship being re-introduced. When the Lord called off Rehoboam, I don’t think it was so the others would worship idols, they just did. It’s amazing how far we go downhill when we turn away from God. I also wonder how many people left with Jeroboam because of the promise of a lighter yoke, the easy way out.

Being obedient to God often is not always easy. Sometimes it’s serving in one way when I would rather be serving in another. The key point is that “I” doesn’t matter and obedience is key. I need to remember that. If the Isrealites went with Jeroboam because they thought it would be easy, we’ll see how that works out for them. It seems that the enemy has been hard at work telling everyone how hard their life has been under Solomon and how much better life would be if… like a presidential campaign… When things seem to go downhill or become complicated, it’s not good to quit. Trust in God.

Lord give me the courage to stay to course, the endurance to keep running and not slow down.

Thoughts on Ephesians 6 – Flaming Arrows

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Eph 6 is one of the key pictures of spiritual warfare IMO. So many times, it seems like we need to grab something and go beat up on the devil. How do you defeat an opponent who has already lost? What stood out to me is the reference of the enemies flaming arrows or darts. Life seems like that sometimes, right. One thing after another flying at you. With the shield of faith, we can extinguish them. I noted that they aren’t automatically extinguished; that we extinguish them with the shield of faith.

Faith is an interesting thing. As a golfer struggling to get to a single digit handicap, I know I can hit good shots and hit them on a regular basis. Every now and then, I will mishit the ball, but most of my shots head toward the target. When I reflect on the bad shots, it’s most likely the result of focusing on conditions, hazards, etc. instead of the target. Other times, I can loose faith in my swing because I remember how I used to play or the fact that I’m not as good as the pros on TV. In golf, it is important to shake off the mishits and remember all the good shots.

I think the same things are true with faith in Christ. Sometimes I loose sight of Him and focus on the storms of life, problems I’m facing, etc. When praying, I might remember how I used to be or realize that I am not a Marc Dupont, Doug Roe or Scott Sliver and question how effective I can be since it is not my profession. I need to shake off the spiritual “bad shots” and focus on the target.

Sometimes it’s hard to love the skin we’re in. Lord, thank you for making me, me. I am thankful that my faith in you has grown more than faith in my golf swing. Help me to walk out my faith and to love others. I may never be as good as the major players, but I want to be as good as I can be; all for your glory. Help me to stand.

Thoughts on Ecclesiastes 8:14 – Fairness

There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.

When I read this, it made me think of my kids bickering over who gets to “ride shotgun” in the car. They debate over who “called it first” as well as last received the honor last. Is it better to sit up front on the way there or back? The oldest now claims that she no longer fits comfortably in the back of my Saturn Ion and should get priority seating as the eldest child. Perhaps we should cast lots with the quarter flip app to ensure fairness…

I would argue that this IS meaningless. Children fight tooth and nail to get front seat access when the back seat is probably safer. In many ways, we as adults get upset (sometimes to an irrational and unhealthy level) over things like another table getting served food first when their order went in later. Recently, someone drove their truck through the front window of a local Taco Bell because they left a taco off their order and didn’t make it right.

There are some grave injustices in the world though. It seems like the drunk driver often survives the crash when the innocent people going the other way are killed. It’s hard to grasp the concept of an infant dying…

Lord, only you have the answers to the mysteries of life. You bring comfort to the hurting, hope to the hopeless, and are the fog light for those lost at sea. All we can do is turn to you in times when we are low. Lord, lift up those who feel down today.

Thoughts on Ecclesiastes 1 – MEANINGLESS

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”

Sometimes I can relate very well to Ecclesiastes. We go to work day after day and punch the time clock then pay our bills after taxes are taken out of our checks. We clean the house and dust and dirt just reappear out of nowhere. I’m convinced that I could vacuum with our Dyson “Super Sucker” continuously and it will still find dirt. Where does it all come from?!!! Americans are relying more on debt these days and it seems that we are heading for a major crash. Why bother… Meaningless! Chasing the wind!!!

Or is it…

Paying bills isn’t meaningless if we are providing a roof over our head, food on the table, and a future for our children. I learned the hard way that running up credit card debt for things that I want (which lose value long before paid off) is totally meaningless. We have been cleaning our house to host a baby shower for some good friends this weekend. I know it will be dirty again afterwards, but how meaningful is it to help welcome a new baby into the world.

It is only meaningless if we are chasing the wind. Instead, we should be chasing God. It is only meaningless with earthly thinking. With a kingdom mindset, everything becomes meaningful.

Lord, I want to have your eyes for brief moments every now and then. Our work is not what brings us salvation. Only your love does that. It does bring your kingdom closer to others. Let us spread your kingdom, not for our glory, but for yours.