Author: george gaffga

I am a retired Presbyterian pastor living in Colorado. My wife, Gigi and I are married 49 years. As an ordinary guy my life has been graced by God in many ways. We have three grown children and five grandchildren. I am trying to live with Christ day to day and though I sometimes fail miserably I am not giving up because God hasn't given up on me. I lead worship at a nearby Life Care Center and I assist at Eagle Bend Community Church where I occasionally preach and lead Bible Studies. I play some guitar, write music and have written a couple of devotional books that were best sellers in my local church. So journey with me and let's see what this life with Jesus is all about and why Grace Matters.

Guns and the President

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My initial reaction to Mr. Obama’s executive actions concerning guns?  Wonderful, amazing, astounding, courageous and in line with the Christian ethic.

Whatever this nation can do to save some of the 30,000 lives that were destroyed last year by guns is a step in the right direction and in accord with everything I believe about what it means to follow Christ in this particular matter.

Gun violence is evil whether done agains oneself or another. It destroys life. There are good and proper ways for people to own guns for the right reasons. With all the other laws and resources we use to make life safer in this nation how can anyone deny the moral validity of doing the same things about guns.

And about the evil people who use guns to destroy the lives of others? More enforcement is in line with why God institutes the governments of the earth. Helping people with mental illness is a noble cause to strive for.

I am not a particularly political person and when I have leanings they are usually on the ‘right’ but this matter has no left or right, only what is good in the sight of the Lord, right along with caring for widows and orphans.

To be pro life means to take action with regards to what the President suggested. I will be looking at candidates who are pro life across the board. I will not have many choices, I fear, and wonder exactly why that is.

But I will, as best a Christian can, support the President in this action. I will do so not because of any political affiliation but because my conscience is held captive by God.

THE DARKNESS DOESN’T UNDERSTAND

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John 1:5: The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (NASB)

I like this rather literal translation of John 1:5. It means that when Christ came into the world, as light, the darkness had no idea how to handle him.

If you have ever been in a bar you will notice that the lights are very dim. The thinking is that people enjoy pleasing themselves with alcohol in a place where it seems they are not so seem.

But the great think about Jesus is that he came to enlighten the world and let us see who we are even in our bad times and let us know that no matter who we are we are loved. The darkness doesn’t know what to do with that.

Darkness has sort of a life of its own; calling people to live for themselves.

When Jesus enters the world the darkness cringes because any amount of light dispels the darkness.

When I was young and afraid of the dark I always had to have a nightlight, just one little light on in the hallway somewhere letting me know I was safe. There is no darkness that can overcome a nightlight. When you light one little candle the darkness goes away. The darkness, if can talk to itself, says, ‘Now what do I do? I can’t make the light go away. I have to go away and look for a place where there is no light.’

But Jesus is the light of the world, the whole world and there is no place that darkness can overcome him. Oh, we can close the door, run away from the light but it will always be there and sooner or later the light will find a way into the darkness and the darkness will once again say, ‘Darn, now where do I go?’

The scripture says that Jesus is the light that enlightens every person. That’s good news because it means that in every corner of this world the light of Christ shines and people will see it and run to it knowing that in the light they are much safer than in the dark. And even our sins that will be discovered in the light will be forgiven by Christ.

On this night there are many candlelight services demonstrating how little lights dispel the darkness. Tonight we celebrate the death of darkness even as we celebrate the birth of Christ and the light. Run to the light. He is our only hope.

And don’t worry. No matter how dark your or my situation or that of the world, once we receive the light, the darkness will once again be stumped, hang its head and disappear.

 

 

GRACE TRUMPS TRADITION & LAW

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So I was reading a devotional book I wrote a few years ago. I enjoyed it, which says something about either my ego or self-confidence.

It was a story I wrote about a guy named Max that I met in Haiti. I had been sitting outside the church on Sunday morning working on my message for worship. A couple guys approached me and one of them, Max, asked if he could have my shoes so he could go to church. Well, I wasn’t about to give up my shoes at that moment and so told him he didn’t need shoes to come into church. I later learned that he indeed needed shoes as a sign of respect. Interestingly I remembered that Moses was asked to take off his shoes as a sign of respect before God.

Anyway as we talked I noticed that a cigarette Max had tucked behind his ear fell to the ground. He pushed it away with his bare foot, which upon noticing I commented, ‘Max, I think you dropped your cigarette.’ Max responded that it wasn’t his cigarette, another taboo in Haiti for the worshipping people. I told Max that God loved him with or without the cigarette and that as long as I was the preacher he could come to worship without shoes. I probably should have gone shoeless myself but I am a slow learner.

At worship that day I looked in vain for Max. And I told the congregation about a man who needed their love and acceptance. I don’t know what happened to Max but I was sorry that law and tradition got in the way of grace.

Besides I enjoy a good smoke now and then and wonder what people would think of me. I know what Jesus thinks. Sometimes during a smoke we talk with each other, with or without shoes.

I want to be a person of grace, more than disciplines, traditions, laws- even some laws found in the Bible. Jesus didn’t always comply with the rules so that people would know love. The church needs to be that way too. Nuf said, which is like saying Amen.

FIGHTING THE DEVIL

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The Devil wants to bring the fight to him, on his turf, his battlefield where his armaments are lies, pride, greed, power and violence. We cannot win on that field.

When the serpent talked with Eve. She had not the weapons or she did not know how to use them to fight the adversary.She and her husband thereby succumbed to every tool at the devil’s disposal. Their own will for power was greater than their desire for God’s will for them.

Take Jesus in the wilderness, honing his skills for the day of battle when the evil one would present Jesus with power and success and a kingdom of sorts. And each time Jesus was ‘tempted’ he responded with God’s word. Oh the devil knows the word of God but Jesus knew the author. And though a tough fight Jesus emerged the victor.

When the devil invites us to his battlefield we bring that whole battlefield before our Lord and Maker and we say ‘No, Satan, no power you have can match the love, the wisdom and finally the power of the living God. Be gone.

2Cor. 10 …For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

There are people who want trouble from us and our natural inclination is to use our muscle, our guns, our military and physical strategies to defeat the enemy but Paul above says that we have within us all the power, spiritual power we need to destroy the fortresses of the enemies. And we have the secret intelligence that Christ is on the side of the humble and contrite. Pride is the one weakness, the Achilles heel, if you will, of those who think they belong to Christ.

In this fight with ISIS, who appears to be the devil incarnate for this season, we need the faithful people to come together to raise up a mighty army of believers from Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, to put on all the armor that Paul says belongs to us.

The armor of faith, the word of God, the shoes to run and tell the Good News. The breastplate of righteousness is wonderfully thick when we follow God’s way. It will stop the fiery darts.

What’s that line in A Mighty Fortress is our God? One little word shall fell him.

His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
one little word shall fell him.

 That word is the Lord. It is faith. It is yes to peace.

Be gone Satan.

 Let the world bow before God to ask for his righteousness and deliverance.

 

FED UP

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Ok, so I have reached my limit of endurance listening to Mr. Trump and to others who agree with him about immigration and about Muslims. I need to say it loud:

MR. TRUMP DOESN’T SPEAK TO ME OR FOR ME OR, I BELIEVE, FOR ANY RIGHTEOUS MINDED CHURCH.

Let’s remember back to 1933 when another demagogue rose to the position of leadership in another part of the world. We called that evil.

We have only one Lord and he is not a politician. And I think Jesus would say to Donald Trump what he said to his disciple Peter when Peter wanted to stop Jesus from doing the hard thing of love and risk laying down his life for another.

Jesus bids us to carry a cross, and with such a call it is clear why he wasn’t popular among the power structures.

We must regard our neighbors with love and acceptance. Certainly we use common sense to let the state manage the sword. But bigotry, hatred, exclusion have no place in our world of Christian values.

Perhaps there are lots of nominal Christians as there were in 1933 that can gravitate to Mr. Trump’s evil ideals. I for one am not one of them. I am going to pray seriously that this is the end for Mr. Trump’s candidacy run. May God bless him in other endeavors.

DELIVER US FROM EVIL

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I can’t help but think that in our overthrowing one particular evil in a region of the world another more monstrous evil was perpetuated.

I am not sure of the exact application of these next words but they are worth considering. “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)

Jesus tells us ‘not to resist evil’ (Matthew 5:39). I have to wonder why this is so. Perhaps we don’t truly know what real evil is or how it is born. Perhaps only God knows. So Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer tells us to pray to the Father, ‘deliver us from evil.’

It is constructive to notice that Jesus in surrendering to evil was thereby the victor through his resurrection. The early Christians faced their deaths rather than ‘fight’ with worldly weapons against evil.

And then I love this verse, which so strengthens my allegiance to Jesus above any earthly rule. “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:15)

Our weapons are not material. They can’t be bought only believed. Let us continue to trust our God and where there be any evil in this world let us make sure it does not spring from us in the personal or worldly sphere.

Where Are the Forks?

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I find that I often have the same difficulty Paul experienced when he writes in Romans 7 that the good he wants to do he doesn’t do and the bad that he doesn’t want to do is what he often does.

He goes on to say that it is the sin within him that is causing this problem. This is not to say as the comedian Flip Wilson once remarked, “the Devil made me do it.” No, Paul has something more serious in mind. It’s Paul’s own willingness to sin that is the problem. It’s his own ego, his territory that is getting in the way. Once you have set the boundaries on your particular territory you have created a playground for sinful behavior, selfish behavior that may evidence itself in anger, jealousy, pride and worry.

Paul is writing that the only way out of this dilemma is through Christ and the formation of Christ within us. See Galatians 4:19.

Paul even comments at the end of chapter 7, ‘but in the sinful nature I am a slave to the law of sin.’ Or as the Message paraphrase has it, ‘ but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.’ (Vs. 25)

What I prefer to say is that all territory belongs to Christ. I have no King but Christ. I cannot let me ego dictate to me what is right and wrong. All I want is Christ in me and then I can do what Christ would do in my body.

Now last night is an example. I was getting ready for dinner with my wife and noticed there were no forks in the drawer where day by day I would normally find forks. So I mentioned it and my wife said that all the silverware happened to be in the dishwasher. The understanding I got from that, after 45 years of marriage, was that it might be a good think if I, for once, took care of that little issue. Yeah, I got annoyed, thinking that maybe she could have asked me nicely to unload the dishwasher. See, I have my territorial issues. Don’t make inferences about my ineptness when it comes to helping out around the house.

So there I was, wanting to do good but not able. The good, in this case, was just having a nice attitude about the whole thing. Now I could say that some ugly demon was living his life in me but no, that’s not the case. I am my worst demon sometimes. Another word perhaps is ‘selfish’. So I have to enlarge my territory by making it all belong to Christ and then nothing can take me from God’s love not even subtle inferences about my responsibilities.

 

 

COSTLY GRACE

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It’s easy to be graceful when you are secure. But it’s harder to be graceful when there is a risk involved like receiving Syrian refugees. I think we as a country, that includes a lot of Christian people, need to take the risk. And for sure there will be many safeguards along the way.

But I remember Jesus saying that when we did something good for the least in our world we are doing the same thing for him. Mysterious but true. He also told us that we need to take up a cross for his righteousness.

We are a country that for all it’s mistakes is a much needed help in this world. Let us continue to help, as we love the ‘least of these’.

I realize that writing this means to do something myself. May God give me the grace to follow Jesus into this unsafe world. And remember we do this not to ‘fix’ the world but to stand with Jesus in ministering to the homeless, the poor, and particularly these Syrian refugees. All to the glory of God.

WHY THERE IS JOY IN HEAVEN.

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For me the greatest single truth to be experienced in the Christian life is to know we are forgiven. Recall the story of the lost things in Luke 15. After each is found Jesus tells the crowds that THERE IS SO MUCH JOY IN HEAVEN WHEN ONE SINNER REPENTS THAN FOR ALL THOSE WHO DON’T THINK THEY NEED TO.

I took some liberty with that verse but in proper context.

I remember when psychiatrist Karl Menninger was alive he commented that most of the people in psychiatric wards could be released, freed, and walk out on their own, so to speak, if they just realized they were forgiven.

When Jesus came into the world his major focus was on telling people that God had come to them to reconcile all people to himself, to put away all enmity, to release them from an imposed spiritual bondage by self or otherwise.

Jesus came to say that our enslavement and alienation from God is over. And the folks who realized it best were those on the fringe of society. And if we are honest that is ‘us’ often times. I think of the Prodigal Son and remember how often that is ME but the Father in the story reminds me that God takes me back, forgives my rebellion and brings me to a table of celebration, and that if I am the proud older son he begs me to come to the table to celebrate the recovery of that which was lost.

There may be a lot of things in this world that do not give us peace. Even as you are reading this, your own soul may be in some degree of turmoil. But rest a moment on this thought. You are forgiven. You and I are the children of God, the beloved of God no matter how far we have run from him.

I think at times that when I am dissatisfied with life I am the prodigal taking the blessings of my Father for granted and I am off in a far and distant land where, like the ancient Israelites, I find it hard to sing the Lord’s song. But then I stop, inside of my own head, and run to the Father’s embrace once more. I am sorry to have forgotten my place in his love but then I gaze upon his only begotten son upon the cross and realize that he is there for me, for us and no matter what else happens in my life, that forgiveness is the most essential truth by which I live in a good relationship with the Father.

And every time I come back to the Father there is a party in heaven, which to my thinking means that heaven is one big continuous celebration of the forgiveness my Savior secured for me.

My sins have been sent away and the favor of God has been bestowed upon me all due to God’s own mercy. Is there anything else more important?

Perhaps if we dwelled more upon what God has done for us we would be less concerned about what we need. As the Scripture says, ‘if God did not spare his own Son will he not give us with him everything we need.’ (Romans 8:32)

And lest you are thinking, ‘what about repentance?’ well, repentance is nothing more or less than changing the way we think so that we are drawn to Christ and not towards ourselves. Someone once explained the Greek term for repentance as if we are walking in one direction and then turn and go the other way. His way.

It’s like the cell door being thrown open. Do we choose freedom or would we rather sit on our cot absorbed in self-pity over our circumstances?

I just got off the phone with Waste Management here in Denver area because they went right by my garbage I had put out on roadside. Driver said it wasn’t out there at 8 in the morning. I found myself getting angry because I put the silly stuff out there before way before 8. So I got myself into a funk and now need to heed my own advice. Once again I am the prodigal who needs to return. Seems like I do a lot of returning.

So here’s what happened. My wife gently told me that it was probably around 8 that I put my garbage out (isn’t that what I am doing here?) and maybe just missed the guy. I called the company and apologized and apologized to my wife for being so grumpy about the whole thing.

That’s what day to day life is like. But I reminded myself that I am forgiven and loved even while I am in a far country feeding pigs. It will all be all right. Thanks for reading. The party might be a bit postponed today.

 

 

 

Straight Shooters

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I have a good friend who once in a gentle critique (at least I think it was meant to be gentle) said that I ‘shoot from the hip’. She meant that often I don’t take the time to aim with some kind of planned purpose. I come up with some idea (like this blog) and just let it go and sometimes-good things happen. Sometimes not.

Let’s just say that I am impulsive and probably compulsive. I don’t keep a planning book. I tried that. It was boring. Sometimes I think that spiritual impulsivity is not such a bad thing. A lot of people sit on their duffs waiting to be motivated to do something for God. I remember back in college we encountered some poor people and I suggested in an Inter-Varsity setting that we just get out there and help them. But the leader said we needed to pray about it. I am all for prayer but what if God is constantly working in our lives leading us by circumstances and events and we miss that by thinking we have to wait and pray. Some things are just evidently God at work waiting for us to join Him.

I was talking to that same friend I mentioned previously and she was telling me that upon hearing of the plight of the Syrian refugees she wanted to open her home to them. Actually it was a second home that she owned. Now there’s a woman after my own heart, shooting from the hip.

But here’s the thing. She and I are straight shooters, people not swerving to the left or right and who can be depended upon to hit the mark, most of the time, people who can be trusted.

I am the kind of person who thinks while he talks and sometimes I can get into trouble but most of the time people understand where I am coming from and that there is no guile to my words. I figure that after a good long straight shooting talk we will arrive at a good conclusion.

The disciple Peter shot from the hip and almost drowned during one episode of his life with Jesus but he kept on going and even through his failures his faithfulness to Jesus prevailed because Jesus himself was praying for Peter’s faith to prevail.

Some people are introverts simply meaning that they take a long time to process things in their heads before making a decision. I guess we need both kinds of people.

But for me, I would rather shoot from the hip than to have no guns. (Speaking spiritually here, not politically)