CHRISTMAS MESSAGE IN A CANDY CANE

THE MESSAGE IN A CANDY CANE

{Teach your children}

The hard candy reminds us that Jesus is our rock. — For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly moved. Psa 62:1-2

Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:

he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

Luk 6:47-48

The cane shape reminds us of a shepherd’s staff and the shepherds that came to worship Jesus. It also reminds us of how Jesus came into the world to be a shepherd of his people. — And the angel said to [the shepherds], "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; Luke 2:10 and

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Ps:22

The upside-down candy cane forms the letter “J” and reminds us of the name of Jesus which means “God saves.” — … “do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

The peppermint flavor reminds us of the gift of spices from the Wise Men. —

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy;

and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Matthew 2:10-11

The white candy reminds us of purity and holiness. It recalls the virgin birth of Christ, the sinless life of Christ and the holy life that Jesus wants his people to live. —

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us).Matthew 1:23 and

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 1 Peter 1:14-15

The color red reminds us that Jesus became a real flesh and blood man and spilled his blood to save his people. — Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, Hebrews 2:14 and

but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1Jo 1:7

The stripes remind us of the lashes Jesus received when he suffered for us and ultimately bore our sins that we might be healed. — He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:24-25

Grace

Grace is the only Power that enables us to live with our character defects without either morbid guilt or denial. Denial gives a shallow and temporary sense of confidence that can appear quite solid and secure, depending upon how well one is at repressing the Truth. But this confidence will not withstand the fire of Ultimate Truth, which we all will face in due time, and for which we must be prepared today!
" For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known" says Jesus. [Mt. 10:26].  This uncovering will be hell for some; heaven for others.  Grace enables us to come out of denial, receive the unspeakable gift of forgiveness [without just assuming that we already have it and/or taking it for granted--a serious mistake! ] and devote ourselves to Jesus and His Love for humankind. Grace frees us from our unknown encumbrances to Love--receiving and giving it. Shame and an excessive sense of inadequacy dim the Light of Love that Jesus would have shining in and through us. Denial makes us dangerous for the human family--a soul through whom Satan can operate freely. So we see the unspeakable gift and importance of Grace in that it destroys guilt and shame and delivers us from the darkness of denial. We are sinners! We proclaim it loudly. And we know as intimately as we can the specifics of our sinful nature. We keep them in mind because they encumber us in our Love for our people, which is our supreme commitment in obedience to Christ. But we are not guilty or ashamed because we dare not make Christ's sacrifice of no avail to us; which would be disgraceful to Him Who paid such a horrific price for our freedom and Who loves us beyond measure. May His name be praised forever and ever and may His freeing Grace be received into the hearts of many.

Power: The Sexual Harassment Solution?

“Ultimately, the thing that will bring the most to change our culture is the one I’ve been writing and talking about for a long time: having more women with more power,”  Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook executive.

Men tend to be attracted to vulnerability in women. This is the root of pedophilia and sexual harassment in the marketplace. As far as sex alone is concerned, powerful women tend to be a turnoff. There are at least two basic responses a man can make to the vulnerability that he loves in womanhood: He can take advantage of it, or he can protect it--protect her within the context of her vulnerability. If he takes advantage of her vulnerability, she must begin to harden and strengthen; in other words to become more masculine. If he respects her womanhood, she is free to grow in the feminine strength that healthy men love and need. She doesn't have to compete with him or guard herself against him. The paradox of men using power to coerce sexual gratification from women is that it forces those women to become more powerful and therefore less sexually attractive to men.
It is a principle in life that we live by power or we live by love. The less we love, the more that power will ascend. If we do not obey the righteous laws of man, those who enforce the law will arm themselves more powerfully and become more invasive. If we do not use our freedoms responsibly, eventually they will be removed by some powerful force. As Edmund Burke said "It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds can never be free. Their passions forge their fetters."
More power is not the long-term solution. Though it certainly is necessary to protect the vulnerable from forces in society that would abuse their vulnerability. Psycho-spiritual growth toward the Love of Jesus Christ is the only deep and thorough solution. Prayer and submission to the God of this universe, Who is Love, and Who loves His daughters and sons equally, and Who has ordained something as beautiful as manhood and womanhood: this is the only freedom-enhancing solution. 

Socialism and Capitalism

It seems to me that Socialism can only work when people are not generally lazy, dependent, irresponsible or entitled, which makes them parasitical. And Capitalism can only work when people are not generally greedy, which generates hoarding and prevents the "trickle down" effect. But when people are greedy, lazy, irresponsible and entitled, the only economic system that can work is one that is governed by tyranny and driven by fear of a power that forces people to do what works for the system. This points to the importance of Christianity in its purest form, which transforms the heart of greedy, irresponsible humans and militates toward a community of Love characterized by generosity and sincere desire for the common good. When a society is infused with Christian Love any governmental or economic system can work. Without this Love, only tyranny and fear can stabilize a society. Our choice seems to be either that society will be governed by Love, or it will be governed by fear, greed and power.

Thanksgiving

Spent Thanksgiving week in Gulf Shores, AL. Weather was beautiful; beach sparsely populated; skies clear; sunrises and sunsets; and one beautiful moonset. I had some time to be still, alone amid some natural dunes. I meditated on the meaning and experience of gratitude---thankfulness. I know, in my own experience, that, most Thanksgivings, I have talked more about thankfulness than I have consciously experienced. So I sat long, allowing the inner experience of gratitude to well up in me.  As always, when I sit, there is a lot of garbage, smoke and dust that must settle before clarity emerges.  If you've meditated, you know what I mean. If you haven't, I recommend that you do.  Otherwise thankfulness can be just another concept rattling around in a jumbled, monkey mind.  But  when you be still long enough to let the delusionary dust settle, opening to your own life, your own inner being, you may be stricken with an emerging sense of awe and wonder. How long has your heart been beating now? By what miraculous power? How do your eyes discern colors? How gloriously warming the sun can feel on your skin! What is your mind? Is there anything wrong with the cosmos? Or is it just us--our delusions that worry and frustrate us, and cause us to hate and fear? If we sit and meditate long enough we begin to see the futility of all our worries. If, with humility and sincerity, we call upon the God of this universe, He will manifest Himself to us in special and unique ways. We can Hear His voice in the sounds of the ocean, the laughter of seagulls and children playing on the beach. We see Him in the light dancing on the water; the reeds flowing like waves in the wind; orange and pink clouds at sunset. We can begin to trust that He really is Love, like the Bible says. And if He is Love, then all is here because of Love--I am here because of Love; life is sometimes difficult because of Love; death and suffering are allowed by Love; and all things really are working together for my good because the God of this universe is Love and is allowing all things because of Love.
How arrogant of us to assume that, because we do not understand certain things that God allows, He must not be loving, powerful or trustworthy. We must consider that the very mind that is thinking those thoughts has been created by this God that we are judging as somehow wrong. And we do not even understand our own minds; or the conception process; or gravity; or how this planet became life-sustaining. We do not have high enough ground to stand on to judge God. But we do have hearts and eyes, the capacity to love, humor, music, and creative powers---and they have all been GIVEN to us! It is humbling to meditate deeply on the fact that we did not create ourselves--we don't even understand ourselves! We experience everything that we experience because we have been given life!  It is, therefore, very appropriate that, with some sense of humility and integrity, we stand up straight, look Godward, and from a very deep place within us say "Thank You God! Thank You very, very much! Please help me to do something good with this unspeakably awesome gift."
Jesus will, without fail, answer that prayer in the most lovely way imaginable. He will give you confidence and peace in the midst of your worst sufferings because you will know you are suffering for the right reasons. You will cry tears of joy. You will be in touch with the Eternity that you have never been apart from except in the darkness of your mind. He will bring you, through the path of the Cross, to the great adventure of loving people with the Love of God. You will become Light.

Freedom and Love

A junior high school girl whom I was counseling once whined "Why can't we all just do what we feel like doing?" She was voicing the adolescent and childhood complaint of  everyone. That's where we start in life: just wanting to do what we feel like doing. We equate being able to do what we feel like doing with freedom. But, as every parent knows, there are constraints to this type of "freedom." And for the rest of our lives, and throughout the history of the human family we deal with the definition of those constraints--the definition of freedom. We enact laws to restrain certain "freedoms". But who or what determines the constraints of freedom? Is there a pool of ancient knowledge or wisdom that we draw from in determining the limits, or definition, of freedom? Or does the whim of every nation and culture determine for itself what is right and good? Do the laws of a nation determine that pedophilia, for instance, is good or evil, and therefore allowed or disallowed? If a nation determines that genocide is legal, is there no objective moral code that is above the law of that nation? And if so, who or what determines this code? Can anarchy work? Or is Edmund Burke correct in asserting that there must be a controlling factor in any society?  When we press these questions deeply enough in light of human history and of what we see in our daily lives, we realize that freedom is associated with good and evil; that there is, in fact, good and evil, and that laws are designed to allow and foster the good and to prevent evil. And it seems evident that good and evil are pre-existent; that is, we humans did not and do not determine that, for instance, rape and murder are evil: they were and are evil independent of our determinations. So they are forbidden by our laws--not allowed within the realm of "freedom". We are not free to rape and murder, even if we "feel" like it or want to. There is necessary restraint on human passions. But what is the limit of this boundary between restraint and freedom? How do we determine what is to be allowed and what to be forbidden? And, more deeply, what is freedom at its core--in the essence of its reality? It seems that a man can be living in a free society and feel chronically enslaved, frustrated, wanting and needing more of something he is not getting. And a man can live in an oppressed society, or even in prison, and feel free and content. Freedom may be predominantly a feeling born of naivete or spiritual maturity. It may be the fruit of looking deeply into life--Reality as it is.
The Bible teaches that freedom is the fruit of a life lived in obedience to the principle of Love--the Love of God as manifested and offered through Jesus Christ. In this Love we are free from the "Law" because the Law is fulfilled in Love.  As Augustine said: "Love, and do what you will." Love delivers us from selfish, destructive and vain pursuits that do not fulfill and lead to increased desire [like addictions]. Unfulfilled desire leads to frustration, which can escalate into anger and bitterness--like the man who recently [at the time of this writing] walked into a church and killed twenty-six people because he could not have what he wanted with his ex-wife. One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that we find our freedom by helping others get free from the enslavement of  sin and delusions. Jesus frankly said  "If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." [Jhn 8:36]  This is the freedom of Christ--the freedom of Love--the freedom for which and in which we were born.

Character Transformation

Fear and desire can cause one to suppress his true character for a time. We use this to shape the habits, and hopefully the character, of our children. For example, we use their fear of consequences and their desire to please their parents to get them to behave properly--to suppress the bad behaviors and exhibit the good ones. In adulthood, as in childhood, if the character is not permeated and transformed, this is basically manipulative. And we do not mind our children manipulating us in this way; they are at least forming a habit of good behavior.  But we pray that they will eventually realize the eternal value and rationality of being truly good--or at least aspiring to it.  In adulthood, as with so many other aspects of life, this issue is more grave. A man, for instance, can suppress his misogynous character in order to charm a woman to have sex with him, perhaps even to marry him.  His desire  causes him to suppress his true character. But his meanness will eventually emerge. A single mother may desperately need a man to help her raise her children, so she pretends to love a man of means for whom she has no real attraction. But it is very difficult to feign attraction over time.
Jesus transforms the heart--the very inner character of the believer. When I look deeply into my own heart, and based on what I see in those who have allowed me to look deeply into their hearts [and since I am a counselor, that is a significant number of people] this inner transformation seems to be a necessary process for the attainment of true maturity. And it is an ongoing process. When it occurs within you, you understand why Christians are evangelical and why they proselytize. It's because they love the human family.