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For I do not do the good that I desire; but the evil which I do not will, that I do.

Today a little 2 year old girl fell into a pool and nearly drowned. This child was under water they say for nearly 5 minutes. Although she was revived she will have permanent brain damage.

Today, a young Christian struggled with the lure of a false dead religion, one she was steeped in for years. She wanted to give into the rituals of this false path and derive security from what she knew and could expect.

Like the girl who nearly drowned, this young believer needs to resist the natural urges. The child couldn’t resist the urge to breathe in and in so doing, breathed in water instead of air. The young Christian finds it hard to resist the natural tendency to follow the ways of the flesh, to derive comfort in false things because they are known to her. Its not natural to resist the lure of the world and to follow the Lord. Yet we can resist, for we are new creatures in Christ. The old man is put away.2 Corinthians 5: 17 So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. We can do this, through Him, through the Holy Spirit changing us. Philippians 4: 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Luke 10:37 And he said, The one doing the deed of mercy to him. And Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.

Do we go and do likewise?

Last week, temperatures in Arizona hit the usual midsummer intense heat, around 110 degrees F (that’s around 45 degrees C). We were out driving to a bookstore and passed by a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk with his shopping cart of belongings. It was hot, the sidewalk sunny. There were no open businesses where he was. No trees. Not even a grassy spot. Just hard concrete and compact dirt. It occurred to me to get him a bottle of water from a convenience store about a quarter mile away but my husband didn’t want to. He was afraid of us getting hurt. I have to admit I was too.

Later on I wondered if we should have stopped. After all, wouldn’t the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) have stopped for this man? How many would have stopped for this man?

Luke 10
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
30 And answering, Jesus said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, who stripped him of his clothing and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by coincidence a certain priest came down that way and seeing him, he passed by on the opposite side .
32 And in the same way a Levite, also being at the place, coming and seeing him , he passed on the opposite side .
33 But a certain traveling Samaritan came upon him, and seeing him, he was filled with pity.
34 And coming near, he bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And going on the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him. And whatever more you spend, when I come again I will repay you.
36 Then which of these three, do you think, was neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?
37 And he said, The one doing the deed of mercy to him. And Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.

Probably at some point, you have heard of the woman who spill hot coffee in her lap, and sued McDonald’s for millions. What you usually hear, is how this woman drove into the drivethru at McDonald’s and bought hot coffee, that she then stuck between her legs. Because it was a Styrofoam cup with a slip on slid, the coffee spilled in her lap. The you hear that that this lady was awarded nearly 3 million dollars because she burned her lap. Generally, most people tend to feel more sympathy for an individual, than they do for multi-billion dollar corporation. In this case some people side more with McDonald’s, reasoning that this woman doesn’t deserve much, if anything, afterall, McDonald’s did not spill the coffee, she did that herself, it was her poor judgement that led to the accident. They also think that 3 million is a ridiculous amount of money, for a coffee scald.

Perhaps, you are one of those people. We are always hearing of frivolous lawsuits and/or excessive judgement is lawsuits. Perhaps this angers you some, because you know that these things, cost us all money. Perhaps you believe that if you were in her shoes, you would not have brought this suit, but just admitted your own fault and move on, after you stopped screaming from the pain.

Those are easy positions to take, aren’t they? You may not have you facts strait however. For example, this woman was not driving, she was a passenger in the car, and the car was not in motion. She was opening the lid to add cream and sugar, yes, the coffee was between her legs as she attempted to remove the lid. The lid was on tight enough (which is good, because you would not want the lid to come off if the cup overturned while driving) that she had to squeeze the cup with her legs to keep the cup from lifting, while she pulled the lid off, but, once the lid was off, the cup lost reinforcement, and the pressure from her legs squeezed cup out of round, and the coffee squirted up and out of the cup. In a moment, the coffee was absorbed into her sweatpants which kept the hot coffee in contact with her skin. The pain made her react instinctively and uncontrollably, spilling the rest of the coffee - you get the picture.

Now, this doesn’t make the spill the responsibility of McDonald’s, but it does transform the incident from one of a really foolish driver with hot coffee in her lap, to a mistake and accident that anyone of us might have made.

Now, what you also might not know, that this was not simply a painful burn. The burns she received were extensive. Six percent of her skin was third degree burns, with additional second and first degree burns. How did it get to such a large about of her body? Well, after the initial burns on her legs an groin, the coffee ran downhill to the car seat, where her buttocks were burned. Without getting too detailed, she was burned everywhere in between. She spent the next eight days in the hospital, having dead tissue removed and receiving skin grafts.

The woman sought $20,000 from McDonald’s, but McDonald’s refused. This is when she sought relief through a lawsuit. During the discover portion of the trial, McDonald’s produced documents which showed that there had been at least 700 claims by people burned by McDonald’s coffee, in the ten years prior to this woman’s case. This shows that McDonald’s knew that it had a problem with the temperature of it’s coffee.

McDonald’s also provided information, to the effect that they keep there coffee on hold, at 185 degrees, plus or minus 5 degrees. This is substantially hotter that other establishments. Coffee at home, is usually served at 135 to 140 degrees. To give a perspective, most adults cannot make them selves, not matter how hard they try, hold there hand in water over 130 degree. Water at 105 degrees, is about the most people can tolerate in a hot tub, 95 to 100 still feeling quite hot. Eighty  degrees above that, is quite hot! Water at 180 degrees, can give you a third degree burn, in as little as two seconds.

There are other facts that you may not have heard, but I will skip most of them. Remember that three million dollars? Well 2.7 million of that was punitive damages. For those of you not familiar with how are civil court system works, punitive damages are not awarded to the plaintiff, because the plaintiff deserves or needs them. The are designed to punish the defendant (McDonald’s), so that they will have an incentive, to change their behavior, and stop serving coffee that unnecessarily burns 70 people every year. This amount, at the time, was the equivalent of two days worth of coffee sales for McDonald’s. Damages, the amount awarded to the plaintiff as compensation, was awarded by the jury in the amount of $200,000, but it was reduced to $160,000, because the jury found that the plaintiff was 20% responsible. The punitive damages, were reduce by a judge, to $480,000, but the judge said that McDonald’s was reckless, callous, and willful. The parties entered into a secret settlement subsequently, so we do not know how much McDonald’s actually payed. I am guessing that it was less, that McDonald’s threatened to appeal the verdict and/or awards, and that the plaintiff might end up with nothing, so, a compromise was stuck. I do not know, this is just a guess.

O.K. What does all of this have to do with a Christian administrator’s blog?

I do not know if know the facts of the case that I presented about, change your opinion about it at all, that is not the point. But you can see, that someone might come to different conclusions, if they have all of the facts, or in some cases just admit that they do not know all of the facts, and suspend judgement until they do have the facts.

We, as Christians, have a lot of insecurity usually on the topic of judgement. Some of us think think that it means that we should not criticise others. It does not mean that. If you want, you can see my thoughts on judgement as a theological topic, you may, but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about how quick we can be, to leap to false conclusions, when we do not have the facts. Sometimes we think we have the facts, but we do not know how much more to a story there is than is apparent. Sometimes, it is none of our business to know all of the facts, and in such cases, might we want to consider suspending our opinions out of recognizing our own ignorance? We often have too much pride, to consider that we might be wrong, might not have the facts (who wants to be ignorant?).

How do we do this? How does it manifest, where is the harm?

We do this when we become critical of others, when they behave in a way that we do not approve of, but we may not realize, that we might have done the same thing in their position. Friendships can be damaged, congregations torn apart, or, if not torn apart, we separate into factions or cliques, where we justify why we are not like those other guys, as the do the same thing concerning us. This is not pleasing to God, we are one family, we are to love the brethren, bearing one another’s burdens, making peace, forgiving each other, as God also forgave us. Before you are tempted to reply and scold me and tell me that the Bible instructs us to judge those in church, save your breath, I understand that. Again, that is not the subject here. My topic is more about jumping to unfounded conclusions.

Another way that we manifest this faulty type of judgement, is we sometimes blame God, when something in our life is not as we think it should be. We have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. God is the only one who knows all of the details, that lead Him to the actions He performs, or allows things in our lives, that we may not like. We do not know what greater purpose might be serve by our discomfort, or how those things are shaping us into better people, perfecting us in areas that need change inour lives. Perhaps the biggest thing we forget, is that while we may approach His throne and make requests, the decisions are His, and they are always right. We were bought with a price, we belong to Him, and we have no rightful claim on our own lives. To the extent that we maintain our own sense of entitlement, we are outside of His perfect will for us. We are at our best, when we complete surrender ourselves to His will. It is not a natural thing for us to do, it is a supernatural quality. Jesus said it best:

“Never-the-less, thy will, not my will, be done.”

Genesis 2: 8-9 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The tree of life also was in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

I noticed today that fall is in the air. My miniature roses are starting to recover from the intense desert heat of the summer and bloom again. They are beautiful and delicate. So many tiny blossoms on each potted plant on my patio. My little rose garden.

I read Genesis 2 recently and noticed something I hadnt seen before. Maybe its because this part of the bible is so familiar to me so I didnt pay careful attention to it. The LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight. He created something pleasant to our eyes. It wasnt enough that it filled our dietary need. He caused it to be pleasant to our senses. Our Lord is so loving to us, that He desired to create plants that would please our eyes. My roses are a gift from Him. Something He created to give me pleasure, to bring a smile to my face. Indeed every good and perfect gift is from Him.

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be always with grace, having been seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Nowadays using salt is considered bad for our blood pressure, but in ancient times, salt was valued, traded. A seasoning of worth. Salt is a preservative, something to prevent food from spoiling in a time when refrigeration was not available. In ancient times, salt was a symbol of covenant. Treaties ratified with salt were unable to be broken. In Leviticus, we see that the Levites were to season each sacrifice with salt. Indeed, the term for it was salt of the covenant of God. A covenant not to be broken. Mark 9:49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Everyone of us believers is in covenant with God through the blood of Christ.

So then what does it mean to have your speech seasoned with salt? We are under a covenant of salt with the Lord. All of our actions and words should reflect Him. He is glorified by what we do. Sometimes we are the only “bible” someone sees. Our words need to be spoken with the love of Christ. Our words should be given to us by the Holy Spirit when we witness. Our words are to be tempered, seasoned if you will, by our Lord. When we answer each one regarding the Blessed Hope we have in Christ, it should be His words we speak, words given to us by the Holy Spirit, spoken gently in love. Seasoned with salt.

Psalms 1:1 Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of the scornful.

With this poetic line, the psalmist shows a progression towards sin. At first, the man might casually walk with the ungodly, then he might willingly stand with the sinners, finally to sit comfortably with those who mock God. Each step becoming more rooted in the ways of sin. Each step identifying more with the sinners than with the Lord.

Think about the image of a boiling frog. If you bring a pot to boil and throw a frog into it, he will jump out fast. But if you put him in mild water and slowly bring it to a boil, he wont notice. The frog is desensitized to the changes in the temperature of the water. It is the same with sin. If you begin to hang around the lost in their sins, accepting their sins, well it doesn’t seem so bad. Progressively the sins you don’t notice become more serious until you are in danger.

How can you resist becoming desensitized to sin? The psalmist supplies the answer. Psalms 1:2 But his delight is only in the Law of Jehovah; and in His Law he meditates day and night. Get grounded in the word. Be strong in your faith and hold fast to the precepts of the Lord. See sin as sin. Then you will be the “tree planted by the rivulets of water that brings forth its fruit in its seasons, and its leaf shall not wither, and all which he does shall be blessed” in verse 3.

(This is an older blog entry I have from another blog site of mine.)

From something I wrote a couple of months ago….

Today is the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. My city took in about 3,000 of the refugees, so the local newspaper did a feature about where they are now. They were poor, taken from their homes having lost everything they had. Placed in the southwest desert and expected to make a new life. Some rose to the occasion and are doing well. Many of them were not doing so well. Suffering from many trauma, health issues, running out of assistance, living on the streets etc.

The website for the newspaper allows people to post comments about the stories. There were about a dozen comments. Most of them were heartless. Comments like “These people are using this tragic event as an excuse to continue doing nothing. I feel no pity.” Another wrote “I feel nothing for these lazy sponges that complain they can’t get their lives in order. They were losers before the storm, they are losers after the storm and unfortunately, in life some people are incapable of being better then losers.” And still another “Is there anyway we can deport these Katrina parasites?”

Perhaps Im not much better. I havent contributed to them. I havent lifted a finger to help them out. I remember seeing them after the storm, at the local sports arena where they were housed for a couple of weeks. The poor we will always have with us He said. We are to help those in need. To love our neighbor as ourselves. In what way have I done that?

Hmm. This blog entry didnt turn out at all like I thought it would. Seems I need to do some careful examination of my heart.