Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy

I am very good, maybe too good, at creating lots of space in my life. If I get too busy, I tend to become anxious and short tempered. I will give the best of myself to people outside of my family and take the leftovers home to my husband and son. This is not, to say the least, ideal.

So I work at fencing my time. Apart from a few exceptions I don’t work nights or Saturdays (Sunday is hard to avoid since I’m a pastor) and I have no problem with saying ‘no’ to people who ask for my time.

I don’t sign up my son for more than two (one is the norm) activities at a time and I keep our weekends reserved for family.

As my son gets older I know I may not always be able to draw the boundary lines as firmly as I do now, but I suspect I will always be good at fencing my personal time.

All these things should put me in a prime spot in my life to listen for and hear God’s voice - to keep a single day out of the seven in a week to observe in some way God’s direction for us to rest. Yet, even in my 'underscheduled' life, I find it remarkably easy to do busy work all 7 days and not spend time listening to God. Sometimes it's as if I turn on the white noise in my head simply because I don't want to have to listen to what he’s telling me.

Creating a 'Sabbath' (or a holy space) in your life does require time, but it also requires a willing spirit. You could have all the time in the world but if you don't have a desire to hear God’s voice the time factor doesn’t matter.

All of us, no matter how busy or empty our schedules are, need to find space in our lives for rest, renewal and to hear God’s voice. It's important.

It's so important that God commands us to do it. We are to 'keep the Sabbath holy'. That phrase means a lot of different things to different people but today I am using it simply as the idea that we need to make some sacred space in our lives. we need to stop: stop working, stop achieving, stop talking, stop directing. We need to listen: to God, our families, ourselves. We need to be open: to new directions, to being wrong (or right), to being uncertain, to simply waiting.

If we really and truly stop doing, start listening, and allow ourselves to be open to God's guidance that sense of peace and fulfillment that we spend out days chasing will just suddenly show up when we least expect it.

Chesney Szaniszlo

Be still and know that I am God....
-Psalm 46:10

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How tight are you clutching the steering wheel?

If life was a car that I was driving, I would probably be a white-knuckled driver. I like to think that I am in total control of everything that even brushes against my 'sphere of influence' and because of this, I have lived out most of my 38 years (yes, I had diagnosable anxiety as a 3rd grader) in a state of almost constant alert.

I have this constant lie running through my head that by living this way, I am going to prevent bad things from happening and that I will be able to prevent pain and suffering from touching myself or my family.

What a crock!

I am not advocating living capriciously but I am saying that we can do our best but in the end unexpected and sometimes tragic events will take place in our lives. We can be meticulous about safety for ourselves and our own families but we can't control other people. At some point, everyone we love WILL die. Illnesses will take hold. Accidents will happen. Other people will be rude and unkind to us or our kids.

In this life, maybe we should be working to build up our children's and our resiliency. Maybe instead of trying to prevent things from happening to us and our loved ones, we should be learning how to deal with life when it happens - because no matter what we do to stop it or slow it down LIFE WILL HAPPEN.

It seems to me that God is a big part of this ability to be resilient. God is in control, not us. God knows the future and how things will come together, not us. God loves us and our children more than we do ourselves.  In Matthew, chapter 7:9-11 , Jesus tells the people, Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

The most freeing times in my life have been when the worst case scenario has taken place or when I am at my wits end and can't make anything happen on my own power. It is in these situations that I finally throw my hands up and give God what he has been asking for - control of my life.

If I think I'm driving through life alone and something happens - a flat tire, empty gas tank, a smoke filled engine - I am terrified. When I allow myself to go for the ride down the road of life with God driving, I can actually enjoy the road trip - even if there's a flat tire or a breakdown because I trust HIM to take care of me and the situation. When I am not backseat driving or taking control of the wheel,  my life is so much more peaceful because I am not trying to MAKE things happen on my own; I am letting someone who knows the maps and roads of my life better than anyone be in charge - GOD.

This is not easy for anyone - particularly for those of us who like to be in charge. My entire life has been filled with the struggle to give the steering will of my life back to God. This might be the work God is calling you to begin today, too.

Putting ourselves under God's authority and control is the most important work in a Christian's discipleship journey - it is also probably the most difficult and the one that will never be fully completed until our birth into the eternal.

If you are white-knuckled driving today, let go and let God take over. The road might not be the one you wanted but with God driving you will make it to the end of the journey.

Chesney Szaniszlo

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.
-Zephaniah 3:17

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What if we focused less on ourselves...

It's pretty easy to look at the people around us and wish we were more like them. Some of us want the bigger house (or better decorated one). Some of us want to be the size of our neighbor or have their perfect clothes, their perfectly well-behaved children, or their perfect, indulgent spouse. Some of us focus on our failings and how others are smarter, healthier, more patient, more wise, more anything...than us.

Some of us walk around thinking we are awesome, that we are better than others either because we have more money, a better education, a better job, God on our side or a better whatever than those around us.

I've been on both sides of this fence. I've spent a lot of my life feeling that I don't measure up and yet at the same time I have taken a wierd sense of pride in being a part of the minority opinion or group of outcasts. I remember being part of a group in seminary that a friend named "the beautiful people" and feeling torn because I liked the feeling of being part of the "in" crowd for the first time but also feeling ashamed for those same feelings.

We hear a lot today about 'us' and 'them': the rich and the poor, Republicans and Democrats, legals and illegals. Within our own communities we even break ourselves into groups: families who do private school and families who do public, Christian and non-Christian, homes with luxury bathrooms and kitchens and homes with 'normal' facilities.

No matter which group you find yourself in, there are usually pros and cons to belonging beginning with a strange mixture of pride and shame.

The point of all this is that when we get right down to it, most of us spend about 99% of our time thinking about ourselves. This is a pretty unbiblical position to find ourselves in and yet we tend to live most of our lives in this self-centered place of how "I" compare to the rest of the world.

In the 16th chapter of Matthew, Jesus said, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul? Or what can you give in exchange for your soul?

When we only look at our peers or the people "ahead" of us, we will always find ourselves lacking and continue to focus on 'catching up'. If we focus on those who Jesus tells us to minister to, those who are "behind" us in wealth, faith, education, or ability, then our focus on ourselves will diminish as we step off the treadmill of the suburban race - the race that makes us run faster but never really gets us anywhere.

Chesney Szaniszlo

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  - Luke 14: 12-14

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What the world needs now is....

Love, sweet love?
Jobs?
Economic Security?
Peace?
Food for the hungry?
Shelter for the homeless?


We need all of the above, but I have to say that I think really what the world needs more of is Jesus Christ. Even those of us who proclaim ourselves to be Christians, aren't necessarily proclaiming Jesus to the world. What we tend to proclaim more is judgement: what people should and shouldn't be doing out there in the big wide world. What's even more interesting is that for the most part, as Christians, we tend to be telling non-Christians how they should be living instead of making sure that we are living the way Jesus told us to live.

There's a song by Casting Crowns called "Jesus, Friend of Sinners" which, if you listen to any contemporary Christian radio station, you have most likely heard. There is a line in that song that resonates deeply within me that states:

Nobody knows what we're for only what we're against when we judge the wounded.
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and loved like You did.

Now, I am not saying that as Christians we aren't supposed to work hard to be holy and live under the Authority of Scripture. We are supposed to do this! But as Christians we are supposed to be worrying about ourselves more than others.   Instead of focusing first on what we are doing wrong (both as individuals and corporately as a Church), I look around our world and I see us (Christians) focusing more often on what other people are doing wrong.

I wonder what our world could look like if we took all the effort we spend on telling others how they are doing it wrong and focused on doing what Jesus called us to do. If instead of complaining about how others are messing up our world, what if we focused on what we can do to save it simply by being the people Jesus wants us to be.

Here are some things, as Christians, we should keep in mind as we go about our daily lives:

-“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? -Matthew 5:43-47

-Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets - Matthew 7:12

- “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. - Mark 8:34-38


Chesney Szaniszlo

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You are What you Think 3 - God's in charge

As children, we believe that God has 'the whole world in his hands' and we trust God loves us and will take care of us. We believe this because we are taught it by people we trust. As grown-ups, we tend to not be so sure of these same premises. Yet when we have our own children, we go ahead and teach them that God has the whole world in his hands even if we don't quite believe it ourselves.

Our grown up way of thinking complicates things. If something good happens, we either don't give God credit for it or assume we did something to deserve it. When something bad happens, however, God is the first person who's door we knock on to complain. As grown ups, we aren't very consistent or very theological about the way we think of events in our lives and in the world.

Scripture is very clear that God is in charge and that God will do what he will do. He is not capricious nor is he vindictive. God is GOOD and knows the outcome of everything before it happens. What God ordains might not seem 'good' to us, but we have to trust that He knows what he is doing. Just as the disciples couldn't fathom how Jesus dying on a cross was a good thing, we know in retrospect that it was the greatest gift God gave to us.

We also have to admit that God isn't responsible for every bad thing happening to us. We are humans who are fallen, along with creation, and have a propensity to choose evil over good. Sometimes God intervenes and saves us from the consequences of our sinfulness and sometimes He doesn't. Sometimes He chooses to walk with us through the pain that this life often brings. God has already saved us once and for all time with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, to step in every time we sin and either prevent us from sinning or prevent the consequences of that sin, would not be good for two reasons: 1) To prevent us from sinning would be to take away the free will that God gifted humanity with 2) to step in and protect us from the consequences of our sins every time we decide against God, would not be good parenting - at some point we have to learn from the consequences of our behavior and take responsibility for our actions.

Knowing that in our heads is one thing. Trusting it in our hearts is another.


Most of you are probably at least somewhat familiar with the traditional hymn "It is well with my soul." For most of my life I loved this hymn and then I found out the story behind it and I disliked it intensely for quite a while.

Horatio Spafford wrote the words to "It is well with my soul" on his way to bring his wife home after she survived a shipwreck which left their four daughters drowned in the sea. At the time I thought it unbelievably callous that this man could write a song that no matter what happened to him he trusted God and would praise Him in any circumstance. It seemed to me that he was ignoring the fact that his four daughters had all just died in very tragic, and most likely terrifying, way.

Praising God in all circumstances is directed by scripture (Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), but I knew that if I had been in Horatio's shoes, I would not have been thinking such praiseworthy thoughts. 

While scripture also gives room for us to be angry with God, we always have to keep in mind that no matter what happens in this life and world, God is in charge and God knows what he is doing. Our human emotions will go up and down regarding that Truth, but the Truth remains the same.

In the years that have passed since I first discovered the history of Horatio's hymn, I have grown to love it again. I now recognize Horatio's words as those of someone with great faith in the goodness and omnipotence of God, not someone who didn't care about his daughters.

Our emotions are wonderful things, but they can also lead us away from the truth that God is in charge of his whole creation and that no matter what events take place, God is aware of them, has allowed them or caused them, and will work them out for the good of those who love him.

Whether we feel it or not in the moment, the bible tells us (and the Bible is always true) that God does, indeed, have the whole world in his hands.

Chesney Szaniszlo

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28

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You are what you think #2 - God as a human

Have you ever taken the time to think about the wierdness and mystery involved in the Christian belief that God became human (or incarnated if you want to use the theological term)? And that while God was walking around in the human form of Jesus, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit were also present and fully accounted for at the same time (the Trinity)?

If I think about either of these ideas too much, I start to feel like my head is going to explode. When I was a child my father explained the Trinity to me with the example of a pot of boiling into which you threw some ice cubes. It had three forms of water (liquid, solid, gas) all at the same time. It was not perfect but it was pretty good comparison for a 13 year old. Later, I had more sophisticated questions - similar to the ones the leaders of the early church wrestled with as the first creeds of the Church were written and agreed upon as truth and correct doctrine. Questions such as "how was Jesus God"? Was Jesus really just God in a human skin suit (sort of like when your kids dress up at Halloween)? Or was Jesus simply a human who God chose to work through in very powerful ways?

The early Church, using the Scriptures and the teachings of the Apostles agreed that the only way Jesus could have been truly God and yet still a human was to be fully both - the outcome of the incar
inational mystery that we cannot really understand yet believe because of Faith.

(Remember last week I stated that if you don't believe the Scriptures are truly the word of God and a real witness to His work in our world, then you can't believe any of the other Christian beliefs because they all rest on the belief that the Bible is truth.)

Breaking down the doctrine of the incarnation and the Trinity won't really get you anywhere except back to the understanding that you have to take them on faith. What looking at these two ideas will do for the Christ follower is show him/her how much God truly loves those He has created. Except for God loving us with a love that is wider, longer, higher and deeper than we can ever understand, there is no reason for Him to have become incarnated only to die on a cross that we might have salvation and forgiveness. Except for God being three - in - one, there is no way for us to have understood His sacrficial love through the life and death of Jesus or to be guided by his Holy Spirit on a daily basis.

The Christian faith is not simple because it doesn't come from our human minds. It is not a religion that we make up as we go along. We do not worship a god that we created from clay or gold and can control by making 'deals' with it. We worship a God who is far beyond our understanding and our control - and yet we worship a God who has made it very clear to us that He loves us beyond anything we can understand or reason out.

We might not be able to rationally make sense of the Christian doctrines of the Incarnation or the Trinity - but God has made sure (through his scriptures, the life of Jesus Christ, and the movement of the Holy Spirit) that we can understand that he loves us. This love is the knowledge that we need to come away with from these two ideas.

Chesney Szaniszlo

 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  ^{- Ephesians 3 16-19}

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You are What You Think - 1

The topic of what it means when we say the Bible is the word of God sounds really boring and irrelevant. But it’s not. It’s actually the most important tenant of Christianity. If you don’t believe the Bible is in fact a real and valid witness to God and his action in the world, then any other Christian ‘belief’ falls by the wayside because the Bible is the primary witness to God’s love and work in the world on our behalf. If you do not believe it to be true, how can you believe any other part of Christianity?

The belief that the Bible is true should influence everything that a believer says and does. Believing that we are under the authority of Scripture (meaning that it is the guide that directs our lives once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior) sets us apart from non-believers. When, as Christians, we begin to pick and choose the parts of scripture that are easy for us to follow and reject those parts that cause us to be conscious of our sin, the differences that set believers apart from non-believers begin to blur. 

As Christians we are to be filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)  These, as you will probably notice, are not things that the world is filled with. We don’t just start exhibiting these traits once we become Christians. It takes discipline and hard work to cultivate these characteristics. (Every time I recite that list I always leave out at least one – usually the one(s) I am currently struggling with the most. Today, for your information, it was gentleness!)

One of the main ways we do the hard work of cultivating the fruit of the Spirit is by immersing ourselves in the word of God – the Scriptures that we agree to be under the authority of when we become Christians.

I know that I am not always a daily reader of Scripture so I know that for most people, it is probably also difficult. We are so busy with everything else that needs to get done on our ‘to do’ list that God often gets shoved to the back burner because we know he will always be there waiting for us.

We need to read Scripture though. We need to read Scripture alone and with our spouse, our families, with our kids even after they outgrow the Rhyme Bible and move on to the latest offerings of pop-culture because it reminds us who we are in Christ. It reminds us that once we accept Jesus we are people who are in the world but not of it, “…a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:8-9)

We need to read Scripture because it is the story of God’s love for us and how he has worked in his creation to redeem us even though we reject(ed) him. We need to read Scripture because we have agreed to live according to its dictates and if we don’t read it, it is easy to forget that we are ambassadors for the one we call “Lord”.

Chesney Szaniszlo

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.  - Timothy 3:16-17

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