A crowded throne can make you feel the squeeze
by Barrett Vanlandingham
January 27, 2009


I ran across a YouTube video on the internet that perfectly illustrates the struggle Christians face everyday in deciding who’s in charge of their life.
In case you want to look at it yourself, the name of it is “The Stool.” I know, it’s not an attractive title. Nonetheless, it’s a skit that centers around a conversation between Jesus and a Christian. We’ll call her Chris for short. She decides to give Jesus a chair to sit on. They agree that whoever is sitting on the chair gets to make all the decisions for her. Chris soon finds herself in an uncomfortable situation when friends come along and try to talk her into participating in sinful activities. Everytime she can’t make up her mind about what to do, she finds herself trying to make room to sit on the chair that she already gave to Jesus. Sometimes, Jesus would get squeezed half-way off the chair, and sometimes, he wound up all the way off because Chris was taking up all the room. This led to some very pointed discussion between the two as Jesus was trying to make decisions for Chris who kept forgetting who was in charge of her life. She eventually stated that she couldn’t make up her mind. To which, Jesus replied, “You just did.”
Does this sound familiar to you? It’s not a bad idea to frequently ask yourself, Who is sitting on the chair of my life?”
In the New Testament, John writes what he saw in a vision of heaven. It was a celebration like none other.
“…Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." 9Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being (Revelation 4:8-9)."
We serve a God who is worthy of our praise, and is worthy to sit on the throne. In reality, there is nothing we can do to knock Jesus off His throne. However, we do oftentimes prove by our actions that we “think” we can take his place on the throne, a notion that could not be further from the truth, nor would we ever really want to take his place. Think about it, if we place ourselves on the throne, who would we to turn to in times of trouble?
May we pray fervently for the will to keep Jesus on the throne of our life, and have faith enough to never try to push him out of his role as Savior. (end)


The Greatest Commandments
by Barrett Vanlandingham
January 20, 2009

Did you ever wonder exactly what God expects from us? One time, a group of so-called religious men who were always trying to trip-up Jesus asked him a question. They wanted to know which was the greatest commandment of them all. Jesus responded with this quote found in Mark’s Gospel account.
“30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)
One might ask, “How could this be? How could over 600 Jewish laws be boiled down to only two?”
The answer is found in Matthew’s account of this Q & A session when he says,. “40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:40)
So, what exactly does that mean? Well, if you think about it, it makes sense what Jesus was talking about. He’s saying that if you’re fully submitting to God’s will in every part of your life, you really don’t have to worry about whether you’re going to break the rest of those 600-plus rules.
You see, when we tell God that we love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that means we will do anything to keep from disappointing him. Under the Old Testament Law, the large number of rules alone made it next to impossible to get it right. So, the only thing they could do was to check the rules off their list as they completed each good deed or avoided violating a particular law.
So, when Jesus came along and became the perfect sacrifice, there was no longer a need to follow a religion of checklists including animal sacrifices. Besides, it was never meant to be permanent, but simply a “schoolmaster” to bring us to a new and better covenant.
In the New Testament, Jesus over and over stresses the importance of treating other people with respect, kindness, compassion, and sacrificial love. In the form of a human, Jesus now knew firsthand what our struggles were like. Perhaps, that’s why he also told us to love our neighbor, and said there are no laws more important than loving God and loving others.
That part about these two commandments being what the law and prophets hang on is just that. No matter what rule we can think of, we will always be pleasing to God as long as we give God the sacrificial love that he gives us. The Bible also mentions the impossibility of loving a God we haven’t seen while treating those we have seen with hatred (1 John 4:16-21).
May God give each of us the burning desire to love others the way he loves each of us, thereby finding true joy in what will certainly become an abundant life (John 10:10).

How to say “I love you!”
by Barrett Vanlandingham
January 13, 2009

So why doesn’t she seem to appreciate the flowers I get her? Why doesn’t he seem to appreciate me doing the dishes and cleaning the house? Why don’t my children seem appreciative of all the gifts I give them?
I suppose if you were to stack together all the books ever written about relationships, you couldn’t find a room big enough to house them. Author Gary Chapman has penned a series of books on the “Love Languages” of adults, young children, and teenagers. The book “The Love Dare” by Alex and Stephen Kendrick was featured in “Fireproof,” a recent movie focusing how to fireproof your marriage.
I remember how shocked I was the first time I found out that men and women actually have differing ways of what makes them feel loved. Children also have their own ideas of what makes them feel loved. Beyond that, not even all men, all women, or all children have the same love languages.
Some people feel loved when they receive gifts. Others feel loved when they hear the words “I love you.” Still others feel loved when they receive help with household chores or other duties. And others feel love when physical romance is present.
A mix-up can occur when someone assumes what makes them feel loved is what they need to do to make someone else feel loved. If the recipient of the effort has a different love language, the result may be frustration instead of the desired effect of feeling loved.
So what do you do? Well, you can start by asking your loved one what it is that makes them feel loved. But it is important that you establish that what you’re asking is “What makes you feel loved?” Not, “What makes you feel happy at the moment?”
A child may say at first that a new MP3 player or the latest cell phone would make them feel loved. But if you talk with them more you might find out they feel loved when a parent spends time with them, listens to them, provides a home cooked meal, or makes sure they get to school and other activities and back home safely.
A spouse may like a nice gift. Who doesn’t? But they may truly feel loved when they know you’re sacrificing your wants and even time for the overall security or good of the family. If the other spouse is paying attention, they will reward the sacrifices by responding to the other’s love language. Simple respect and appreciation for each other’s needs and each other’s efforts will go a long way towards preventing feelings of resentment. Not only that, but showing appreciation with your actions to back up your words may actually translate to the best “I love you” of all.
With February 14th only a month a way, this would be a great time to start thinking of how to make this year’s Valentine’s Day the best ever. If you’re looking for different outcomes this year in any of your relationships, it will be worth your time to invest some thought and prayer into changing your method. One of the best lines in the recent movie “Fireproof” comes after the husband spends 40 days doing one nice thing per day for his spouse regardless of her reaction in order to save their marriage. Eventually, he won her over and made the statement, “God has given me a love for you I never had before.”
May God bless you all year long as you heed Jesus’ words. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Even if you had no other reading material for advice in your relationships, John 13:34 would be a great place to start. (end)