Author Archives: Bill Dalgetty

God’s Breath

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Are you a daily reader of the Word?

St. Paul, in a letter to his disciple, Timothy, says, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16)

All scripture in the Bible is from God, confirmed by his son, Jesus Christ, and validated over time by the Church fathers.  Scripture instructs us about life, existence, truth and all that is important.

For many years I have made scripture a part of my daily prayer time with the Lord at the start of the day.  After experiencing a renewal of the Holy Spirit in my life thirty-eight years ago this October, I had an intense desire to read the Bible.  I immediately started to read it from cover to cover as I commuted on the trains in and out of New York City each day.  As with many people who have experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the words literally leapt off the page.

Psalm 119, which is the longest of the psalms, spends its entire length extolling all that God’s word is and does for us. 

  • “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (v.105)
  • “Your statutes are my heritage forever.” (v. 111)
  • “All your commands are trustworthy.” (v. 86)
  • “Great peace have they who love your law.” (v. 165)
  • “Your statutes…are my counselors.” (v. 24)

Proverbs says “Every word of God is flawless.” (v. 30:5) Paul says, “For the word of God is living.” (Heb. 4:12)  James exhorts us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (v. 1:22) Finally, the Gospel of John tells us that all of God’s word became flesh in the person of Jesus and dwelt among us. 

Want to know about Jesus and to know him personally? Read scripture and you will know who he is.  Read scripture and meet him personally.  He tells us he is standing outside the door of our hearts knocking, waiting for us to invite him in.

God’s promise is to dwell in us if we invite him in.  “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)  Imagine that!  The God and creator of all that exists, wants to make his home in us!  It’s all in the Good Book.

Wherever we may be with God’s word in our daily life, God says, “Go deeper!”

How to Control Our Desire for Recognition

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Do you desire to be recognized and honored?

Even though Jesus admonishes us that “whoever exalts himself will be humbled,” many of us struggle with the desire to be recognized and honored.  While I may try to act humble, there is an unspoken desire for recognition that has been a weakness in my character for most of my life.

This can manifest itself in various ways – becoming angry over perceived slights, experiencing jealousy over another’s success, allowing ambition to crowd out other priorities in our lives, to name just a few. There was a time early in my career as an attorney for a large international oil company when I allowed the desire to move up the corporate ladder to short change the responsibilities to my family.  Fortunately, the Lord opened my eyes to this reality and gave me the grace to bring better balance to both family and work.

Still, I quietly desire more recognition for things I write, say and do.  St. Gregory of Nyssa said we should “openly despise the accolades of the world and reject all earthly glory.” He suggested seeking God’s will instead of our own as a true act of humility and self-denial.

St. Paul has one of the best statements about seeking recognition.  He says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”  He then goes on to make one of the more eloquent statements in all of scripture when he declares that our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant.” (Philippians 2:3, 6-7)

If Jesus, the Son of God, did not seek recognition for who he was, why should we?  Confident in his relationship with the Father, he was content with the family who raised him, his likely carpenter apprenticeship to his earthly father and the evolving revelation of his call by God to teach, to witness and eventually to sacrifice his life in a tortuous death for the rest of us.

St. Paul said he learned to be content with whatever the circumstances, “whether living in plenty or want,” because he could “do everything through who him gives me strength.”(Philippians 4:11-13)  We, too, should seek to be content without regard to recognition or honor, seeking God’s will instead of our own in all things.

Who do you seek to please – the people in your life or God?  Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt. 6:33)

Enlarge Your Tent

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Both Pope Francis and the Prophet Isaiah share a common theme that we should enlarge the tents of our lives and work.  “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” (Isaiah 54:2)

Whether as individuals or as a group, we tend to get comfortable with familiar people, familiar friends, familiar routines, familiar work, and even familiar forms of outreach.  Francis and Isaiah encourage us not to fall into the bed of comfort and familiarity, but rather to move the walls of our tents to include people who are not a part of our normal social patterns, people who may not necessarily share our background, beliefs and values.

I have been involved in various forms of Christian ministry for a good part of my adult life.  Much of it has been peer related – young people when I was young; business people when I was in business; people who were part of my social patterns at the time.

Last year I started volunteering in a local jail ministry.  It has challenged me.  I am not comfortable and feel like I am out of my element.  I don’t see much fruit so far, but I believe God wants me to continue.   God calls us to faithfulness, often without the benefit of a report card or feedback.  It is our presence and love that he wants regardless of what we perceive the outcome to be.

Enlarging our tents can also include how we relate to one another — family, friends and strangers.  Pope Francis encouraged us to engage in “little gestures” of love.  He cited examples for the family. “They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion,” he said.  “Like the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early breakfast awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work…a blessing before we go to bed.”  “Love is shown by little things,” said Francis.

On Christians in Commerce retreats when we pray with men to experience the Holy Spirit more fully in their lives, we often hear about their desire to love more.  Loving more starts with “little gestures” of love.  As the King said in the Parable of the Talents, “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” (Mt. 25:21)

Loving more starts with the little things every day.  As loving in the little things becomes a habit, God increases our capacity to love and sacrifice in the larger things.  A habit of love in the little things will open the door to people familiar and unfamiliar, and enlarge our tents. 

Exercises for the Heart

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Pick up any health magazine and you will likely see an article about the importance of exercise, diet and eliminating stress to maintain a healthy physical heart.  But what about our other heart – the non-physical one that the Bible talks about so much?

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”   The abridged concordance at the back of my NIV Bible shows 75 references to the use of the word “heart.”  None of them seem to be talking about the physical organ that is the center piece of our circulatory system.  The following are just a few examples:

  • “Serve the Lord your God with all your heart” (Dt. 10:12)
  • “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” (Proverbs 3:5)
  • “Love the Lord God with all your heart” (Matthew 23:32)
  • “A cheerful heart is good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22)
  • “Where your treasure is there is your heart” (Matthew: 6:21)

Some of these verses come from texts that go back more than 3000 years.  None of them are referring to our physical heart.  All of them seem to be searching for a way to express that mysterious interior part of our existence that determines who we really are – our attitudes, our propensity to love or be selfish; our inclination toward joy or depression; our motivation, courage and thirst for life; the source for many of our daily choices. 

Since we can’t physically see or touch these non-physical aspects of our existence we use words like heart, soul, spirit, and inner self to describe them.  Although separate from our physical being, they take up residence there.  If our physical being is destroyed, God promises that our heart, soul and spirit live on.  That’s why St. Paul says our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Co. 6:19)

Since our non-physical heart is so instrumental to all of our overall existence, are we treating it with the same care as our physical heart?  What are we feeding this “other heart?”  How are we exercising it? Is our diet primarily one of pop culture that includes mostly R and X rated movies, comedians that love to use four letter words, busyness that leaves no time for daily prayer, the reading of God’s word or the serving of someone other than our self?

Fill this “wellspring of life” with: a dedicated and exclusive time of talking with and listening to God each day; reading the Bible and other spiritual books; serving a spouse, child, colleague or friend; seeking God’s will in all things; and this other heart will be sufficiently nourished and exercised to realize Jesus’ promise in the sixth Beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”  (John 4:34) May we nourish our other heart with similar food.   

Where Do You Look for Meaning and Purpose?

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When Mary Magdalene and the other women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body after his crucifixion they encountered two men described by Luke as angels who asked, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5)

To their astonishment, these men told them that Jesus was alive!  He was not dead, though he had been put to death on the cross.  How incredulous the whole scene must have appeared to them.  Two days earlier, they saw him die and taken down from the cross.  They saw his dead body embraced by his mother as she wept.  They saw his body placed in the tomb.   How could he be alive?

Our God is the author and creator of life.  He is not confined by the boundaries of our perceptions. 

How often do we look for the living among the dead?  How often do we search for Jesus where he is not present?   How often do we look for real meaning, purpose or happiness in life where they are not to be found – in that next job, promotion or the ever-changing notion of success; in a particular friend, group of friends or organization; in a sports team, sports hero or celebrity entertainer; in that new house, boat or car; in breaking 80 in golf, achieving a perfect 300 game in bowling or completing a full marathon in record time; in food, alcohol, drugs or other unique experience?

I know a friend who was looking for meaning and purpose in life and tried all kinds of things, even traveling to the Himalayas in India, searching for the “Living Master.”  He did not find him.  Only later, after attending a weekend retreat in his hometown conducted by a Christian outreach to the business community, Christians in Commerce, did he find the true living master, Jesus, the Messiah.  This friend found that Jesus had been waiting for him all along.  “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20)

Jesus became alive and present to my friend, providing the meaning and purpose he had long sought.  Ever since, he has been operating a construction business, bringing God’s presence to his employees, customers and community in how he relates to others, does business with integrity and seeks excellence in all that he does.

Where do you look for Jesus – among the living or the dead?  He is present to you this very moment. 

Opportunists for God

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Do we look for opportunities to build God’s kingdom in the daily moments of our lives?  In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul says, “Be very careful, then, how you live – making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:15-16)  He goes on to say that we need to understand what the Lord’s will is in every situation.

Surely our day, with beheadings in the Middle East, the disregard for human life in the sale of aborted baby body parts, and the random shootings in schools, theaters and churches, is no less evil than what Paul saw in his day.  Nor is our need to seize opportunities to serve God and build his kingdom any less. 

The key, Paul says, is to be wise and understand God’s will.  This requires a mindset always to be asking what his will in every situation is, particularly with the people in our lives — family, work colleagues, friends and strangers.

These opportunities are often unexpected.  Once I was at lunch with a work colleague who started to share how he was estranged from his wife.  He was feeling bad for some things he had done and was angry over her response.  I just listened as he uncharacteristically shared his emotion over the crisis in their relationship.  Though we were in a public restaurant with other patrons close by, I reached across the table, took hold of his arm and prayed that God would give him the courage and grace to reach out to his wife, and that they would both open their hearts to forgiveness and reconciliation.

While I never learned the details, they did subsequently reconcile.  In reflecting on the moment, I believe God’s grace prompted me to say the prayer and use it to soften hearts and bring an end to this estrangement.

When someone expresses a need or lets us know that they are hurting, alarm bells should go off alerting us to an opportunity to be and bring God’s presence into the situation.  As Paul suggests, our first reaction should be to understand God’s will. “What do you want me to do and say, Lord?”

Jesus encouraged us to “let your light shine before men.” (Mt. 5:16)  He seized countless opportunities to heal a cripple, give sight to the blind, expel a demon, open the ears of the deaf and even raise the dead to demonstrate that the kingdom of God was at hand.

The Book of Acts reports that Peter and John did not pass by a crippled beggar as they entered the temple, but similarly seized the opportunity to demonstrate that the kingdom of God was at hand by commanding the beggar to stand and walk.

Are we recognizing the opportunities God places before us each day to be and bring his presence to the people and circumstances of our lives?

Overcoming Workplace Violence with Forgiveness in Christ

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Last week Vester Flanagan killed TV reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward in Roanoke, Virginia, because he was angry with their employer, TV station WDBJ, for having previously fired him. He was fired because he could not control his anger against other employees involving alleged racial slurs. His allegations appeared to be more imagined than real when his discrimination lawsuit was dismissed by a Virginia state court.

Anger is one of Satan’s most favorite tools in stirring up conflict in ourselves and others. Pride is the source of most anger because we become angry when our ego is offended or when we think we are being disrespected and treated unjustly.

The antidote for anger is forgiveness of the offending party, which may be difficult for us without God’s grace available to us through Jesus Christ.

Jesus had a lot to say about forgiveness. It was one of the petitions he gave us in the Lord’s Prayer, and the only one he went on to explain that if we can’t forgive others of their sins against us, God will not forgive our sins. (Mt. 6:14-15) When Peter asked how many times he should forgive a brother who sins against him and suggested seven times, Jesus responded, “seventy times seven.” (Mt. 18:21) And, how can we forget Jesus’ words of forgiveness from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

In Hope for the Workplace-Christ in You, there is a story about workplace forgiveness that illustrates Jesus’ words. Bill taught high school business classes for fifteen years. He then earned a master’s degree that qualified him to move into counseling. He initiated an application for a $250,000 grant for his school district which enabled the district to hire four vocational counselors. Bill was able to both counsel students and administer the grant.

Then there was a change of administrations and Bill was moved back into the kind of teaching job he had previously.   Bill said, “My boss told me there was an emergency vacancy in another school, and because of a hiring freeze I had to take the job. It was clear to me, however, that my new boss wanted his own person in the position I was holding.”

“Needless to say, I was angry,” Bill said. “I felt the change was unjust, and found myself blaming my boss. Many told me that I should have been given his position when the change in administration took place. For nearly six months I was preoccupied with anger and resentment. It affected my attitude and performance. My ego got a hold of me. ‘You’re better than that,’ I told myself. You’re not being treated fairly.’”

At this point, Bill’s anger and resentment could have continued to grow into an angry confrontation, but he heard a teaching on forgiveness at a meeting of Christians in Commerce that said, “As a result of forgiveness, everyone is set free. The wrongdoer is released from obligation, guilt and shame. The victim is released from indignation, anger and bitterness. And the Lord releases more of himself.”

Bill said, “This really hit me; it was a turning point for me. I prayed for the strength to forgive and let go of my anger, and my prayers were answered. Almost immediately, I had a new outlook and peace of mind. The Lord gave me the grace to forgive and truly let go of my anger and frustration. My life was changed.”

“A year later I went back into counseling in the same area I had been previously. I kept the same boss for the next fifteen years and we enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect. I thank God for blessing me with a wonderful career of teaching high school and middle school students for many years, and I thank him for freeing me from a time of anger and resentment that could have distracted me from the calling he had for me.”

The difference between Bill’s story and Vester Flanagan’s is that Bill sought God’s grace to forgive and Vester did not. The workplace is full of opportunities for offense, hurt and injustice. Through God’s grace available to us in Jesus Christ and the power of his Holy Spirit, we need to be willing to forgive when we have been offended. Similarly, we need to be open to offering an apology and seeking forgiveness when we are the offending party.   Are we willing?

What Are You Doing with God’s Glory?

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Whether we recognize it or not, we all have the glory of God in us. We are gloriously made in the image of God. Our human body, with all of its parts and a mind that combines instinct and rationality, is still not fully comprehended by medical science. We are made up of millions of cells that work in unity to give us eyes to see, ears to hear, a mind to understand, along with coronary, respiratory and digestive systems to sustain us.

We are the top of the pyramid of God’s creation. The psalmist says, “you knit me together in my mother’s womb…I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:13-14) Genesis tells us that we are made “to work and take care” of the garden of creation. (Gen. 2:15) The glory of our being combines with the glory of our mission.

Yet the psalmist also reminds us, “How long O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?” (Psalm 4:2) St. Paul chastised the people of his day for exchanging the glory of God for images of mortal man and for exchanging the truth of God for a lie in how they lived. (Rom. 1:23, 25)

Do we recognize the glory of our being? Do we see the glory of working and taking care of the people and circumstances God has entrusted to us?

There have been times in my life when I have forgotten who I was and the important work God had given me. Early in my career I sought the false gods of recognition and position without regard to what God’s will was for me and my family. I didn’t recognize God’s glory in me as one of his created and I wasn’t asking him for guidance in what he wanted for me and the family he had given me.

By the grace of God, the example of my wife and the power of the Holy Spirit, God opened my eyes to see that I was wonderfully made in his image to work and take care of a piece of his creation that was all a part of something larger than myself.

It is part of God’s plan, also called natural law, that most of us become co-creators with him in bringing new life into this world, nurturing that life in the context of a family with a mother and a father, and teaching and demonstrating the truth of God’s word to the next generation.

We are also called to work and take care of our thread in the larger fabric of creation, whatever it may be, so that both civilization and God’s kingdom are moved forward on earth as it is in heaven.

Are we seeing God’s glory in our life and work? Remember, we are precious in the eyes of the Lord!

The Acts of the Apostles in Today’s World

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Can we experience the acts of the apostles in our lives today?

Some scripture commentators refer to the Acts of the Apostles as a “testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit,” or “The Gospel of the Holy Spirit.” It begins with Jesus’ instructions to the disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:5)

With the coming of the Holy Spirit, we see the apostles, who all ran at Jesus’ arrest, take on a new courage to witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus, proclaim the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven and perform miraculous works among the people just as Jesus did. The same Holy Spirit that empowered the early disciples to build God’s church in the first century is still present to all of us today as evident by the following story taken from Hope for the Workplace-Christ in You. (p. 107)

John was a county prosecutor in Minnesota, and worked with a detective sergeant named Eric, who was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Eric was in his mid-thirties and married with two children. After a couple of months of chemotherapy, Eric lost his hair and was often too weak to come to work.

John could see that Eric was very ill, so he asked him if he could attend a Christian conference in Minneapolis in order to be prayed with for healing. John explained that the healing power of Jesus had been manifested at these conferences. Eric was open to going, but he had additional chemotherapy scheduled and was too weak to make the trip. John told him he would pray for him there.

In Acts 19:11-12, Luke reports, “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured.” At the conference John stood in for Eric, as people gathered around him to pray that Eric’s cancer would be healed. Someone handed John a handkerchief that was prayed over to take back to Eric.

Upon returning home, John met Eric one day at the courthouse and invited him into his office. “I told him that we had prayed for his healing at the conference, and someone had given me a handkerchief, which we prayed over for him. I emphasized that I firmly believed in the healing power of Jesus Christ and that God could use the handkerchief as a sign of our faith to heal Eric just as had been done in biblical times. We placed the handkerchief on his chest and prayed that the healing power of Jesus Christ would remove the cancer from him.”

“He thanked me,” John said, “and told me he believed that he would be healed and would return the handkerchief after the doctors had confirmed that he no longer had cancer.” About a month later Eric informed John that the doctors had confirmed that he was cancer free. This took place in the fall of 2001. To this day, the cancer has not returned.

Sometimes our willingness to step out and do something that may seem to be foolish reflects the kind of faith on which God wishes to act. The most important lesson from this story is that God is still performing miracles today through the power of the Holy Spirit just as he did with Peter, Paul and the other disciples of the first century church.

The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living

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Do we see the goodness of the Lord in our daily lives?

In Psalm 27 we read, “I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (vs. 13) Psalm 27 is a beautiful psalm, full of hope, joy and confidence, even in times of difficulty. It begins by declaring, “The Lord is my light and salvation– whom shall I fear…the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?”

Through this “light” (knowledge of God and our existence), “salvation” (God’s saving grace) and “stronghold” (God’s protection), we will “see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” This is a promise for this life, here and now. Whatever the challenge – a demanding boss, a difficult colleague, an unreasonable customer, the loss of a job, a personal illness, the suffering or loss of a loved one, God’s saving grace is available to us in the present moment.

Phillip Yancey in his book, What’s so Amazing about Grace, tells the story of a rock concert at Wembley Stadium in London in 1988, to celebrate the changes in South Africa. For some reason the promoters scheduled opera singer, Jessye Norman as the closing act to sing, Amazing Grace. For twelve hours various rock groups blasted the fans already high on booze and drugs.

Yancey reports, “Finally the time comes for her to sing. A single circle of light follows Norman, a majestic African-American woman wearing a flowing African dashiki, as she strolls on stage. No backup band, no musical instruments, just Jessye. The crowd stirs, restless. Few recognized the opera diva. A voice yells for more [rock music]. Others take up the cry. The scene is getting ugly.”

“Alone, a capella, Norman begins to sing, very slowly:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost but now am found–

Was blind, but now I see.

“A remarkable thing happens in Wembley Stadium that night. Seventy thousand raucous fans fall silent before her aria of grace. By the time Norman reaches the second verse, ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved…, the soprano has the crowd in her hands. By the time she reaches the third verse, ‘Tis grace has brought me safe this far, And grace will lead me home,’ several thousand fans are singing along.

“When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we first begun.”

Jessye Norman later confessed she had no idea what power descended on Wembly Stadium that night. Yancey said, “I think I know. The world thirsts for grace. When grace descends, the world falls silent before it.”

The goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.