Making Life Work

By: Lenny Cacchio  





    Most Christians don’t realize that they keep a Jewish High Holy Day! The day known as Pentecost was originally one of the Holy Days given to the Israelites while in the wilderness. It was known as the Feast of Weeks because it occurred about seven weeks after the people of Israel offered to God the first fruits of the spring barley harvest (Deuteronomy 16:9-10).     The word “Pentecost” is derived from the Greek words “pente” and “koste”, which literally mean to “count fifty” as in counting fifty days from that offering of first fruits to the day known as Pentecost (see Leviticus 23:16 where the instructions are to “count fifty days”). Pentecost marked the end of the spring harvest, so the day was essentially...

By: Ronald L. Dart

    As I sit down to my Thanksgiving dinner this year, one of the things I am thankful for is that we still have Thanksgiving Day. And I find myself mildly surprised that we still do. With the ongoing, systematic drive to eradicate God from public life in this country, it is remarkable that Thanksgiving Day has been left alone.

    Even Christmas has been attacked. You can put Santa and his sleigh on the courthouse lawn, but not a nativity scene. The government can formally acknowledge the birth of Martin Luther King, but can’t acknowledge formally, as a government, on government property, the birth of a man who set more people free than Martin Luther King ever saw. And King knew that as well as anyone. He was a minister of the Christian faith, so he knew.

By: Lenny Cacchio  

No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you! (Job 12:22 NKJV)      Christians have a problem. We know. And we know that we know. And this knowing can get us into trouble. The Apostle Paul said that “knowledge puffs up” (I Cor. 8:1), and certainly those with lots of knowledge can become arrogant about it.     There was once a Pharisee who went into the temple to pray. Jesus tells us that this man gave a very special prayer of thanks. He said, “God, I thank you.” That’s a noble way to start a prayer. But notice what he thanked God for: “ … that I am not like other men.” (Luke 18:11).     Here was a man who on the outside appeared to be everything God expected him to be. He didn’t cheat people. He didn’t sleep...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    Life comes at us. We have jobs to work, kids to chauffer, lawns to mow, meetings to attend, laundry to do, meals to prepare, crises to handle, appointments to keep, and obligations to fulfill. If your life looks like mine, you’ll have lots of Have To’s and not enough Get To’s.     It’s unhealthy having too many Have To’s, but the demands of daily living can often leave us feeling guilty about leaving some of those duties undone and escaping to a personal refuge for a short spell.     But taking a break even when the workload is full of Have To’s is in tune with what Jesus did. We see a number of instances where Jesus boards a boat and tries to sail to the other side of the lake to escape the crowds for a spell. Other...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    When God first rained manna from heaven onto the children of Israel, he told them they had to eat it all in one day.  That is a curious thing to tell someone, akin to telling them not to plan ahead, and to be honest I find it a bit troublesome.

    Everything in my training and everything in my bones tells me to take charge of my own future.  My generation and those behind us know from the simple demographics of the matter that we will not get our shot at the passel of government safety nets that graced the generations before us.  We must save and invest for our own well-being.  Eat your manna today and let tomorrow take care of itself?  I don’t think so.

I can even find scriptural support my position.

“A...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Alexander Solzhenitsyn's fictional One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich chronicles just one day in the life of an inmate of a Siberian Gulag.  At the end of the day, as the central character prepares for his rest, he reflects on all the day had brought.

    “Shukov went to sleep, and he was very happy.  He’d had a lot of luck today.  They hadn’t put him in the cooler.  The gang hadn’t been chased out to work in the Socialist Community Development.  He’d finagled an extra bowl of mush at noon.  The boss had gotten them good rates for their work.  He’d felt good making that wall.  They hadn’t found that piece of steel in the frisk.  Caesar had paid him off in the evening.  He’d bought some tobacco.  And he’d gotten over...

By: Lenny Cacchio

Pray for the gift of George Bailey.     As I write this, I am two weeks removed from leaving an employer of 24 years for an opportunity elsewhere. The announcement of my departure went out, and then came the phone calls and cards and face to face meetings.   Only then did I understand the gift of George Bailey.     George Bailey was the Jimmy Stewart character in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life.  Stewart played the frustrated building and loan manager who wished he had never been born, until he was given a glimpse of what his corner of the world would have been without him.      I worked with some clients for more than two decades.  During that time I walked with them through valleys and over mountaintops.  I saw...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Some time ago, when I was going through one of my periodic trying times, an acquaintance suggested keeping a journal of "God moments".  At the end of each day, I was to open my journal and write down the incidents where God’s day intersected with mine.      After beginning my journey in search of such moments, I was amazed to see God’s fingerprints in my life. Often I pray for God’s protection on my family and me. At the end of the day I might recall that if I had not been delayed at the office, I might have been engulfed in the middle of a jackknifed eighteen-wheeler instead of in the traffic back-up behind it.      Another time a friend happened to pop into the office on a particularly dreadful day, and gave me a God...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    Imagine, if you will, losing everything dear to you and reflecting on the things you lost.  That’s what we read about in the Book of Job, the story of a man whose life became a disaster.  At such times of trial it is normal to long for things as they once were, and that is precisely what Job did.      In the 20th Chapter of that book, Job describes the honors of the life he once knew.  His life once dripped with wealth and comfort (v. 6).  He sat in the gate of the city where he received respect (vv. 7-9) and where the honorable men hung on his words (vv. 9-11).  He did great works of service for those in need (vv. 12-13).  He was a judge among them, and the people came to him to plead the cause of justice (vv. 14-17). ...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    We pray for God’s involvement in our lives, but do we expect it? Jesus said he would never leave nor forsake us, but often we pray with the low expectations of a skeptic.

    We are not alone in this. Once Peter was imprisoned (Acts 12), and in correct response the brethren in Jerusalem gathered in prayer. By the grace of God, Peter escaped prison, but when he appeared at the doorstep of the prayer group, they refused to believe that their prayer had been answered.

    On the one hand it should be an encouragement to us that the early church, as infused with the Spirit of God as they were, could have the same doubts that we encounter daily. And it is also an encouragement that God can and does answer a prayer that...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    "We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna." (Num 11:5-6 NAS)     Somehow the months in the wilderness had dulled their memories. Gone was the Israelite’s recollections of the beatings, the torture, the backbreaking labor, the slavery, and the death. As they wandered in the wilderness with only manna to eat, their vision of Egypt became one of three square meals a day, the security of a place to put up one’s feet at night, and the certainty that tomorrow would bring more of the same.     But now they were free men and women, and the responsibilities of...