honor

Psalm 12:7-8

It’s been a while, so sorry to those of you who have been keeping up.  Just a quick thought to get back in the swing of things.  In Philippians 4:8, Paul tells us to think and dwell on anything that is “noble…right…pure…lovely…admirable…excellent…or praiseworthy.”  Seems straightforward enough.  Obviously, we want to spend time thinking about good things and interacting with situations and people that are going to build ourselves and other up.  That’s a good goal.  But what about the other side of the coin?  What if the verse said, “Whatever is NOT noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, do NOT think about these things.”  What kind of implications would that have for your life?  I’m sure it would cut out a  LOT of the “gray” areas of our lives as Christians, seeing as we wouldn’t even be called to THINK about these less-than-excellent things.

You might say though that this verse doesn’t say that – it’s not that exclusive, it’s just prescriptive, directing our attention to several areas in which we might want especially to focus on.  However, refer to Psalm 12:7-8, referenced above.  David calls “wicked,” and his enemies, those who “freely strut about” and “honor what is vile.”  Do we not often do that as a culture, as individuals?

With an honest and objective heart, look at those you esteem, those you wish your life could be like.  Why do we hold others in high regard?  Because they have things we don’t have, because they have things we place a high value on (the very definition of “honor”).  Do we value sex, alcohol, greed, pride, or the “confident” attitude that comes with a disrespect for authority?  We consider others lucky, and are often jealous of those, who live a certain way – we often resent the restrictions of holiness.  But we have to ask ourselves…

If we give honor to that which God says is “vile,” have we not become “wicked” towards Him?

fear, therefore?

2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1

I was always taught that when you see a “therefore” in writings, you need to figure out what it is “there for.” Check out the passage above, and then consider what the “therefore” in 7:1 is there for.

Just a quick thought on this – I thought it was interesting how Paul notes we ARE the temple of the living God, and that there are all these promises of God. And in the context of the Jews, these promises did seem pretty conditional (“THEN” I will welcome you, etc.). However, Paul is a HUGE proponent of grace. So, given all that, I just found it interesting that Paul references an OT passage like that (v16-18), and then uses it as motivation to obey, as if we would lose our status as the people of God if we didn’t “cleanse ourselves…etc.”. I think the point here is that our quest for holiness and becoming like God can’t really be complete unless we allow ourselves a healthy fear of God. Do I know how to foster that? Not really… Maybe by putting ourselves in situations where God needs to show up or total failure will occur? Prayer? I don’t know – all I know is that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs). Seems like a concept we tend to ignore somewhat frequently in this age of easy grace…Maybe it’s time we try to figure out what it means to have a healthy fear of God, and let that impact our lives for Him…

the illusion of self-sufficiency

I’m a fairly good driver. Up until month or so ago, I had never received any kind of ticket, speeding or otherwise. There’s one thing I’m not terribly good at on the road, though. Staying awake. I doze off scarily easily in the wee hours of the morning when I tend to drive fairly frequently. I had a bit of a “wake up call” the other day when I was driving along one night, and happened to wake up about 15 feet behind a cop car that was occupied pulling someone over. Luckily, I just happened to wake up with just enough time to swerve out of the way. If I had woken up 3 or 5 seconds later, the cop and I would probably both have died.

Did you see what I did there?

Luckily, I just happened…? With so many words, that’s essentially how I’ve been telling this exciting story off and on over the past few weeks. This is probably one of the more “duh” statements you’ll hear for a long time, but it was God that saved me.

So it was God who woke me up, who saved me. I don’t know why it took me a few weeks to realize this and thank Him for it, but that’s the situation. I attributed no significance to the situation, and in so doing, robbed God of the thanks due Him for waking me up.

You might be wondering how I could not thank God immediately, how I could be so negligent in acknowledging the work of God in my life. But don’t you do the same thing every day? James tells us that every good thing in our lives comes from God (1:17). We forget that God is the one who enables us to follow Him. God is honored when we acknowledge what He has done for us. Don’t take credit where it’s not due, admit your dependency on Him and follow Him.

count the cost

Have you ever really thought about the COST of following Christ? I think we have such a tendency to emphasize the simplicity of the Gospel (and it is simple) and the grace of God (and He is gracious) in our salvation, that we forget that Jesus actually discouraged people from following Him during His earthly ministry. He seemed to care more about the quality of our faith than the quantity of his followers. Is this hard to believe?

- He told potential disciples that wouldn’t prioritize following him above all else to (basically) forget it (Luke 9:57-62)
- He maintained his difficult stances on teaching, even when followers left him because of it (John 6:60-70)
- He reminded large crowds that were following him to “count the cost” before continuing to follow Him (Luke 14:25-33).

1 John 2:15-17 commands us to love God, not the things of the world (i.e., lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life). Considering this, it seems that while salvation is indeed free, there is some cost involved in following Jesus. This begs the question, is your faith costing you anything? Or have you convinced yourself that you can “follow” Jesus and live your life, ignoring the commands of God?

Examine your life this week – what should your faith be costing you that you haven’t let go of yet?  Remember, because you were “bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20), making you therefore not your own, it should only be natural, reasonable, logical, that you give over every aspect of your life to the One who bought you (Romans 12:1).

all we need?

2 Peter 1:3-4

Do you ever feel like doing the “right thing” is impossible?  Like doing what God wants for your life is too scary, too difficult, too risky?  I know I do.  I think this is actually a common problem – we are slaves to our own comfort and our own fears.  We deceive ourselves into believing it is impossible to do what God really wants for our lives.  But do we take God at His word?

Peter says we have all we need for living a life pleasing to God.  I won’t belabor the point, but my question to you is, do you really believe God has given you all you need to live a holy, righteous, faith-filled life pleasing to God?  Or do you typically just trudge through your day, wondering where God is, where His power and Holy Spirit are, and why you can’t seem to get “it” right?  I suggest that we don’t really believe God.  We think there’s some kind of spiritual power He’s holding out on us, that there’s some secret trick we have to tap into before we can really start living a radical life.  However, that’s not what God tells us here.

We often say God isn’t a genie.  We know we can’t pray for a car, or a house, or a pony, and that the next morning, a car, a  house, or a pony will always show up the next morning with a shiny bow around it.  We all know that there is a degree to which we have to exert our effort in line with God’s will to achieve what we want.  However, sometimes it seems we think God is a spiritual and emotional genie, that whenever we feel like it would be fun and nice to get the ooey-gooey “God-feeling,” all we should have to do is close our eyes, say a few words, and BAM – God is there.  Be honest with yourself – we all feel like that from time to time.  In Jeremiah 29:13, God tells His people that they will find Him, when they seek Him with all their heart.  Treating God as a spiritual/emotional genie is laziness and arrogance, plain and simple.

So…we DO have all we need to connect with God and live a life pleasing to Him.  However, we actually have to TRY.

slaves to many masters

Galatians 4:8-9

We as humans are very weak and are prone to allow ourselves to become slaves. Were we designed to be slaves? Would God design us this way, and if so, what about free will?

I would argue that it all centers around the purpose of humanity. First, are we prone to, and maybe even designed for, some form of “slavery,” even if self-induced? It would appear so. If from nothing else than personal experience, it is clear that we as humans have little in the way of self-control, and the little we do have is typically driven by some extremely strong underlying motive from which we cannot free ourselves from. A less controversial way to phrase this would be that we as humans are “creatures of habit and instinct.” We easily fall into patterns and cycles, because it makes life easier, and that’s what we want and enjoy.

It is only when these cycles and patterns start to impinge on from freedoms elsewhere that it truly starts to feel like slavery, however. For example, the “health conscious” individual will feel fine and free until that discipline becomes an obsession, becomes a disorder (e.g., anorexia, bulemia, etc.). It is only when the superficiality of their relationships and their social networks start surfacing and collapsing is the sycophants obession with approval revealed as an enslavement and not a skill. It is only when the overworked, moral, social do-gooder crashes and burns realizes that he was a slave to the feelings associated with altruism. And when the “average American Christian” comes to the end of his or her life, it is then that they will realize they have been enslaved to themselves- to their own fear of loss (of comfort, status, power, etc.). Slavery only appears as slavery when a problem arises, because the problem makes us want to course correct, but it is when we try his that we realize we are unable to change, and by definiton are therefore enslaved.

Slavery doesn’t appear as slavery, though, because we are allowed to choose our path. What we don’t realize is that we live in a world of moving sidewalks, and any behavioral or attitudinal choice may, in reality, be us signing away our freedoms. Why is it like this? Because we were created this way.

What? Why would God create us with a tendency to fall like that? He didn’t. What He did was create us for a need for an all-consuming purpose, namely to love and serve Him. All-consuming service certainly sounds like slavery, doesn’t it? It certainly is. We were created for the purpose of lovingly submitting our free wills to the desires of God. It is when we do this that, as created beings, we are “working” like we’re supposed to. A life driven by this relationship will not feel like slavery because it is how we were created, designed, meant to live.

perspectives

Do you ever have just an awful, awful day? Do you ever feel like you’re just pouring all of your energies out, and you’re going nowhere? You start to feel burnt out, cynical, maybe a little depressed.

I had one of those days yesterday. Then, as the sun was going down to close out the day, it seemed like God carried me over the horizon straight into a new dawn, a new perspective. Maybe that sounds overly poetic, but hopefully I can convey this effectively (and briefly).

Justice. Frustration comes when I focus on “my way,” and that “I deserve better.” First of all, this is a terribly selfish and arrogant thought – do we really think we know better than God? And even closer to home, haven’t I, being born in America, been blessed immeasurably more than most in this world? Secondly, though, this displays an immense lack of trust in God. His word says He is just, and that “all things work together for the good” (Romans 8:28). Maybe I can’t see that path where life converges towards ultimate goodness, and maybe I will never experience it in this life, but God says it is there.

If from where you’re standing today, life seems full of insurmountable odds, ask God to give you a different vantage point. Ask Him to give you wisdom and understanding, so that you might have the strength, patience, and endurance that comes only from Him (Colossians 2:9-12).