Reality

Some may say, "Jesus is all I need. I am saved so now everything is ok." The fact of the matter is, this is not the entire truth. Just "getting saved" does not make everything ok. If I am drowning and someone saves me, this merely means I have been brought to shore. Perhaps for awhile someone may help me to breathe, but eventually I need to begin breathing on my own. When Jesus saved me, he introduced me to a new reality; a new way of understanding. He put his breath in me. I now live in the truth. This doesn't mean I know or understand truth. I have to seek out truth. I have to appreciate the teaching and resources that he puts in my life enough to read them, participate in them, practice them. I have his word; I have his Spirit; I have the teaching of countless other brothers and sisters who also have his word and Spirit. I also have other human beings who have hit on aspects of truth. Someone once said "all truth is God's truth." I agree with this statement. Having Christ in my life enables me to discern the truth and live in reality.

Break up the Fallow Soil

Hosea 10:12 talks about breaking up the fallow soil. This is the kind of soil that was once useful for planting and farming but has now grown hard and unusable. It needs to be broken up; plowed in order to be useful again. I have begun to feel like this in my soul. My prayer for now is that God would break up this fallow soil in my soul. I feel like the teaching and preaching I hear, the books I read, etc... are just bouncing off me; the Word of God does not go down deep in my heart, it just kind of stays on top of the hard, crusty soil and the wind comes and blows it away. What does it take to break up this soil? What must I do? 

Loyalty

We live in a world of choice. We value choice. In fact we are downright angry if that choice is taken away. We want to choose the store we shop at, the brand name we wear, the food we eat, the church we attend, the music we listen to... Sometimes however, choice can be crippling. There are simply too many options to choose from. Which is the right choice? Every choice has a consequence. Some consequences are better than others, and we want to make the "right" choice. I believe the question of choice can be settled in most cases when the question of loyalty is settled. There is a passage in scripture that I was reminded of this morning. I feel this passage sums up the issue of loyalty. After devastating loss, Naomi gives her daughter-in-law, Ruth, a choice, she could leave and go back to her own people. It is Ruth's reply that I think is powerful in light of the notion of loyalty, it is found in Ruth 1:16-17: "But Ruth replied, 'Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.' " 

Once the issue of loyalty is settled, then every other choice will flow from that. My first loyalty is to the Lord God, I have devoted my life completely to Him. Every other choice I make, therefore, will flow from this loyalty. Also, I have made a commitment to my wife, a commitment that is not much unlike the one Ruth made to Naomi: "till death do us part." No matter what choice I make in life it must pass the test of loyalty to God and my family. 

Effort

Somehow or other we have come to believe that effort is bad. As Christians we think that we shouldn't have to work at things. That would be, well, "works." And every good Christian knows that to be a good Christian we are supposed to just receive God's grace. I recently came across Seth Godin's blog and found the following bit of stuff to dispel this idea. In the following just change the word luck for grace and you will get it.

"I think we've been tricked by the veneer of lucky people on the top of the heap. We see the folks who manage to skate by, or who get so much more than we think they deserve, and it's easy to forget that:

a. these guys are the exceptions
and
b. there's nothing you can do about it anyway.

And that's the key to the paradox of effort: While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don't get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time.

This is a hard sell. Diet books that say, "eat less, exercise more," may work, but they don't sell many copies.

With that forewarning, here's a bootstrapper's/marketer's/entrepreneur's/fast-rising executive's effort diet. Go through the list and decide whether or not it's worth it. Or make up your own diet. Effort is a choice, at least make it on purpose:

1. Delete 120 minutes a day of 'spare time' from your life. This can include TV, reading the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in social networks and meetings. Up to you.

2. Spend the 120 minutes doing this instead:

• Exercise for thirty minutes.
• Read relevant non-fiction (trade magazines, journals, business books, blogs, etc.)
• Send three thank you notes.
• ...
• Volunteer.
• Blog for five minutes about something you learned.
• Give a speech once a month about something you don't currently know a lot about.

3. Spend at least one weekend day doing absolutely nothing but being with people you love.

4. Only spend money, for one year, on things you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest, relentlessly.

If you somehow pulled this off, then six months from now, you would be the fittest, best rested, most intelligent, best funded and motivated person in your office or your field. You would know how to do things other people don't, you'd have a wider network and you'd be more focused."

Is Truth Still Relevant Today?

"Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land for we can certainly do it.'" Num. 13:30

I love this emphatic, public declaration of truth based on God's promise. There is such a thing as truth, even in this day when truth is seems up for grabs. Where are the Calebs who will silence the people with a strong word of truth that comes from God's word. Jesus said of God the Father, "Thy word is truth." Where are the men and women who are walking with God in His word who are willing to stand for truth no matter how unpopular? Oh God, may I be one of those. Help me to stop being so wishy-washy. That I may own the truth, God's truth. And may I not be afraid to publicly declare His truth without hesitation or reservation. This is my prayer for today! 

Look at the Birds

I really don't get it. I just really don't understand in the deepest part of my being. How can I think that my life somehow compares to the birds? How can I just stop sowing and reaping and storing? Is this what the Lord is saying? No, surely not. I have a responsibility to do these  things. I cannot just shirk my responsibility and expect God to take care of me. That would be... well, irresponsible of me. However, I know -- or I should know, that God will take care of me. Even when, for what ever reason, I am not able to sow or reap -- or when what I have stored away in my barns runs out God will take care of me. And another thing, I can only sow and reap -- it is God who brings the increase. 

Note to Self

Own your beliefs. Stop pressing them away at a distance. Start saying the things you believe with conviction, confidence. What else is there? Doubt? The double-minded should not think to receive anything from God. Own your beliefs. Be willing to so associate yourself with them that they stain your shirt; muddy your face; wet your hair; tattoo your chest. And bear that chest for the world to see, even if it looks like a target to them. Let them take aim and shoot at your heart and pierce it so that the blood pours out and gets on them.

Seasons

"To everything there is a season..."
"... seed time and harvest..."

Here in modern America we do not have an adequate understanding of the rhythm of the seasons. The notion of planting seed and waiting for the harvest is a foreign idea to us because we are used to simply going to the grocery and getting what we want when we want it no matter the season. But, we must recognize, there is a time for preparing the soil, for sowing seed, for waiting for the precess of the seed becoming a plant and then bearing fruit. We also need to recognize that there is a chosen time within the season for particular varieties of vegetables.

In our spiritual life there is this same dynamic, there are times that are exciting, like the newness of spring, there are days of cultivation -- preparing the soil of our hearts and minds. Then there are days of waiting. These days seem to drag on like the long, hot summer days of July. There are are also the necessary times of light and darkness. Finally there are times like in the fall when there doesn't seem to be enough time to bring in the harvest and the work is tiring. And then there is the winter when everything dies and awaits its time to rise again in the sprint. But the spring always comes. With death there is always resurrection!

Loneliness Leads to Encounter with God

God often meets us in times of lonliness and solitude; times when we are just not sure about what to do. However, we are so bent on keeping these things at bay through all our constant need for distraction. Even our churches are filled with distractions and things to do. All this is meant to fill up the silence in our life; to fill up the seemingly empty places of solitude. Because of this we rarely truly meet with God. I must come to the place where silence is ok; where loneliness and solitude is ok. This requires an intentionality on my part. I must be intentional about finding places in my life where there are no distractions. I must turn off the television; the radio; put down the book... I know God can sometimes speak through these things too, but there must also be times where I clear away everything so that I can listen to the still small voice of my Heavenly Father. My life is hid with Christ in God. It is in the hidden places; those places hidden by books, and words, and images, etc... where I may sometimes find my true self.

Tom Davis Article and Book

I recently read a wonderful book called Red Letter Days by Tom Davis. It reminded me that my life is not my own; my Christianity is not for the purpose of making me feel better about myself, not for the purpose of giving me something to do on Sunday morning. My Christianity, if not lived out the way Jesus would have me live it out is not true Christianity at all. Davis wrote a great
article on Beleif Net that pretty much tells it like it is: Christians S**k. I don't think he is saying this to every single Christian, but for the most part, we are focused on ourselves and not on the mission of reconcilliation that Christ sent us on. We are to be pleading with the world: Be reconciled to God... not just in the way we do Sunday morning, but in the way we do all of life! Everything is connected: the body, soul, spirit... Davis makes some pretty good observations about the Christian culture today, especially here in America.

Jesus told the story of the Good Semaritan in answer to the question: who is my neighbor? At the end of that story He said: "Go and do likewise." Davis brings this message out in his book Red Letter Days. He points out how it is interesting that rock stars, movie stars and television personalities (most of whom do not have a Biblical understanding of what they are doing) are out meeting real needs in the world while the Chrisians are content to listen to preachers, nod their heads in agreement, sing songs and go out and pass by the hurting, the sick, the prisoners, the hungry in our own neighborhood.

I find myself convicted by what Davis says. I s**k. My Christianity s**ks. I am not a good representative for Christ. I have been content to go to church, say a few prayers, sing a few songs and be on my way. I realize that I need to be intentional about reaching out to those in my own back yard with the Gospel. I beleive that the Gospel is the power of God to change lives; to give hope; to bring peace. I beleive this in my head. Oh that this beleif would find its way into my heart. After reading Davis's book I find it is getting nearer.

What is Enough?

Sometimes when I finish a project I will say "good enough"... not prefect, not even excellent, but "good enough." I feel bad about this later. Every time I walk by that project I will wince at it's incompletion. It seems we often approach our Christian walk this way too. We say a prayer at an altar inviting Jesus into our heart and say, "good enough." We feel regret at not being like some of the other Christians we admire, but, after all, we are "good enough," we said the prayer.

Yesterday, Pastor Randy Caswell at Kankakee First Assembly, preached on Matt. 10:25, "It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher..." The phrase, "it is enough," stood out to me. It just jumped off the page at me. It is not just good enough to have said a prayer, I must become like Jesus. How much is enough? Become like Jesus. Pretty high standard I would say. My pastor also talked about the Rich Young Ruler from Luke 18. Jesus told him to go and sell everything and give it to the poor, and "follow me..." This young man, while "good enough" in his moral actions could not become like Jesus. He was bound by his riches. What is it that keeps me from being like Jesus? He has given me the Holy Spirit to enable me to be like Him.

Self-imposed Boundaries

Spiritual discipline is the creation of self-imposed boundaries:
Parker Palmer writes the following in his book, To Know as We Are Known: Monks were to remain in their cell, “…unless a man could find God here, in this one place, his cell he would not find Him by going somewhere else.” These monks often made a “vow of stability” as part of their monastic life. “With this vow they renounce the temptation to believe that some other monastery would be a better place to learn and grow.”

I think this is interesting in light of our current consumer driven culture. If I don't like my church because the music is too loud or the sanctuary is too hot or too cold, I can simply find another one. But when I do this I never really learn one important aspect of being a follower of Christ: faithfulness.

Parker continues: “Good teachers know that discomfort and pain are often signs that truth is struggling to be born among us… Such teachers will not allow their students or themselves to ‘flee from the cell.’ They will hold the boundaries firm and hold us all within them so that truth can do its work.”

We never really learn truth about ourselves or about God unless we choose to remain "in the cell."

I like some of the ways the Amish look at things. Their position on these things can be described in one word: boundaries. Barbara Kingsolver, in her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, puts it this way: “The work horse places a limit on the size of our farms, and the… horse-drawn buggy limits the distances we travel. This is what we basically need. This is what keeps our communities healthy.” It makes perfect sense of course that limiting territory size can yield dividends in appreciation for what one already has, and the ability to manage it without debt. The surprise is to find whole communities gracefully accepting such boundaries inside a nation that seems allergic to limitations, priding itself instead on the freedom to go as far as we want, as fast as we can, and buy until we run out of money – or longer, if we have credit cards."

Consumption

What brand are you? Companies who sell products want to know. They want you to be loyal consumers of their product. They will study you to find out, for instance, whether you are into sports, and what kind of sports, and what particular team you like. This will tell them how to target you so that you will buy their product. They want to know what your habits are. They are not interested in helping you to have good habits, they just you to continue in your habits so that they will sell more products to you. The more habits you have that fit into their product the more of their product you will consume. We are consumers. We are branded by what we consume. Consumption is what we do. There was a time that the word consumption was used to describe a wasting disease. We are either consuming or being consumed by something --or someone.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world," Paul says, "but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." (Rom. 12:2) My habits tell me and others what I am conformed to. The pattern of my life tells others what "brand" I am. The thing that consumes me is the thing that forms my mindset. I want to be consumed by something or rather some One that transforms my mind. That One is Christ, the living Word of God. As I develop the basic habit of reading and studying His Word, the Bible; as I spend time in prayer, listening to and talking to God I find that my mind is renewed. As I daily walk with God in obedience, I am transformed from merely a consumer of the world and its ways into one who is consumed in the fire of God.

The Older I Get

It seems that the older I get the less I have to say. The older I get the more I know, that is, the more information I have in my head. I just don't know that saying it is going to do any good. It is not about what I may say to others, as much as it is about how I may be transformed by what I know. Has the knowledge I have gained really transformed my life somehow?

A disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is being transformed by Him -- by His Holy Spirit. Am I allowing the Holy Spirit of Christ to transform me? This is not something I can necessarily control. All I can do is be obedient to what I hear the Spirit say. This is where transformation takes place, not in acquiring more head knowledge. I am a teacher, it is in my nature to teach -- to attempt to give knowledge to my students. I do not want to simply impart information to them -- I want to see them transform into what God has created them to be. This does not come by saying more things to them. It comes by me, the teacher, being transformed by the Spirit and living that transformed life before them.

Of course, as a teacher, I must say things... I just find that the older I get, the more I understand things, the less I need to say and the more I need to be. Do you find this in your own life?

Like Tuning a Guitar String

The knowledge of God's mercy and compassion must be held in tension with knowledge of His judgement. These are not incompatible with each other, they are two sides of the same coin. "For God so loved the world that He gave..." John 3:16. This is the same God who will also allow His wrath to remain on the wicked and disobedient. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already..." John 3:18. And later on John says: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)

The knowledge of God's compassion and His judgment must be held in tension like a perfectly tuned guitar string. If I tune the string too tight (that is if I focus too much on His judgment) it will be too high pitched and threaten to break. If I tune the string too low (that is focus too much on His mercy and compassion) the string will become slack and lose its distinct sound. When tuned right, along with the other strings on the instrument (that is, the church) and played together a beautiful melody of praise to God is created.

How do we know when the tune is right? This can only come from time spent in relationship with the Lord, reading His Word, talking to the Lord in prayer. The daily disciplines cannot be emphasized enough. We do not practice spiritual disciplines in order to avoid God's wrath; we practice the disciplines so that we might fine tune our listening skills which are needed to properly "tune the string."

Whatever Happened to Godly Fear?

Why should we witness to others? Why should others receive Christ? How about godly fear as a motivator? Could it be that we have emphasized grace so much that now no one has a healthy fear of God? There is even a book out now called If Grace is True. The premise of this book is basically that if God's grace is true, then everyone is saved, there is no hell to avoid, there is no wrath of God to avoid.

Actually grace is true.
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all mankind and it teaches us to deny ungodliness..." Titus 2:11-12

In the past I have defined grace as some wishy washy, nebulous thing that God just granted to me when I said a prayer at the altar. Now I see it as the thing that brought me to that altar to begin with. And, according to Titus 2:12 His grace is also a teacher that teaches me to avoid ungodliness. How do I know what ungodliness is unless I have a genuine, healthy fear of God? Grace is the powerful thing that teaches these to my heart.
Another thing I used to think was that God wanted to deliver us from sin because of what sin does to us and those around us. Of course this is partly true. Lately I have learned in my heart that sin hurts God. I am afraid of hurting God, of breaking His heart. My relationship with Him is too important. I fear breaking that relationship with Him, I fear putting up a wall between myself and my God. The focus is not on me, the focus is on Him. Fear of God brings about this focus.

"Since we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men..." 2 Cor. 5:11
The fear of God brings us to true salvation, the fear of God should also encourage us to witness to others. I must confess, this is one area where I am not doing so well. Perhaps that is why the Lord is speaking to me about these things.

Are You Astonished at His Words?

"And the disciples were greatly astonished at His words..." Mk. 10:24
Jesus had just watched the Rich Young Ruler walk away from His invitation to follow Him. Then, listen to what He tells His disciples: "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the Kingdom of God..." We should be astonished at these words too. Here in America we call ourselves His disciples, and yet we are so rich. Oh yeah, we are rich. Even the poor in America is richer than most of the rest of the world. If you have a car you are among the top percentage of the rich in the world. We depend on so many other things: cars to take us places; health care; insurance; houses with heat and air conditioning; big box stores to provide us with food. There are so many things that we simply take for granted. Could it be that these are the very things that keep us from truly experiencing the Kingdom of God. Earlier in this chapter Jesus said in order to enter the Kingdom of God we must become like a little child. Think about it. A child is dependant; a child has not ammassed a great deal of material possessions; a child has no daytimer or blackberry to dictate his schedule; a child must trust another to take care of her. Aren't you astonished at His words? Or do they just float over you like so many sermons you have heard in the past? We ought to be challenged by them. But no, we like our stuff. And, we have heard enough messages designed to make us feel better in our state of material comfort. "You can have your stuff," we are told, "as long as your stuff doesn't have you." How do I know if stuff has me or not? I must experience being without it for awhile. But really, what if it was true, that it really is more difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom than for a camel to go through the eye of the needle? In the "eye of the needle" only a camel can go through -- anything carried on its back will fall off. The question hangs in the air like dust mites in a sunbeam: Do we really want to enter the Kingdom of God, or are we content to live in the Kingdom of Comfort?

Encountering Eternal Life

In Mark chapter 10 a rich young ruler came seeking eternal life, i.e., the kind of life a rich young man in authority would envision living. Someone who is young and rich and has ruling authority might envision one type of life, but Jesus seems to have other things in mind. First Jesus questions the young man's definition of the word "good". What is good to Jesus? Or perhaps a better question might be, Who is good? Don't you just love how Jesus answers questions with questions? Listen to what He says: "Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is God." First let's define our terms, Jesus seems to be saying. What is it exactly that you mean by these things? Jesus could have just as easily asked: "What do you mean by eternal life?" This is what the young rich man was seeking. LIsten to his question: "What must I do to get eternal life?" Well, Jesus might be asking, what exactly do you mean by eternal life? Are you talking about a life that continues on pretty much as you live it now? If so, then this is not the type of life I can offer you. Eternal life is not just some duration of time in which we live some kind of ideal existence. Eternal life is a person. Read 1 John chapter 1:1-3, see for yourself. Jesus is eternal life. Jesus offers Himself. And to get Him we must not have anything that gets in the way. Listen: "Sell all you have and give it to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven, then come follow me." We can't follow Jesus with stuff dragging behind us. We can't have eternal life while weighed down with our stuff.

Losing My Life

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it." Mark 8:35

It's hard to lose something when we are consciously trying to lose it. I can hide something from myself -- but alas, I know where I hid it. I try to hide money from myself so that I will not spend it, but, since I know where I hid it, I will go right to it in a pinch. How do I lose my life? One way is to be so involved in something else that I forget my self. What about pain and suffering? Does this help me lose my life? Is that what Jesus it talking about? Pain and suffering only causes me to think more about my life. A tooth that does not hurt is a tooth whose existence is unknown, but a tooth in pain only asserts itself all the more.

Love will cause me to forget myself-- love that thinks about someone else. There is a love that is a selfish love-- a needy love; a love that desires to be loved because of pain. But, the love that causes one to forget oneself; to "lose one's life" in love -- that is the kind of love that applies to what Jesus says here. A love that finds its fulfilment in following Jesus. A love that is not for one's own sake but for the sake of another, namely, Christ and His Gospel.

Ok, now, what is the Gospel? It is, according to Paul, the "power of God for salvation..." There is a power that God shows in miracles; for awesome things like parting the Red Sea. This power may make us say "wow," but does it lead to a lasting inner change? How quickly we forget the miracles. But the Gospel is the power that works inside a person for genuine change -- for real, continuing change.