Skip to main content

So, time for retreat?

God is solid backing to a well-lived life, but he calls into question a shabby performance. (Proverbs 10:29)

Just met with the financial advisor and one of the questions I keep asking is how 'solid' the backing of every investment is right now. As I near retirement, I want to be sure my investments will be solidly backed. Backing sometimes comes in the form of a 'thing', but it can also be a 'place' and a 'person', right? Be in the right place and have the right person 'backing' you there and you are likely going to do okay in the end. A sanctuary is kind of like having that 'well-backed' place and it is usually a place provided by some pretty 'phenomenal', as well. There is something special about having a place of sanctuary, isn't there? When we have a place of retreat, we somehow feel a little better knowing we can go there to recover from the things of our day that beat us down and made us more than a little weary. Another word for sanctuary is refuge or bastion - a place of 'backing'. The purpose is for our protection - God provides a fortress for our defense and so that we can develop a good offense.

Scriptura tells us our Lord is a stronghold (sanctuary, bastion) to those with integrity. Yet, this same stronghold brings judgment to the wicked - those with 'shabby performance'! What is a place of refuge for one is the very thing which will destroy the other! We see this as true throughout scripture, don't we? Look at Israel and the surrounding nations - Israel enjoyed God's presence as their stronghold (sanctuary, bastion) while the heathen nations found the presence of God as a threat and a thing of dread! God is a SOLID backing (bastion, stronghold) to a well-lived life - yet a life lived in the shabbiness of sinful self-indulgence is unable to enjoy the safety and protection of this same sanctuary. Not only is God our stronghold, but walking in the way he outlines for our lives is a place of "sanctuary" for us. Sometimes I think we imagine a stronghold or sanctuary as being "some place" rather than being a journey of consistent progress in the right direction. As we are "on the way" we enjoy the sanctuary of the presence of God. We don't need to "retreat" to a physical place to enjoy his presence (sanctuary, bastion). We simply need to be walking in the way of the Lord.

Integrity is the "key" that unlocks the door of the sanctuary. The moral soundness of our walk is important! In order to understand this a little better, allow me to use a picture to illustrate. Think of getting dressed in the morning. If you are female, there may be a few different items you will don to keep things in place and modestly covered. If you are a guy, you probably might wear a few things us ladies would not, like a tie or a belt to hold all those things you like to attach to your waist. Now, if you were to dress today by leaving off some of these things you use to "hold things in place" or "attach important stuff to", how would you feel? You'd probably feel a little less than "perfectly" put together. Integrity is the condition of having things together in right order. When we try to make God our sanctuary, we are able to do so when things are in "right order" between us and God. God calls into question any "shabby performance" - simply because his presence is enjoyed best when we have things in order within our lives!

We all need "backing" in our lives. No one is able to live life completely without the help of another. Try as we might, we will never be able to accomplish quite the same degree of performance as we can when we are doing it with the help of another. There is no stronger assistance, no better "backer" of our lives than God himself. We may hunt high and low attempting to find other things and people to "back us up" in life - but nothing outshines God's backing! The 27th verse of the same proverb says, "The Fear-of-God expands your life; a wicked life is a puny life." Isn't a sanctuary a place where we can "spread out" in rest, repose, and refreshing? The idea of sanctuary leads us to believe we can "recover" and "retake" ground we may have lost during previous failures in the battle. God is more interested in our living well than he is in pointing out our failures, but it is good to know when we fail there is a place of refuge to turn for healing and restoration! We all need to consider our sanctuary. Maybe it has been a long time since we have "retreated" into the presence of God - allowing him to heal and restore. Today could be the one that helps us move from shabbiness into integrity. His presence is both a place of defense and offense! Sometimes we don't walk well - recognition is the first step toward sanctuary! Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,