Pursuit requires intent

Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor. (Proverbs 20:20)

What are your pursuits? We each have something we are particularly interested in, like a hobby, career path, or even a favorite thing to watch on TV. I don't particularly have a passion for the news, but I like to be informed. It is not a pursuits for me, just an interest from time to time. I can even go days without watching any. Miss one day in the Word of God and I feel a bit deflated, without energy, and even a bit disoriented in my activities. Why? It is a lifeline for me! How about you?

Pursue righteousness and unfailing love. We might say this is a call to pursue Jesus as he personified right living for us and he definitely showed all of us his unfailing love. In pursuing Jesus, we find life, right standing with God the Father, and we receive a tremendous place of honor - a child of God. What more could we hope to gain in any pursuit in life? 

Pursuit is intentional. It is directed toward something or someone. Where is you attention directed today? If you can answer that one honestly, you might be surprised to find your 'pursuit' is a little wobbly at times. It is even without focus or intent. What happened? We got off-course, with out eyes and minds caught up in things around us that really shouldn't have been out main focus. When this happens, it is not uncommon to feel less than 'focused' and a bit adrift.

Intentional pursuit is the call for today. What will you put your time and energies into today? Will they be spent as Christ directs, or will they be all over the board? Will they be to engage in the things that build up, refresh, and restore our mind, body, and emotions? If not, perhaps we should reconsider some of those pursuits and get a bit of alone time with Jesus. It is never too late to start that day the right way! Just sayin!

Brainwashed or Brain-Cleansed?

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. (Romans 8:5-7)

There are philosophies out there that propose 'positive thinking' is all we need to overcome even the worst of things going on around or within us. The truth of the matter is that humans can 'think positively' all they want, but as long as the mind hasn't been surrendered to Christ, negative thoughts will continue to emerge, as will negative actions. It is more than a 'mind game' that we play - it is a difference in who is in control of our minds!

Let the Spirit of God control your mind and you will soon begin to understand the power of God's presence in your life. The mind is a battleground of sorts and the one who 'commands' the battle matters. In and of ourselves, we cannot win the warfare by positive thoughts. We need an exchange of thoughts - an exchange of control and leadership. The Spirit of God isn't about to let any enemy of our soul win the battle - he will overcome ALL that opposes the holiness of God within us.

There will come a time when each of us is at our breaking point. We won't want to move forward for fear we will do or say something that will create even more negative chaos in our lives. We won't break free of those negative thoughts until we allow the one who can bring absolute peace and assurance into our lives take control. That means we surrender to Christ, allowing his Spirit to indwell our minds and hearts, then allow him to change the way we 'think'. 

Does this mean that we all get 'brainwashed' by some 'religious activity'? No, but it is a bit like having our brain washed! We find out how quickly the way we have been perceiving life has been affected by the way we have allowed our minds to think. In essence, we are all in need of a good 'washing' of our thought life and a replacement of all that is negative, unholy, and dishonoring to God to be accomplished. 

Sin will dominate our thoughts until we invite God's presence into our lives. We aren't being 'brainwashed' by some 'religious activity' as much as we are being 'brain cleansed'. Once the Spirit of God is in control, we begin to see things differently. We don't need to muster up positive thoughts to overcome negative things we are perceiving - we just need to tap into his presence and allow him to help us see those things through his eyes. Just sayin!

Lavish Grace

Socrates reminded us that "the unexamined life is not worth living" - when we only allow others to examine our lives, we might just get a 'warped perception' of how we are doing. Human opinion about our choices is not always the wisest thing for us to latch onto as the standard by which we will live our lives. In fact, it could just allow for some things clearly not good for us, while excluding things we desperately need!

Declare me innocent, O Lord, for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart. For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth. (Psalm 26:1-3)

Proverbs 16:2 reminds us that people may be pure in their own eyes, but until the Lord examines the heart, we can be living by an unrealistic standard. Why? Our own opinion of how we are to live isn't always influenced by the right values or standards. If we go only by public opinion on a matter, we could be allowing all manner of sinful compromise to be 'acceptable' in our eyes, while God clearly says those things will only bring us harm. We must know God's standards if we are to ever resist public opinion!

When someone is 'examined' in a court of law, the ones posing the questions understand the law. They are aware of when something is 'right' and when it is clearly 'against the law'. They form their examination based upon the standards established by those laws. In much the same way, God has established standards that give us a clear picture of when a particular action is clearly outside of the 'law' of his standards. When we gravitate toward the boundary of those standards, we are getting too close to the place where we can easily step outside of them.

People who wish to live with integrity in their lives aren't afraid to have their lives examined in the 'courtroom' of God's standards. Why? They know the boundaries and make active choices to live within those boundaries. Do they ever 'over-step' those boundaries? Yes, because they are human and don't always make the best choices. When they do, they have an advocate who stands before the "Judge" and presents the case for grace. Jesus is our advocate - God hears his case for grace on our behalf and grants grace every time Jesus presents the need for such 'lenience'. 

Is it a 'free sentence', though? No, there are always consequences to sin in our lives, but the sin isn't held against us. In other words, we may reap what we sowed by the wrong choice, but we are returned to a right standing with God. We may not always choose wisely, but the more we choose to live by the standards established by God, the less we will find ourselves requiring such lavish grace! Just sayin!

Not this again...

A gentle answer makes anger disappear, but a rough answer makes it grow. (Proverbs 15:1)

Many times, people aren't very good at taking hints - they need a direct, honest, and "tempered" response to whatever it is they are doing or saying which gives us concern. We all think someone will get our hints, then wonder why they continue to act as they do - launching you into a bundle of pent-up frustration and emerging negative emotion. Well, it may not be them who needs to change as much as it may need to be us!

I have learned there are times when I need to let go of the things which seem to grate on my nerves. We probably have seen the little cartoon where the guy looks all frazzled and he has one or two hairs stick up on end with the caption which reads: "I had one nerve left this morning, and you just got on it." It seems like that whenever we encounter these tough people in life but remember - they don't purposefully look for that one nerve - they just hit it. 

Sometimes we wait until someone gets to the point of driving us nuts and then we unload a good one on them. If you are like I am, you feel worse after you say whatever it is you say or unload your sorry state of frustration on them full force. I used to be this terrible "gunny-sack" kind of person - holding up all my frustrations toward a person until just that "right moment", and then unloading the full bundle on them all at once. You cannot regurgitate stuff and have it taste good in your mouth! It just isn't possible. That which got putrid in the "sack" will also be putrid when it is let out of the sack!

Remain "current" in your relationships. It is pretty devastating to a relationship to be going along as though nothing is the matter and then come to find out someone has been holding all this stuff inside them which never got dealt with at the time. This is the principle taught behind the scriptural exhortation to never let the sun go down on our anger. It festers and becomes putrid within us. When it eventually comes out, it has a different form than when the issue first happened. There are forces at work which take what we put in the 'sack' and warp it into something no longer akin to what it is we first were taking issue with.

Be kind in your response. You will learn kindness at the feet of Jesus. If we begin to examine our less than kind responses, in the light of the Word of God and the help of the Spirit of God within, we might come to the conclusion we have a little root of pride which manifests in the "better than thou" kind of curt responses we are returning to someone. If we find we are kind of nasty in our responses, we may just discover we have been burying a lot of stuff which has just built up into full-fledged bitterness. Regardless of what we discover, it is about "us", not the "other guy". This is the place the transition between anger and kindness takes place - with us first, then in expression to the "other guy". Just sayin!

Holding back?

Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. (Romans 6:12-14)

The command is to 'not let sin control the way we live' - the action on our part is to not give in to sinful desires. Can our desires actually change over time? Yes, both physically and spiritually. We might not like a particular food as a child but find ourselves enjoying it as an adult. What happened? Our desires changed. In much the same way, a desire that led to us taking some action that led to sin in our lives can change. How? We get into the Word of God, allow him to change our heart, and the mind's desires will follow!

Give yourself completely to God. What does that actually look like on a daily basis? It could be we spend a little less time on the tablet randomly searching social media feeds, giving that time instead to exploring what God wants to teach us through his Word. It might mean we spend time with others instead of always being on the go. It might also mean we just get quiet before God and listen to what he wants to say to us. God has likely been showing us how to 'give ourselves completely to him', but we haven't been hearing what he's been saying.

Use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. That is a pretty practical instruction, isn't it? Take your thoughts, give them to God. Allow your emotions to be settled by God. Use your talents as God directs you. Your whole body - nothing left out. This may be the rubbing point for many of us all because we want some 'small part' of our lives to be 'our own'. We don't want to have to give it over to God. The good news is that you don't 'have to' give it over, but if you choose to give it over, great things are about to happen! We won't know what those might be until we determine to let go of whatever it is we are holding back. Just sayin!

Persist IN

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 

(I Corinthians 13:7)

I don't know who needs this today, but the words that popped in this passage today were 'love never gives up'. There are times when all we want to do is throw in the towel and just call it quits. It could be in a relationship, a job, some adventure you got yourself into, or even a dream that you have always wanted to see fulfilled. Love never gives up - never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures - regardless of the circumstances, our lack of whatever it is we need at the moment, or how hard the pressure seems to be 'in the middle of the muddle' we call life.

Does that mean whenever we want to give up, we need more love in our lives? No, it just means we turn to the one who loves us beyond our understanding of his love. We turn to Jesus and ask him for whatever it is we need at the moment - to continue with purpose, power, and persistence. If God has called you there, he will take you through it until you see his hand in it. If he has placed you there, he will clothe you in his grace to get beyond the present discouragement you feel. If he is drawing you there, it is because he is already there to meet with you.

Be faithful IN the circumstances. Be hopeful FOR the moments to bring greater things. Be consistent and see what God will do THROUGH the circumstances you find yourself in. The truth is that we all doubt when times get a bit harder than we imagined they could be, but we don't have to put our faith in our doubt! We need to take our doubt to God and ask him to change our outlook. In other words, we are asking him to change our perspective so we 'see outside' the circumstances. When we do this, we begin to see Jesus, not the 'hardness' of the moment.

Life doesn't always deal us a 'good hand', but when we press into his love and allow his love to envelop us with his peace and endow us with his power, we will have whatever we need to persist even in the worst of circumstances. Just sayin!

Treasure Seekers

"Treasure your relationships, not your possessions." (Anthony J. D'Angelo) There are all kinds of treasures we 'seek', 'find', and 'maintain' in life, but the greatest treasure is that of relationship - first with God and then with others. We can never neglect the importance of each of these, for our very sanity and safety depend upon them!

Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior. Such people may seek you and worship in your presence. (Psalm 24:3-6)

Relationship with God actually brings us to a place in our lives where we are made 'right' in our daily walk. In other words, we have our sins erased, minds renewed, hearts made pure, and spirit energized by him. As a result, we are free to relate to one another in a way unlike any way we relate to each other apart from this renewed heart. All relationship that is devoid of God putting a life right with him is rather self-centered. Those with him at the center find their relationships with others richer and more meaningful.

We might assume we can 'get along' without Christ in control of our lives, but there is nothing that brings us closer together than Christ's love at the center of their lives. There is a drawing effect of Christ's grace in our lives that brings each of us into union with each other. A union that would otherwise be impossible when selfish ambition and misguided trust were at the helm in our lives. 

What do you treasure? Who is it you treasure most? When do you reveal what it is you treasure? Do you trust God to show you the way to love one another? These are questions we must ponder if we are to fully understand the depth and breadth of grace's work within our lives. Our 'treasure' begins to shift from what we can get to what we can give. We begin to treasure people above stuff. We find our 'focus' is not so much 'what's in it for me' any longer. We find 'anchor' in Christ, and we are secure in his love.

The more we treasure grace, the less we think about sin. The more we treasure God's love, the less we think about ourselves. The more we treasure each other, the more we fulfill God's plan for his children. Just sayin!

A grace covering

We Jews came to Christ to be made right with God, so it is clear that we were sinners too. Does this mean that Christ makes us sinners? Of course not. But I would be wrong to begin teaching again those things that I gave up. It was the law itself that caused me to end my life under the law. I died to the law so that I could live for God. I have been nailed to the cross with Christ. So I am not the one living now—it is Christ living in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God. He is the one who loved me and gave himself to save me. I am not the one destroying the meaning of God’s grace. If following the law is how people are made right with God, then Christ did not have to die. (Galations 2:17-21)

I know there is a lot of commotion in the world right now about what religion one practices.  As strongly as I feel about the faith I have in Christ Jesus, I cannot see the need for this type of response to the beliefs of others.  It is indeed a tragedy for some to follow beliefs which encourage the destruction of property and life.  I don't believe we should focus so much on the "sin" of the "radicals", but on the "sinner" in each of us which begs for the intervention of a Savior to redeem us from our sin.

Anyone who finds "faith" in any religious pursuit leaves some old way of living behind and takes up with new choices and purposes.  They may be totally misguided on occasion, but nonetheless, this "exchange" of purpose and practice takes place. The point is we all "leave" something to "embrace" something else.  As Christians, we have chosen to leave a life which was lived by self-directed means with a focus clearly not on others, but ourselves.  We chose to embrace a new way of seeing things and others around us - through the eyes of grace and not the eyes of judgment.  

We "came to Christ to be made right with God". Did you ever stop for a moment to consider what you "gave up" when you "came to Christ"?  If we examine our hearts and minds a little, we will begin to realize we think we gave up a whole lot of stuff, but in fact, we didn't give up that much.  Our faith brings us into a new plane of living and making choices - we just left the old way of doing things behind.  If we go back to the old way of making choices, expecting to live on this new plane with those practices from the old way of living, we will live confused and misguided lives.

We die to the messed up belief that we could keep all the rules included in any set of religious rules and come to Christ.  We live for God as a result of letting go of those set of rules.  As long as we are more focused on the "practices of religion" rather than our relationship in Christ Jesus, we will continue to mix the methods of the old life with the new.  As long as we focus on the rules of the law, we destroy the power of grace.  I don't know about you, but any time I have tried to keep the rules perfectly, I see how imperfect I really am!  I am not the best at keeping all the rules - sometimes I just need to break out into some rebellion and do things my own way!  We cannot bind together in unity apart from grace helping us to live at peace with each other.  

We are told to not compromise our trust in God.  To do so is to clearly operate outside of the boundaries of safety he has placed in our lives.  We are told to not engage in sins which violate our body because the body is the temple of God's Spirit - therefore any compromise to this is clearly outside of the boundaries of safety in our lives.  The "rules" we adhere to as Christians are essentially to protect us from the destructiveness of our own sin nature - something for which grace provides a barrier or covering.  Whenever we keep trying to do things in our own strength or power, we are outside the boundaries of grace - for grace is essentially rooted in trust and reliance.  Mixing the old with the new just muddies the waters and doesn't help us to embrace or live in grace.  Just sayin!

My troubled emotions

Fear is a powerful emotion that some say can actually paralyze you - putting you in total "stall mode" while the world moves on around you.  If you have ever experienced that heart-pounding, sweaty palms, shaky legs kind of fear, you know just how many scenarios run through your head making it almost impossible to exercise clear or rational thought at that moment.  Fear produces an anxiety response physically - it just isn't the emotional upheaval going on inside our heads.  

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. I trust God, so I am not afraid of what people can do to me! I praise God for his promise to me. (Psalm 56:3-4)

Scripture comes complete with stories of men and women in positions of great peril, emotional upheaval, and even life-threatening circumstances of both their own and others doing.  We all struggle with similar emotions and the physical responses which come along with them.  We don't stand as uniquely "different" when it comes to the life-challenges we face.  Most of the world faces similar stuff to us, just in a different sector of the world.  I know what it means to be emotionally and spiritually deprived of those things your life just yearns for.  We can all associate with each other's fears in one way or another, can't we?

Sometimes we need a little "self-talk" to remind us that we are not doing this alone - we have God on our side and we just need a little reminder that he is there alongside us.  David actually used praise to get his mind off the issues at hand and to refocus his attention on the one who would walk him through to the other side of the challenge he faced. Self-talk might involve a little refocusing of our attention off of our own abilities and efforts, squarely focusing on the abilities and efforts of the one who is in control of the circumstances in the first place. The moment we begin to remind ourselves of where it is we have placed our trust, the more we will begin to see the basis of our fears not being well-founded. When we remember God is our foundation, nothing can rock that foundation.  We begin to see that all the fear we have mustered up inside is really not a lack of "nerve" or "chutzpah", but a misplacing of our trust.

The basis of fear is really a lack of trust.  This may seem a bit over-simplified, but the opposite of fear is faith - faith is based solely in trust.  We sit on the stool, believing it will hold us upright because we trust those four legs underneath us to do their "job" or "part".  The stool's legs exist for one purpose - to hold the stool upright.  The seat on that stool exists for one purpose - to hold the weight of the one perched on it.  Faith is placing the weight of our world squarely on the "perch" of the one who has the ability to hold up under that weight.  If we lack the trust in his ability to hold us up under that weight, we never move toward firmly resting in him.  We avoid or try to create a new "stool" upon which we will place our weight (our trust).  If we want to overcome fear, we do so by refocusing our self-talk.  Instead of focusing on why we cannot do whatever it is we need to do, we need to crawl up on the perch of God's rest.  There, and only there, will we find rest for our fear and peace for our troubled emotions.  Just sayin!

The sins of the parent

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. (Exodus 20:4-6)

I was asked how God could lay the sins of the parents upon their children. Isn't God a loving God and children innocent of their parents' sin? God wasn't saying he would 'count' the parents' sin against the children over generations to come, but rather than the effects of their sin would be evident to the children. Taken in context, God is reminding Israel (and us) that he is a 'jealous God' - he will not allow us to bow down to any idol, image, or false god. Nothing should take the place he created for himself within our lives. If we seek other gods, there will be consequences. It is those consequences that the children of many generations may actually see, endure, and be under.

An example of this is when a parent chooses to break the law and is sent to the penitentiary for ten years. This leaves the family without the caregiver and sometimes without the main provider. The result is that the children might have a different 'family structure' than was originally intended. The remaining parent has to work, leaving the children with others or unsupervised entirely. The stigma of a parent in prison follows that child to school, making them an object of ridicule. The child may have seen rather unsavory behavior from the parent, knowing they didn't want to follow in their parent's footsteps, but feeling like they have no choice. The child is a prime target for gang involvement, illicit behavior, or criminal actions. The 'generational aspect' of the parent's sin is felt deeply by the children.

God's premise in leaving us this instruction is to show us how important our relationship can be as in pertains to setting an example. Follow him with your whole heart and your children will observe your love for him. Yield your heart to whatever god finds its way into your heart and your children will see this as an option for their own walk. Soon a generation will be moving away from God and toward whatever god they see as important to their parents. The consequences of our own compromises are felt by those around us. Perhaps this warning was meant to dissuade the Israelite parents from following the practices of the pagan culture around them, but we can see clear evidence in scripture where there were those who allowed themselves to be drawn into the culture and away from following the Lord.

Maybe this is how we became a 'religious' culture without having a relationship with Jesus. We allowed one compromise allowed by a parent to become the norm by which the children lived and then they allowed another compromise. Eventually all the cumulative compromises have led to the belief that we can call ourselves Christian and live like the world does - devoid of relationship with God. As Israel came into the land they were to inherit, they were told to drive out, eliminate and totally destroy every false god. Why? The more we allow ourselves to get close to that which could draw us away from serving God, the more we set ourselves up to be drawn away. Just sayin!

I need a bridge built

Great blessings belong to those who fear and respect the Lord, who are happy to do what he commands. Their descendants will be given power on earth. Those who do right will be greatly blessed. Their family will be very rich, and their goodness will continue forever. A light shines in the dark for those who are good, for those who are merciful, kind, and fair. (Psalm 112:1-4)

We work hard, do our best to raise our families in the right way, are loyal and devoted friends - so why is it wrong to think there might be a little blessing waiting for us? I imagine we might believe blessings are equated with our "doing" rather than our "being". We get so focused on the "doing" of life, we forget the original intent is for us to "be". "Beings" are content in "being" what God has created them to "be". It gives a sense of great satisfaction and ultimate blessing to those who learn to walk not in the "doing" of life, but in the "being" of life. Doing follows being - when our "being" is connected to Christ as it should be, our "doing" will follow in obedient and right living.

God didn't just create us as another one of the moving creatures of this earth. He created us uniquely like him - so we could relate to and with him. Why is it we humans are attracted to other humans? Isn't it because we find we can "relate" to one another? On a rare occasion, we might find a pet of some kind who we "relate" to such as our special horse, or the pup we raised from infancy. Yet, to be perfectly honest here, we don't actually "relate" in quite the same way with those pets. We love them, care for them, protect them. What we get in return is a sense of loyalty - they are by our side, and may even come to our rescue if we were hurt at some point. Yet, they are not humans and are incapable of relating to us with the same set of emotions, spiritual connection, and physical attributes of another human. We were created to relate to the ones closest to our "created type".

That means we were created to relate to God first and foremost. We are actually created in his image, so it makes sense we are "designed" to relate to and with him. It is one thing to relate "to" someone - we kind of connect with that individual because of similarities we have. It is another thing to relate "with" that individual - because in so doing, we begin to share not only the "safe stuff", but that stuff we might be carrying around which we have labeled as "unsafe" to be shared in common with everyone else. God is our safe place, my friend. He is the person we can share those things with when no one else can relate to us in that moment or those circumstances. We do ourselves a great disservice when we hold back from sharing with God those things which give us the greatest angst in life.

We "do" because we are comfortable with "being". When I am comfortable in my relationship with Jesus, I find myself "doing" the things which bring him joy and great pleasure. This is sometimes called "obedience". When I am uncomfortable for any reason within this relationship, it is usually because I have veered into "doing" what is not very honoring of the relationship. I find myself at a distance from him because I choose to step away from the closeness of this relationship. In time, my "doing" causes my "being" to be disturbed. If this disturbance is not addressed timely, it impacts the relationship and I pull further away until I find the chasm wide and deep. The good news is that God is quite adept at "bridge-making". Even when I don't recognize how to cross that chasm created by my "doing", God makes a way through his forgiveness and restoration.

Blessing isn't related to "doing" everything right. It is related to "being" everything we are created to be - living, breathing, worshiping creatures - deeply in love with the one who created us to live, gave breath to our souls, and creates the music in our spirit which gives voice in our worship. Just sayin!

I will not allow you to control my life!

If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. (Romans 8:31-34)

Many of us need a reality check from time to time. The moment we begin to give into the accusations of others, finding fault with everything that happens in our lives, or rising up in some form of indignation about something they don't understand that has occurred with us, we need that check. Why? No man, woman, or child can ever accuse us. They may 'judge', but that is their issue. We cannot control how they think or act - we are only responsible to live and act as God directs us to.

To accuse is to find fault with something or someone. Not every accusation is based in fact, though. There are times when others accuse us of things we didn't control, or things they have no real inside information into, but they find fault anyway. To condemn is to indicate they don't approve of what we have done, or what has come into our lives as a blessing. Either way, God reminds us that the only basis for accusation or judgment is when he makes it!

Keep your heart right with him and stop listening to the voices around you that accuse or condemn. God looks at our heart - sees our intentions, knows our thoughts, understands our emotions. He knows when we 'do well' or 'not so well', but others may not possess the same insight. Why do we listen to their accusations or condemning words? Perhaps those hurling those accusations are really just a bit too 'bullying' in their behavior!

Words hurt more than we want them to, don't they? They get inside our brains, we muddle over them for a while, then before long, they have taken root in our heart. Remember, the bully wants to control you. God tells us the only 'control' over our lives should be that of his Spirit. Stop muddling over what you hear and start replacing those hurtful words with the Word of God. No one can condemn those redeemed by the Blood of Jesus. No one! Just sayin!

Wisdom comes...

My son, eat honey; it is good. Honey straight from the honeycomb is the sweetest. In the same way, know that wisdom is good for you. Wisdom will give you something to hope for that will not disappoint you. (Proverbs 24:13-14)

We can turn to the internet for some "wisdom" - such as when we need help with learning a new language. We can turn to the books we have lining walls in our libraries - all divided by subject and author. We can even turn to each other - learning a great deal from what another may have learned over the years. In all these cases, we have amassed "knowledge", but maybe not wisdom. Wisdom isn't just "learned stuff" - it is "applied stuff" - going on to better our lives. Now, if I learned that foreign language to help another gain insight into the truth of the gospel message, the language would help me to "distribute" the wisdom I had attained by means of study of the Word of God, but it still would not be wisdom. I may have exercised wisdom in learning a different language as I came to realize I could not reach the other person until I could speak their tongue, but learning the language was not "getting wisdom". We get knowledge and wisdom mixed up, so it may not surprise us that our pursuit of each is a little mixed up, as well.

As a kid,  you are kind of naive and find stuff you don't know to be potential "hazards" to your well-being as kind of interesting or intriguing. I know a lot of stuff, as do you. What we put into practice most in our lives is something we might label "practical wisdom". It is the taking of things learned and making them "practical" by doing them over and over again until the knowledge becomes second nature to us. For example, we might learn that a steak cooked in too hot of a frying pan will sear nicely on the outside, but the inside of the steak will remain uncooked and almost too raw to eat. If we want both the "searing" effect of heat and the "cooking effect" of heat, we must vary what we do with the heat we place under the pan. We learn that by making a few mistakes - like overcooked meat one time, under-cooked another, and maybe one "just right" the next. Eventually, we develop a reasonably easy process of cooking our meat which we can replicate from one time to the next.

Wisdom which is practical in nature is usually the "regular" stuff we use everyday. Maybe we learn to not follow so close to vehicles when we have our first "rear-end collision", or we learn to bring laundry in off the line when we see storm clouds forming. We are certainly exercising good judgment with both - practical wisdom being highly linked to using good or "best" judgment in our decision-making. "Spiritually-based" wisdom is that which is learned by the application of God's truth in our lives. It isn't so much learned by trial and error, like cooking the steak to perfection. It is learned by obedience - choosing to do something not because we feel like it, but because we know it is the right thing to do. Knowing is the knowledge part - obedience is the wisdom part. Most of us would probably not equate wisdom with obedience, but if we really consider this carefully, obedience is applying truth even when we don't feel like it.

We can desire good things in this life, butbedesiring something less than what God knows to bebestfor us. We can desire even better things, like the "sweetness" of God's truth straight from him because we have spent time with him. Wisdom comes in choosing the latter. Just sayin!

No pulpit pounding here

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galations 5:13)

Do you indulge yourself once in a while? It may not take much indulgence to actually meet our needs, but when we do indulge we need to make sure it is for the right reasons.
By definition, to indulge is to allow yourself to follow your own will. Herein is the problem - most of the time our "will" isn't very reliable! We give into our own will and find we are traveling down a path we'd just have soon avoided. When we "indulge", we yield to something which demands to be satisfied. In the end, we may be satisfying a much needed thing, but we must weigh our "urges" up front to ensure we are yielding to the RIGHT things.

We are called to live "free" lives - not governed any longer by each and every urge of our old nature. You know the nature I mean - that one which caused us to always demand our own way, doing things which fulfill all our own desires, but often neglects to see the desires of any higher authority in our life or count the cost of those desires up front. Maybe this is why we need this frequent reminder to live free, but to not use that freedom to indulge our fleshly desires. In essence any time we respond to the desire to do things independent of Christ's counsel in our lives, we are taking our freedom to an extreme that he never intended.

If we bite and devour each other, we are not using our freedom in the correct manner. I think this may be the one way we use our "freedom" to the extreme - we think we can look down on the actions of another (almost in judgment) because we think we have a better vantage point or something they don't quite have to the same degree. Freedom in Christ is never intended to divide, but unite. Whenever we use our freedom in a manner which sets us out as "elite" or "better than" we are operating in the realm of the flesh and have reverted to acting in a way which is unbecoming a follower of Christ. We don't need to condone sin in our midst, but we also don't need to nit-pick the beliefs of another which may not be as well developed or slightly different from our own.

We must maintain biblical truth - this is paramount to being a follower in Christ. Yet, when we become so focused on the "letter of the law" that we don't see the person struggling to make sense of the law for themselves, we miss the intent of grace in the first place. Maybe this is why churches seek to set out a "seeker friendly" framework by which they operate these days. We have moved away from suit and tie, panty hose and dresses, choir robes and pulpits. It is not such a bad thing! What we have done is opened the doors to those who don't feel comfortable in suits, panty hose, or with pulpit pounding! Not a bad thing, in my book. As long as we never compromise the elemental truths of scripture to become "seeker friendly", we are not violating any principles as Christ would have taught them. In fact, he commends us being able to become all things for all men. Just sayin!

So, just a little bit longer?

But don’t forget this one thing, dear friends: To the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

In days gone by the reminders to "be ready" for the Second Coming of Christ were pretty much commonplace. Today we seldom hear those words echoed from the pulpits. Do you ever stop to wonder why? I think it is because we are trying to create "seeker friendly" places where people can come into church gatherings and not be frightened by the "churchy" things we might say and do as Christians. I totally support creating an environment that is welcoming to the sinner and open to the seeker. I also strongly support an environment that preaches the entirety of the gospel message and the truth of the Word. Put both of those together and you have the "best" combination! We must always keep in mind there is this promise of Christ's return - the Second Coming as some might refer to it. The issue is not "when" this return might occur, but simply that we live well in anticipation of our deliverance from the limitations of this earthly body!

If his "first coming" has been effective in our lives, we will be ready for his second coming! It doesn't matter when Christ comes again - it matters that we are found ready to live on for eternity giving God the glory he rightfully deserves! When grace has had time to change our hearts, minds, and ultimately our soul, we begin to live for the glory of God - we live "ready" lives. The delay in his coming is so that his grace may have the chance to touch the lives of many who obviously take their "dear sweet time" allowing that grace to impact their lives! God's timing is perfect, and we should not become frustrated in the waiting. I want us to see this delay as an actual means by which his grace may touch the lives of those we have been praying for over the years. The wait may seem long in our eyes, but in his timing, it is like a split second has passed. To us the years of praying and agonizing over the loved ones who haven't experienced this grace yet seems almost unbearably long. To God, it is undeniably short! To him, that delay is the opportunity many require in order to experience this grace.

We are getting to the place of real "change" in our lives as he delays. At the moment we accept his grace, we are forever changed, but in our daily lives this change may not be totally evident. The delay actually grows our faith and the opportunity to "work out" change is what makes us lean into him a little more each day. We are powerless to change on my own - because change is hard work, and we tire under the burden of change. It takes a toll on us mentally, physically, and especially emotionally. God's delays in our lives may just be so we will realize the need for mental clarity, physical renewal, and emotional balance - something only his grace fully operationalized in our lives can produce.

You have probably heard the little acronym for GRACE: God's Riches At Christ's Expense. We don't understand the riches of God's grace until we experience the change grace brings into our mental, physical and emotional lives. We need time to fully experience how his grace will transform, or re-create the way we think and process information, the stamina and fortitude to perform our daily work, and the life-altering freedom of being controlled by the unreasonableness of our wayward emotions. To this end, he gives us time with him - learning of him, learning from him, and learning to live in him. When this has been fully accomplished, grace has done its work! We live out grace in the hopes another will see and experience the grace of God in theirs. Until he returns, share his grace. Just sayin!

Too proud to accept it?

But as for me, I will sing about your power. Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love. For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress. (Psalm 59:16)

Where do you turn when you are in distress? Do you veg out in front of the TV, streaming this or that in the hopes you can take your mind off whatever is causing all the stress? Do you head to the fridge or scour the cupboards to find another snack? Do you go online to buy one more thing you really won't use all that much? What we do in our times of stress and where it is we turn when we need to 'destress' is very important for us to recognize. It could show us just how much we depend upon what 'we' can do rather than what God wants to do.

Things will always be there that give us great pain, anxiety, or sorrow. It is part of life to deal with this kind of stuff. The acute physical or mental anguish the stressful thing causes isn't meant to be dealt with on our own, though. When we are attempting to deal with it all on our own, we are likely to find our 'fix' for the stress is not quite hitting the mark. We might even get to the place where we feel more guilty about having done whatever it is we did to 'destress' than we felt the anguish of the original stress!

Stress is 'natural', but we have been given supernatural strength to overcome it. When we turn to Jesus at the first notice of the distressing thing, we might just find the physical or mental anguish we 'could' experience is already made lighter because he is taking that load off of our minds and hearts and placing it in his. The more we learn to turn to him first, the less guilt and anxiety we will feel over our not so perfect 'fixes' to the stress because we won't be heaping guilt upon guilt on top of all that stress.

Have you ever refused a helping hand? I have, and it wasn't because I didn't need it. It was because I was too proud to accept it. When God reaches out to you in your 'distress', he is asking you to take his hand so he can help you get through it easier. Will the stressful stuff still be there for us to 'go through'? Probably, but we 'go through' together, not alone. We 'go through' in his strength and power, not ours. Just sayin!

God's Deep Secrets

But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. (I Corinthians 2:10-12)

Why did God send his Spirit to indwell believers? It may have something to do with us gaining the mind of Christ - seeing what he sees, understanding his ways, and learning to lean upon that understanding more than our own. What are the advantages to having the mind of Christ? If we allow the Holy Spirit to actually fill us up with his presence, there is very little room for the fleshly desires and thought patterns to exist. Essentially, when we allow the mind of Christ to be our guidance, we are shutting out the appeal of the flesh.

The mind of Christ is what helps us have a determined focus. We desire God's will and not our own, all because the Spirit of God is at work within us changing the way we process each thought, in turn affecting each action we take. It is not being 'brainwashed' but rather like being 'brain purified'. We find ourselves rejecting sin and embracing things that don't satisfy the lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life. In other words, our thoughts are 'reordered' to align with Christ's example. Scripture might call this being 'single-minded', but we can call it being focused. 

The mind of Christ also leads to us developing a focus outside of self. We begin to see the needs of others and look for ways that we may serve or help them. We stop focusing so much on seeking all that will meet our needs and seek out ways to encourage the well-being of others. There is no longer an intense need to compete with each other because we realize all we have been given in Christ Jesus far outweighs all the accolades and accomplishments of the flesh. 

The most amazing thing about developing the mind of Christ is the effect it has on our heart. It actually helps to create a 'pure heart' within us. An advantage to a pure heart is a peaceful mind. If our mind is in unrest, perhaps asking God to show us where our hearts have any impurity would be a great place to start. When we ask, we must be prepared for the answer! The mind of Christ will not abide impurity in the heart, so when it is uncovered, it must be confessed, allowing God to bring peace once again in our minds. Just sayin!

Do you have community?

Don’t interfere with good people’s lives; don’t try to get the best of them. No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don’t stay down long; soon they’re up on their feet, while the wicked end up flat on their faces. (Proverbs 24:15-16)

H.G. Wells tells us, "If you fell down yesterday, stand up today." There are times when we fall down more than we stand. We try something and fail. We try again and fail in a different way. Standing might just be harder than we thought! If you haven't figured it out yet, we don't always fall by our own doing. There are times when the external influences exert more pull than the internal. What is amazing though is that a child of God is seldom 'down' for long. There is something within them that calls them to 'rise again' and face whatever tripped them up with a fresh look and a new determination.

Satan my try to get the best of us, but he doesn't stand a chance against God's goodness and grace. He may present many tripping points meant to make us fall into temptation and give into sin, but even the most cleverly presented of these points is nothing compared to the resilience God gives his children in the face of attack. Resilience is that ability to return to form or position, even after being bent, pressed, or stretched beyond that form or position. That is what God's presence does within us - it gives us resilience to return to a place of grace and sinlessness even if we fall. 

If we fell down, would we get back up? Some falls are easy to recover from - we can almost 'bounce back' without much of an issue. Others might just require us to have a little help to 'right ourselves' again. This is why it is important to live life in community with other believers. We need help to 'right ourselves' from time to time, because we don't always realize what tripped us up, making us fall in the process. When we have community, we have resources that help us return to grace quickly. They don't allow us to stay down long - helping us to 'be up on our feet' even when we don't see a way to 'get back up'.

No matter how many times... It is likely we will fall more than once over the same tripping point, especially when we aren't paying attention. Community helps here, as well. There is wisdom in having those around that can see what we cannot! Just sayin!

Standing Out

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

The opening of this chapter includes a promise - IF you obey all his decrees and commands, you WILL enjoy long life. The caveat? We have to listen closely and be careful to obey. Two very difficult things for us at times! Part of serving God is allowing God to help us get our heart right. We have a deceitful heart and have a hard time knowing how to 'behave' as a result of the confusion we feel at times. We know what is right, but we struggle to actually do it with any consistency. As God instructed - we have to 'repeat' his commands. What does repetition do? It allows us to hear time and again, considering with a fresh outlook each time we hear. We don't always hear all that is to be heard the first time, do we? Sometimes we need it to be repeated one way, then another, until we finally 'get' what is being said.

The Word of God isn't to be 'dabbled in' from time to time. It is to be a daily part of our lives. Skip a day after you have made it a routine you prioritize, and you will notice how 'different' your day actually is without that 'infusion' of his Word. Making time in his Word a routine is difficult at first, but it is so important to our spiritual well-being. We cannot always be 'spoon fed' the Word of God - we have to learn to feed ourselves. That means we get a Bible, get into it regularly, even if only taking it one verse at a time until we develop a 'taste' for it. The more his Word gets in, the more our sinfulness goes out! It is like putting clear, fresh water into a stagnant cistern - the constant flow of fresh water will eventually begin to change the water in the cistern. 

Living the way God desires us to live may mean we don't always choose the most popular of opinions. There will be times when we 'stand out' from the crowd because of what we choose to do, say, or trust in. That isn't a bad thing. God was preparing the nation of Israel to go into the Promised Land. As he did, he gave them these commands. In so doing, he was telling them they would 'stand out' amongst the other nations. A heart dedicated to the plans and purposes of God will always 'stand out'! Just sayin!

Contents revealed

Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you. (Psalm 85:11)

Teaching involves the impartation of knowledge held by one to another. Whenever we ask God to teach us his ways, we are asking for the impartation of the mind of Christ. We want God to prepare us for the day's tasks - demonstrating to us how it is we are to respond to the challenges of the day. Critics of 'the religious life' will say we are asking to be 'brainwashed'. Those into spiritualism will say we are asking for 'enlightenment'. Neither is true - we are asking for God to show us his will, demonstrate how we live within that will, and to keep us safe from the attacks of all manner of untruth that comes our way.

When God grants us wisdom (the ability to apply the knowledge we have received), he does so in order to purify our hearts. His goal is to rid us of all the things that stand in the way of our total communion with him. Purity of heart is not accomplished through rituals of religion, but by the connection of relationship. God's desire for us is open fellowship. That requires trust and trust is based upon truthfulness. God shares his truth in Christ Jesus - we are asked to share our truth. As we do, we find where our heart begins to be changed. Things we held onto so closely (like our secret sins) don't seem to have the same appeal. Why? God is bringing purity into the place where pride, lust, anger, bitterness, and every manner of hurt or hang-up had existed. 

Don't ask God to purify your heart unless you mean it, though. You might be surprised at what he reveals to you that needs to be confessed, forsaken, and forever replaced in your thoughts, emotions, or even your actions. We will be asked to stop hiding what or who we are, come clean on matters we might have wanted to avoid entirely, and then allow God to replace those things with all that brings honor and glory to his name. When we begin to put God first in our lives, we might just find we go through more frequent explorations of the 'content' of our hearts. Why? God wants the best for each of us and his best is always accomplished where his Spirit dwells. His Spirit dwells in a 'clean and pure' heart! Just sayin!

Steer us right

For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight. Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. (Romans 2:13-15)

"Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune." (Carl Jung) That is the power of the conscience - it warns us something is out of 'tune'. When we begin to 'tune into' God's Word and his still small voice, our conscience will begin to alert when we are about to do or say something that is not in keeping with his will. It is learning to listen to that 'alert' and 'heed' its warning that gives us all that frustration!

Listening isn't heeding. Heeding is the condition in which one actually gives careful attention to what is being said or warned. It is more than a casual observation that something is not right. It is actually putting into application what one is warned about. When that 'niggling' comes deep within our conscience, it is like God is saying, "Listen up!". He is asking for us to exert some 'carefulness' with each step we are about to take. It isn't a moment for deliberation - it is a moment for determination.

So much of what we encounter in the way of compromise or sin in our lives is because we knew what was right to do, then deliberated way too long on 'if' the choice was good or bad. We let the appeal of the temptation overtake our reason. It is possible we argue a bit too much about what is right or wrong for us rather than just listening to our conscience confirm that it is wrong. The more we begin to ask God for his will, the more he will show us that will. The longer we dwell on the 'is this your will' question, the harder it can actually become to know it because we allow all kinds of confusing thoughts into our minds that cloud the clarity proclaimed by our conscience.

Knowing the will of God is important, but listening when our conscience tells us not to do something, or to forge full speed ahead is also a 'tool' God gives us in living upright and consistent lives. We may not have the Word of God right there when the choice stands before us, but we do have our conscience to guide us. If we commit our thoughts to God and fill our minds with his Word, it is possible our conscience might just 'steer us right' instead of wrong. Just sayin!

A let down isn't always bad

When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:1-5)

Stop for a moment to consider the faith of these friends. There is no indication the man had enough faith to do such a thing - although he certainly had the need. These words struck me this morning - "Seeing THEIR faith". It is important to know that THEIR faith got the man where he needed to be in order to receive his healing. Sometimes it isn't our faith that gets us to that place where our need is met - it is the community of friends that we have in Christ Jesus that get us there!

A surgeon doesn't operate alone. He is surrounded by others, all doing their particular tasks. The entire operation requires a team effort, expertly coordinated and perfectly orchestrated. The team makes the difference! We can 'get by' with a lousy team, but when the right team is in place, what a difference that makes. When the right team is in place in your life, the difference is palpable. The 'faith energy' produced when we are surrounded by those who are also close to Jesus energizes us when we are 'running low'.

They dug a hole through some poor guy's rooftop in order to get their friend before Jesus! I can only imagine the moxie that took to coordinate such a plan and actually 'create the opening' that would become the means by which the man received his healing. There are definitely times when we need others with a courageous spirit and determination that won't quit. When we are having doubts, we need their faith. When we are succumbing to the 'difficulties of the moment', we need their perseverance to continue on in spite of it all.

Sin might attempt to keep us flat on our mat, but the faith of good friends and their determination to see us made right again with God may be the thing that propels us forward into the presence of God again. We cannot ignore the need for community - they could provide the 'biggest let down' of our lives. Just sayin!

With haste!

He will judge everyone according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil... (Romans 2:6-9)

I believe one of the greatest things God does for us is extend his kindness toward us, giving us a chance to turn from our independent choices (choices that often lead us into sin), and turn toward him. God's judgment against sin isn't a thing to be trifled with, but neither is his grace! Grace is given freely to all who seek it, but with grace comes the responsibility on our part to allow God to change our heart's attitude toward sin in our lives. 

It is a matter of us determining to walk away from sin and toward God - not once, but repeatedly. Why do I say repeatedly? Sin isn't going to just 'go away' - we have to actually walk away from it. As I heard my pastor say this week - we have to create 'distance' between us and the sin. Without that distance, we just keep on sinning. God promises eternal life to those who 'keep on doing good', seeking him and all he offers. It is easy to confess our sinfulness and ask for forgiveness, but it is another thing to actually allow God to change our hearts sufficiently that we don't even want to return to that sin again.

To turn away from sin, one has to first recognize they are a sinner, and their actions are sinful. Sin isn't a thing to be trifled with. It is serious business! We learn to recognize it when we begin to ask God to show us where we are compromising and entering into sin in our lives. This is a tough prayer to utter, but once uttered, be ready...God is about to show you some things you may not want to have realized existed in your life! As we turn away from sin, we need to focus on what the Word of God says. When we hide his Word in our hearts, it actually helps us recognize compromise sooner, and even avoid the actions that lead us into sin. (Psalm 119:11)

One further thing we should do - get in a place of accountability. We need others who are walking with Jesus to help us see what we cannot recognize because we are too close or too invested in the compromise/sin. The time in God's Word and prayer, combined with repentance is important, but having this accountability can be a lifesaver. How? Proverbs 17:17 tells us that a piece of iron actually helps sharpen another - we help 'sharpen' each other's awareness of compromise and sin. Then we help each other walk away from it with haste! Just sayin!

Dressed, Ready, and Alert

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. (Ephesians 6:12-13)

If you haven't realized the innumerable forces standing against you, it is likely you've 'felt' their influence all around you. Unseen, in the periphery, and right there in front of you - the forces exist, are at work, and are constantly looking for any opportunity to call into question your faith and trust in God. Why? They don't like your determination to follow Jesus. You are a threat to them, so they want to make you think they are a threat to you!

Every piece of armor has been provided so we stand stronger than any attack they bring. Everything we think they have to use 'against us' is nothing more than them fighting against us with NERF guns! We have the Word of God to dispel all manner of untruth they fling our way. The breastplate of righteousness is ours because in Christ Jesus we bear his protection over our heart. Feet shod with the Gospel of Peace - making all we stand upon secure and certain. We take up the shield of faith, knowing God's protection outweighs anything the enemy can hurl our way. Our minds are protected by the helmet of salvation. The Spirit of God is like a sword to cut down all manner of attack against us. 

What does the armor do? It helps us to 'resist'. It doesn't keep us from attack, but it prepares us to be ready and able to resist the attack. We can withstand the actions and effects of evil all around us. The darkness still exists, but we aren't overcome by it because light dwells within. There is no better 'prep' for our day than to spend time with Jesus. It is like we are 'putting on' that whole armor of God as we do. Be more than an armor-bearer. Be an armor-wearer. Just sayin!

Mixed loyalties

Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. (James 4:8-10)

There will be times when we don't feel all that close to God. It isn't because he has left us, or withdrawn from us, but that we have let something come between us. We get all wrapped up in stuff that takes our focus off of this relationship, or we follow some compromise that makes us feel totally yucky in the end. If we want to feel that closeness again, it may require some 'adjustments' on our part. We need to unclutter our lives, confess our compromise, or a combo of both.

Divided loyalty probably causes us more issues in our daily lives than anything else. It is that battle the Apostle Paul spoke of when he described wanting to do good but doing just the opposite. Probably the hardest question to ask ourselves is where our loyalties lie. Many times we will discover they lie heaviest on the side of doing things that please ourselves in spite of knowing they aren't the best for us. When we are off-balance like this, we likely don't take much time relating with Jesus. Less time with him means feeling like HE has withdrawn from us.

Come close...that is our part. He will come near to us...that is his part. It is wise to examine our priorities each day because we can get so wrapped up in what draws us in so easily and not even realize we are being drawn away from God. It is wise to bring our day to him, ask him for his priorities, and then let him clarify where we should be and what we should be doing. We never know when HIS priorities will be the very thing that bring the greatest blessing into our lives. Just sayin!

Who's vying for that spot?

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8)

Have you ever taken notice of how easy it is to get your mind working in the wrong direction? It doesn't take much effort to drift down that bunny-trail without a care in the world, until all of a sudden you see how 'deep' it is! God tells us to 'fix' our thoughts - not like fixing your car, but to 'consider attentively'. When our minds go down the bunny-trail, there isn't a whole lot of 'attention' being paid to where we are headed. In fact, we are a bit aimless in those thoughts. We allow them to dictate the journey rather than us determining the journey.

We are to give our minds 'attentively' (on purpose, with determination) to think about who Jesus is and what he has done. What did he do while he was here on earth? What is he doing now that he is at the right hand of God the Father? How did he go about his work? Who mattered to him? What didn't faze him? In other words, we are to meditate upon who and what he is. These are indeed thoughts that are excellent and worthy of praise! If we are feeling a bit down, it is likely that our thoughts are not fixed on Jesus because he doesn't go down that bunny-hole!

True and honorable thoughts. That might take us a bit of effort, huh? It is easy to imagine what isn't 'fully true' because the truth can sometimes expose what we don't want exposed. It is easiest to get caught up in thoughts that call into question someone else's fault or faux pas and not ours. Remember this - to 'fix' upon something, there has to be determined motion toward it. Fix your thoughts upon truth and you will find yourself seeking truth, weeding out deception of all kinds in your thoughts, and looking toward what is honorable, right, pure, lovely, and ultimately admirable. 

We have a bird feeder that is 'well-attended' by the neighborhood flocks. They try to 'fix' upon the edge of the tray that holds the seed because that is how they get nourished. When there are ten birds all vying for the same spot in line on the perch, it is amazing to watch their behavior. They crawl on each other, flap their wings to stay on the perch, and generally cause more chaos than 'attentive feeding'. When there are so many thoughts vying for our attention, it easy to allow the chaos to be our focus and not Christ. Fix on him and you will find your thoughts nourish your soul, spirit, and heart a whole lot more! Just sayin!

God is kind to you, so...

It is often human nature to judge others by some standard we hold up as the "yard stick" by which we measure their actions. Since the beginning of time, people have made all kinds of misjudgments based on what they "believe" at a given moment. Whenever we choose to compare our actions with those of another, how others respond to our actions versus the actions of the other, or what we imagine to be the better response to a circumstance, we are kind of moving into dangerous territory. The story of Cain and Abel wasn't just put into the Bible to teach us a blood sacrifice would be required for the forgiveness of sins. I was placed there as a way of helping us to understand just how "wrong" judgment can go when we get all wigged-out by our own "measures of success". One son had his gift offering accepted, the other's gift not so much. One was a farmer, the other a keeper of flocks. Cain brought some of the food he had grown, while Abel brought the best part of his flock for an offering. In a moment of "judgment", Cain never connected the value of his gift with the value of Abel's - he just saw the "favor" given to Abel and he began to rage with jealous anger. That moment of judgment led to one of the worst actions anyone can take against another - the taking of a life. The moment is recorded for us, not just so we know jealousy and anger are wrong, but so we think about the actions behind our judgments. They may not be very "accurate" or "honorable" simply because we use a wrong measuring stick by which to measure the actions or responses of another!

So do you think that you can judge those other people? You are wrong. You too are guilty of sin. You judge them, but you do the same things they do. So when you judge them, you are really condemning yourself. God judges all who do such things, and we know his judgment is right. And since you do the same things as those people you judge, surely you understand that God will punish you too. How could you think you would be able to escape his judgment? God has been kind to you. He has been very patient, waiting for you to change. But you think nothing of his kindness. Maybe you don’t understand that God is kind to you so that you will decide to change your lives. (Romans 2:1-4)

We may not be "guilty" of exactly the same sin as another, but we are "guilty" of some sin of our own. We don't like to admit this because it makes us fallible, and it puts all eyes on us. No one wants to admit we do the same "dumb" things others do - especially when those actions are "marginally outside the expected actions" of a child of God. We don't want to admit we gossip about others, so we call it "being concerned" about another. We don't want to admit to having a problem with anger, so we label it "righteous indignation". We don't want to cop to the plea of "guilty" on any account, so we just hide behind our masks and try to fly under the radar. God is the only one capable of "right judgment", so whenever we engage in judging another by some standard we have set within ourselves, we are going to judge by a wrong standard. Even when we claim to use the Word of God as our standard, then launch into actions or activities which are then contrary to the standard laid out there, we are kind of acting a little hypocritical, don't you think?

The sad thing is that we are simply passing judgment on ourselves whenever we do this. "It takes one to know one" - a simple reminder that we recognize the faults of another because those same faults rise up to give us a problem or two in our own lives. The standard we would do well to utilize is the one God uses toward us - that of GRACE. Grace is akin to giving someone a long enough rope to decide they don't want to hang themselves! It is like God gives us enough "play", but never lets us go so far as to actually break that tie with him. Grace brings us back close and even breaks the bonds of that tie to whatever sin we were pursuing so we don't want to go back to it. It doesn't happen because he "judges" us, but because he loves us enough to provide a way for us to no longer fall under the judgment we deserve! Jesus made a way for us to step out from under the judgment and penalty we deserve by our actions. We need to make a way for others to step out from under our judgment and whatever penalty we want to hold over their heads. Their actions may very well deserve some kind of judgment but God's actions on their part are always based in grace - so ours should also be based in similar grace! Just sayin!

Rejecting Bitterness

Your words can be as satisfying as fruit, as pleasing as the food that fills your stomach. The tongue can speak words that bring life or death. Those who love to talk must be ready to accept what it brings. (Proverbs 18:20-21)

Fruit can have all the right coloring, smell wonderful, but somehow it is just too tart or bitter on the inside. It is like the development of the fruit arrested and it never came to the place it was fully ripe - like when it is picked too quickly and artificially ripened to put on the shelves at the supermarket. Take a bit of the fruit and you will soon realize the bitterness lasts, even when you spit out the nastiness of the bite you took. It is like "having your teeth set on edge". Some of us don't taste "bitter"? In fact, depending upon the level of dietary iodine we may ingest, we might all sense "bitterness" a little differently. I wonder if this difference with how we "taste" the bitter we ingest in life is similar to how some may be deeply affected by the hurtful and bitter things another does or says, while others seemingly walk away pretty well unaffected by it?

There are individuals who will take in a steady diet for a while, developing a "taste" for whatever it is they are given to ingest. It may not have been pleasant at first, but the more they ingest it, the more immune they become to the unpleasant taste. It is kind of like when you first tried to feed your infant veggies - they didn't like their taste as well as the fruit, so they squirmed away when you tried to coax them to take a little more. The pediatrician might even tell you to start with veggies and leave the fruits till last. You are convincing them to "take in" what is the least pleasant for them, but which will give them the necessary stuff to help them grow up strong. They might not enjoy the experience, but it is not going to kill them!

I wonder how many of us go through life "not enjoying the experience", but going through it anyway simply because someone has convinced us it won't "kill us". The reality is that we are affected by all which comes into our lives - good, bad, sweet, or bitter. We cannot deny the influence of each of these - some will be quite enjoyable and easily appreciated; others will be very difficult and quite difficult to see as valuable. There are times when bitterness is all around us, and all we want to do is spit it out! We rarely crave the bitter taste. In time, the more we taste the bitter, the more our taste buds will become desensitized to the bitter and will actually allow us to take it in without having that same "teeth set on edge" reaction.

What has happened? We have been "desensitized" due to the frequency of the exposure to the bitter thing. That which once caused us so much discomfort becomes something we are almost immune to now. This is not always good, though, because those initial reactions of "rejecting" the bitter are there for a reason. The bitterness of the green fruit is what should keep us from ingesting it and becoming ill from taking it into our bodies. When we develop a tolerance to the bitter, we often go way beyond a place of safety when it comes to what we will allow into our lives! Spiritually and emotionally speaking, the bitterness of life is going to challenge us a bit at first, but when we are continually bombarded by it, we cannot help but develop a "tolerance" to it.

Words might be bitter when first spoken, producing an immediate "ill-effect". In time, when we are constantly bombarded by the sheer volume of bitter and harmful words, or words which ought to produce a bitter taste within us, we might just begin to develop a tolerance to what we continue to allow to be taken in! This is perhaps why God asks us to pay so close attention to the words we speak and those which we allow to penetrate our minds and hearts. These very words can be the starting point of tolerance to the bitterness of life - rather than us rejecting that which produces bitterness within, we actually find ourselves running toward it! We need to weigh our words carefully and those which we will allow to "penetrate" our minds and hearts. When we hear those bitter words of another, we need to be quick to reject those as something which is just not "fitting" for our lives. Just sayin!

Ask, Seek, Knock, then keep on knocking

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8)

Jesus is telling us how important it is to pray - to take our concerns, needs, hurts, and hang-ups to him in prayer. In other words, we are to use our words to express our need. What happens if we don't know what to pray for - when the situation is there, but we have no idea what to ask him to do for us in that situation? We seek wisdom. Sometimes we don't know what is happening in our lives, but we know we need God's help in that moment. We lay out our need, both the one we recognize easily, as well as the one we have a hard time articulating. Then we listen. Prayer is about asking, seeking, and knocking (importuning). We don't always ask, so how do we expect to receive. We might not always seek so as to discover. We may not realize it, but when there seems to be no answer, we might need to make the request over and over again. It doesn't mean God isn't listening, it could just mean he is waiting on us to be ready to receive, act, or change the course we have taken.

Ask (aiteo) - ask for with urgency. This word speaks to the attitude of a suppliant (one who makes a humble, earnest plea or entreaty), the petitioning of one who is lesser in position than he to whom the petition is made. To ask means to call on for an answer, which indicates that we believe there is someone listening. It also implies that we expect Him to answer. Ask is present imperative indicating that we are to keep on asking. This is to become the pattern of our life, a continual act of devotion. Jesus calls us to be in His presence continually.

Seek (zeteo) means to attempt to learn something by carefully investigating it or searching for it. Seeking is asking plus acting, implying that type of earnest petitioning that is coupled with an active endeavoring to see needs fulfilled. When you seek something, you rearrange your priorities so that you can search for what you desire until you find it. If we don't receive by asking, we seek. If we don't receive by seeking, we knock.

Knock (krouo) - to rap at a door for entrance, but then to keep on knocking. The English word "knock" comes from German word meaning to press for what you desire. The idea might imply praying in the face of difficulty or resistance. If you knock like this, you don't give up on expressing your need. You keep on pressing, until you receive the answer.

We might ask, but do we seek? If we don't receive what we need the first time we ask, do we keep our eyes and ears open to discover what God might want to teach in the moment? Search out God's answers. Don't just expect them to fall into your lap. When you learn to ask, seek, and knock, you learn to lean on Jesus more than on your own ability or strength. Just sayin!