Would you stand out?

Romans 12:1-2 remind us, "So I beg you, brothers and sisters, because of the great mercy God has shown us, offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him—an offering that is only for God and pleasing to him. Considering what he has done, it is only right that you should worship him in this way. Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect." Noah was righteous and blameless before God. Out of all the huge multitude of people on earth at the time, he found favor with God. Others were noted to be so evil, to the point God could not tolerate their evil and corrupt hearts any longer. We can only imagine how difficult it would have been to remain righteous and obedient to God when all those around you were so totally corrupt. Sin was rampant and everyone else was engaging in all manner of evil. Sometimes it is hard to stand for what is right, especially when all around us is standing for what is evil, corrupt, and even vile.

Very few people stood out in scripture as being noted to be 'righteous', 'good', and 'different' from the society around them, but Noah stood out. He was different, choosing not to do the same things those around him were doing. According to scripture, his family trusted God. We don't see evidence that there were any other 'believers' of the time that trusted God in the same way. Maybe there were some 'posers' in the land, but we don't see evidence of God sparing anyone else in the flood. The more we embrace the culture of the day, the further and further people grow away from the holiness of God. The easier it becomes to compromise until we don't really even know what righteousness is any longer. It is easier to change scripture to fit our desires and to justify our sins. 

We live in a dark world as well, but it as far as we know, it is not nearly as dark as it was during Noah's time. We can still find fellowship and other believers to help us live upright lives. We may see all manner of 'unrighteousness' around us, but we aren't alone in the pursuit of righteousness. One of the hardest questions we may have to answer is if we would find favor in God’s sight right now. If God were looking for a righteous man or woman, would he be able to choose you? Would you stand out as being righteous or are you basically acting the same as all those around you in this world? Just askin!

Start small and see the bigness of God

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. 

(George Eliot)

It was Eliot who reminded us, "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." Small things add up, don't they? We may not see the effect of one small action today, but in the far off 'tomorrows' that one action may mushroom into a far greater outcome than we ever thought possible.

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith. (Galatians 6:9-10)

We can grow weary in doing good at times. We plug along, taking all the right steps, doing all the right things, being as 'right' as we are able to be each and every day. Fatigue in 'doing' is natural - we get tired when we are active. Yet, contrary to what we might imagine, it is that action that actually keeps our bodies healthy. Might it just be that 'good actions' in a spiritual sense are also making us 'healthier' spiritually?

Work for the benefit of all - not just the benefit of one. This is a hard concept for some, as all they can think about is how the actions will benefit themselves. They find it hard to see beyond their own needs and wants. Unfortunately, if that is the case, they will often grow wearier and weaker. Why? God intends for us to look beyond our own needs, seeing the needs of others, taking action to meet those needs with whatever means we have at our disposal. 

It may be an extension of our time or talent. It matters not that you don't have money - give your time, energies, and abilities to another and God will bless what you have given. Do you know what I have discovered? When I give my time, energies, and abilities to another, God actually gives me greater energy than I expended. Sure, I get tired in 'doing right', but it is in doing that we are built up for the next thing we are called to do. So 'don't grow weary in well-doing' - for God's blessing awaits you at the end of that doing. Just sayin!

Plucked or Refreshed?

Are you a 'radical' when it comes to change? Radical: of or going to the root or origin of something. If you haven't really thought about what "radical change" is, you might be a little surprised to find out it is change which goes after the "root" or "origin" of something in order to so totally change what has become "traditional" or "normal" in one's life. If a business wants to "re-invent" themselves because they have been losing customers to some other big-name chain with a newer look, what do they do? They go through some "radical change" to make us believe this is the store we want to be shopping at instead of the other guys. J.C. Penney did just that - they changed up the lines they carried, took out a whole bunch of their stock, remodeled the interiors of the stores to be more "hip", but they lost business! Most of us who shopped at Penney's did so for a reason - the consistency of finding the lines we liked, that fit us well, at a reasonable price range. They thought they had to "change" their "core" in order to draw business back into their store. In reality, their "core" was pretty good, they probably just needed to make some subtle changes to attract the crowd of shoppers they were aiming to draw in, but without sacrificing the loyalty of those who looked to them for their "core" purchases. Sometimes I think we do the same thing when God asks us to begin to change in a particular area. We think he wants some big "revamp" of everything, so we set about to go through a major "redo", all the while forgetting about the "core values" he has already worked out in our lives.

You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change. (Romans 2:3-4)

When God goes after the "root" in our lives, it isn't always to "pluck it up"! In fact, sometimes he just needs to "stimulate" it a little in order to get it on track with healthy growth. We cannot sacrifice those "core values" he has already worked into our lives - in other words, we don't throw the baby out with the bath water! Sure, God wants us to be affected deeply, changing where change is needed, and developing a keener awareness of what it is he desires of us, but he doesn't want us to neglect or forget the values he has already worked into our lives. I think this is a common issue for many of us - we see there is a a slightly newer focus God is asking of us, and we forget about the "old" in order to pay attention to the "new". What happens to the old? It gets neglected. What happens when something is neglected? It begins to no longer be the "practiced" behavior. Some roots need a little "plucking". It is like when a store might realize a particular line of clothing or household goods is no longer selling. They might want to either consider "restyling" those clothes to stay in fashion, or just drop the line totally. Sometimes a simple "restyle" is all that is needed - because the "basics" are there - they just need a little attention. At other times, the styles have moved on and it is time to retire the line - like polyester jumpsuits! The basic black dress or skirt will never go out of style, but they may "restyle" it with a different hem line, or perhaps a new cut to the neckline in order to keep it "new". One gets at the root in order to eliminate the line, while the other simply allows the root to be stimulated to produce a new line.

God wants radical life change, not just a 'restyle' of our lives. As he makes change in our lives, he doesn't go about plucking up the previous change and then growing another. He keeps the changes we have made and then "adds" changes by stimulating us at the "root" of our being (the core) in order to bring about even more growth. We have to be aware of which one of these God is doing - plucking up or stimulating the roots. When we know he is after the removal of something from the "roots up", then we let go of it. When we see he is just "digging around those roots" a little, we can be assured what he sees is good at the core, we just need a little help to bring the best growth forth. Core change (radical change) often requires an expertise we don't possess on our own. We need God taking us by the hand and "leading" us into this change, otherwise our "best" change may just be a flop. The ideas we have for change aren't "bad", they just aren't God's ideal for our lives - we need his "ideal", not just our "best". It is heartwarming to me to realize God is leading us through this change. He doesn't expect us to dig around those roots on our own - nor does he expect us to know which ones need to be totally plucked up. He takes us by the hand, suggesting a certain degree of intimacy and caring, doesn't it? He is going to get "deep into" our core and he wants us to know how much he cares about what it is he is doing.

When we take the hand of another, we are usually doing it because we want to express something in that connection, isn't it? We don't do it with everyone. If we just walked up to every stranger we saw and reached out to take their hand, we'd soon see some pretty radical behavior from them, wouldn't we? They'd pull back, even scream in surprise. Why? We don't have relationship with them, and we have no right to hold their hands! If they were drowning in the lake, they might just crave that connection, but not when they are minding their own business window shopping at the mall! God doesn't just march right up to us and take us by the hand, telling us he is taking us to the place of change. He establishes relationship with us, then he begins to connect with us frequently enough to allow us to develop a trust relationship with him. Taking the hand of one we trust is much easier, isn't it? We might just crave these times of "hand leading", because they show how much we are really loved. When God takes us by the hand, it isn't because he is angry with us, it is because he cares so much for us that he doesn't want to see us continue to embrace stuff in our lives that is doing us harm. His handholding is not just casual - it is purposeful. He leads, we follow. He squeezes tight, we know he is at work. He pulls back, we know it is time to stop. His touch is our means for radical life change. Just sayin!

Unlatched

"Don’t suppose for a moment, though, that God’s Word has malfunctioned in some way or other." (Romans9:6) Most of the time we are the ones who "malfunction" - not God, not his Word, not his promises, not his commands. When something is "functioning" as it was designed to function, it follows a particular order - all the pieces fit together as they should, producing the intended outcome. Truthfully, only God can do this 100% of the time! Try as we might, we are going to "malfunction" on occasion. Trusting in our ability is always going to leave us with "less than" whatever it is we could attain, obtain, or maintain with God doing the work!

How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. (Romans 9:30-32)

Those who once did not believe, had no intention of following the one true God - they have come full-circle. They embrace what God is doing, while those who should have been embracing what God was doing all along in their lives have somehow taken a different track. It is like they were plugging down the track well, came to a fork in the track, and then "flipped the switch" to go down a track they were not originally on. We do this sometimes, don't we? We start out well, then without even thinking, we take the track which presents itself as an "option" in our lives. When it comes to our obedience, many of us "keep our options open"! One embraced what God was doing and reaped rewards beyond their imagining; the other chose to focus on something quite superficial and missed out. We need to understand that "playing the part" of a Christian is not enough to keep us in right relationship with God. We can read all the scripture we want to - looking quite pious in our pursuit - but if it is never embraced, never allowed to change the way we think and act, it will serve us little good. We can talk about God a great deal, even using the right "Christian words", but if we don't have heart-knowledge of God's grace and love, the words are empty.

There is a clear between living by some set of rules (the reading and talking part) and living by grace (the actual life-transformation part). The revealing words: "...instead of trusting God, they took over." Instead of trusting God with our brokenness, we look for ways to fill the void created by the broken pieces of our lives - things like working way too much, drinking/drugging, multiple relationships without any depth or commitment. There are multiple ways we go down this track of "trusting ourselves" to get us to the right destination - the list is probably too long for me to recount. The thing we need to see is the tendency we have to take over what is not really ours to "manage" - leading us clearly into a state of "malfunctioning" existence. Another word jumped out at me from this passage today: Absorbed. The evidence of going the wrong way - being self-absorbed - absorbed in what it is WE are doing, and totally missing what it is GOD is doing all around us. Another word for this is being "preoccupied". 

In planes, public buildings, and even on some busses there are little signs on the lavatories indicating which restroom is available for use. When the sign clearly displays "occupied" in red letters, it is unavailable. When the sign is slid in the opposite direction, it reads "unoccupied" in green letters. Just as these signs serve a purpose of letting someone know when it is they may enter, so it is with the "signs" we display in our lives. God looks for us to make the "shift" from "occupied" by self to being "unoccupied" and available for his use. When this shift occurs, it is because there has been a change in the direction the sign is facing. So, if we want to see real depth in our relationship with God, determined to stay on course with him, we need to make a shift in what has "pre-occupied" our minds, hearts, and emotions. I don't know about you, but I wish becoming a little less "pre-occupied" by the stuff of life was easier - like moving that sign on the lavatory from the left to the right! If it was this easy, there would be no excuse for any of us to ever miss out on what God is doing right in front of us. It isn't until we actually make the move from "self-occupied" to "open for use" that we reveal to God our intention for him to take access to the space other things have taken in our lives. When the little sign is moved from occupied to unoccupied, it is for the intention of allowing the door to open freely. Maybe it is time we did a little "unlatching" of our lives today. Just sayin!

Prepared for the 'what'

Charles Swindoll posed the idea that "life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% how you react to it", because he proposes reaction can be controlled or 'governed'. I imagine God sits around sometimes just watching some of our reactions to some of the things in life that shouldn't have thrown us into a tizzy, but there we are - in a pickle and sour as all get out because of what is going on in our lives. Life doesn't have to elicit reactions from us - we offer them quite freely, don't we? We are moved by the oddest things, shut down by others, and completely oblivious at times to things that should have cause us some sort of reaction. In my day to day work, I plan the action so we don't have to be so 'reactive'. It is called being 'proactive' - knowing how we will 'act' before there is ever a need for a reaction.

Learn well how to wait so you will be strong and complete and in need of nothing. If you do not have wisdom, ask God for it. He is always ready to give it to you and will never say you are wrong for asking. (James 1:4-5)

All of God's plans for us involve some sort of 'action'. Even taking no action is actually an 'action' on our part. It is hard to learn how to take the correct actions all of the time, but the more we listen to God's voice, learn his ways as shown to us in the Word of God, and just contemplate our own actions BEFORE we take them, we will find our actions become more consistent and correct. I think that is what Swindoll had in mind when he posed that idea of us focusing not so much on the 'what' as on the 'how' in life. Life happens, but how we respond to it is determined beforehand. Yes, you may think you 'reacted' in that very moment when something happened, but in truth, you 'reacted' based upon something you already learned somewhere in your past.

Learn well "HOW" to wait - did you catch that in our passage today? The 'how' is under consideration, not the 'what'. If we don't know 'how', what are we to do? We are to ask God for the wisdom to know the 'how' when we are faced with the 'what'. Now, that may seem elementary to some, but trust me on this one, we'd have less trouble with some of our 'reactions' in life if we had spent a little time up front with God learning how to respond when those things came our way! I had no clue that I would not be able to get to food or water yesterday when I started the day, but something inside of me told me to put a couple of bottles of water, some fruit, cheese, and almonds into a small lunch bag in the den. I listened and do you know what - when everything inside the kitchen was sealed in plastic for the painter to begin the task of spraying the paint, I didn't have to panic!

In essence, I listened to a 'small voice' inside of me that actually helped me be prepared - proactive. This morning I still have no access to the kitchen, but I still have fruit, cheese, and nuts! I am set! This is just a simple illustration of not being caught off-guard by the 'what' because God had prepared me with the 'how' already. God is very likely working out some 'how' steps in your life today, but you have no idea 'what' you will need those steps for in your day. You just know he is asking you to 'learn well' the 'how' so you will be ready for the 'whatever' that comes. Just sayin!

Hold my hand, God

Ever run the other way when you know the right way to be going is exactly the opposite from the one you have chosen? You see or hear something, then without a moment's hesitation, you turn and run, hoping to avoid the confrontation, escape the demand, or just plain ignore the situation? I think we could all answer in the affirmative to this one on at least one occasion in our lives, but probably more frequently that we'd truly like to admit. It is sometimes more "convenient" to pretend we did not hear what was asked - but what is the cost of hearing and then not doing? It is probably less "costly" to just ignore the need someone has at that moment - but who will meet the need if we were the ones designed to do it? I imagine it is less of a "relational intensity demand" to avoid the confrontation - but what walls will be built by avoiding the difficult discussions? Most of the time, running the other way means we are running away from what God actually expected us to deal with in one way or another!

One day long ago, God's Word came to Jonah, Amittai's son: "Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer." But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from God. He went down to the port of Joppa and found a ship headed for Tarshish. He paid the fare and went on board, joining those going to Tarshish—as far away from God as he could get. (Jonah 1:1-3)

Jonah finds himself in one of those "I heard this, but I am gonna do this" moments in his life. He turned and ran! Have you ever wondered why God put all the "stories of struggle" in scripture? I think it is because God wants us to realize he knows we ALL struggle with stuff - especially obedience! This struggle doesn't make God any less "interested" in our obedience - in fact, it strengthens his resolve to bring us to the place where we stop running! God tells him the need of a nation - Niniveh is in "a bad way" - they have a need and God wants to use Jonah to meet it. Too many times, we are the ones "in a bad way" and our need is SIGNIFICANT. What if the one God designs to come to our rescue resists his call or ignores it entirely? We'd be left there "in a bad way", without any rescue because the one God asked to meet the need is running from him! Oh, maybe God would raise up someone else, but the fact remains, the one God burdened first is likely to be the one God designed specifically for OUR need!

In looking at Jonah's response to God's request, we probably see a lot of our own struggle with obedience at times. We clearly hear the voice and intention of God - there is no problem with our 'hearing'. He wants us going one direction - we choose the other - the problem is with our 'acting' on what it is we hear. Does it ever surprise you how much you and I are willing to actually "spend" on running the opposite direction from what God wants in our lives? Look at Jonah's flight - it cost him a monetary fare on a ship headed to Tarshish. In trying to get as far away from God as he could get, it cost him! We are about to see it cost him much more than a few coins, though. The same is true whenever we attempt to resist the thing God asks of us. The sad truth is obedience "costs" us something - but disobedience may actually cost us so much more! I don't know what steps of obedience God may be asking of each of you today, but I do know we have two choices - go WITH God, or go AWAY from God. On the ship to Tarshish, Jonah had no traveling companion - on the journey to Nineveh, he was held by the hand of God. Somehow, the "going WITH" seems a whole lot more appealing to me than the "going AWAY" does! I really don't like to be in alone in a crowd of strangers - especially in a close environment like the confines of a ship! There is truly no escape if we find ourselves in company we'd rather not keep!

As a child, someone always took my hand as I crossed the street. Why? To keep me safe! Imagine the journey of obedience as one that is walked hand in hand with God. Maybe we'd be less inclined to run if we reached out to take his hand a little tighter, when the things seemed scary and the threats were real in our lives! We'd certainly be a whole lot safer - in his hands we are secure - our obedience is somehow made easier when he is there to help us navigate those steps! Just saying!