We need sanctuary

And me? I’m singing your prowess, shouting at dawn your largesse, for you’ve been a safe place for me, a good place to hide. Strong God, I’m watching you do it, I can always count on you— God, my dependable love. (Psalm 59:16)

A safe place - do you have one? I have a safe place where I can be me, unwind in the way I enjoy, and just get downright comfy in my space. It is called home. I also have a safe place spiritually where I can be myself, unwind in the way I enjoy, while being quite comfortable in that 'space' - it is called God's presence. I am privileged to have two 'sanctuaries' of sorts - one quite physical, the other spiritual. Both bring evenness or balance to my emotions, rest to my body, and peace to my mind. Although both can give me a certain sense of 'sanctuary', the only place of true sanctuary is in Christ Jesus - in the presence of God. While some view a place of sanctuary as a place of communion with God, others see it as a place of 'protection', 'shelter', or 'refuge'. They may not have that 'safe place' in the physical sense where they are able to escape to when they need to, but they will always have this 'safe place' of sanctuary in God's presence no matter what their outward circumstances may be in the physical realm. 

Do you know where your greatest sanctuary really is? It is your heart. Did you ever wonder why God focuses on the heart so much in scripture? He knows it is where we commune with him and where it is we 'understand' or 'interpret' life. The heart is made up of mind, will, and emotions. When the 'sanctuary' of our mind is whole, undivided, and without chaos, we see things clearly. As the mind is uncluttered, the will knows what to do and how to respond. The emotions are settled, focused by the mind, and balance is maintained. When the heart is under  attack from things that seek to bring disturbance or chaos, the balance is upset. We commune with God in the heart - bringing mind, will, and emotions into perfect rest and order. No wonder Satan does so much to disturb our thoughts, influence our emotions, and sway our will! He knows the power of us understanding and living within the sanctuary of God's presence and peace.

We looked at being life-long learners yesterday - disciples of Christ. Consider this - a disciple is only possible when there is a teacher. We have lots of 'teaching choices' in life, don't we? We can embrace all manner of 'culturally relevant thought processes' or we can remain true to the ones proclaimed over and over throughout scripture. How do we sort out what really matters most in all these invading thoughts? It is in the sanctuary of our hearts. If God reigns in that sanctuary, the ones that should be embraced, believed, and lived will become clear, while those that will lead us astray will begin to be called out so they can be discarded. We need 'sanctuary' in God's presence - it is not optional. We find and enter into 'order' there. Just sayin!

Fact Check, Please

 Franz Kafka reminds us to "start with what is right rather than what is acceptable". These are indeed wise words as so many today just 'accept' things along the way in life and don't really 'fact check' them to see if they are 'right' or just 'acceptable'. To follow blindly is indeed dangerous territory - we may just find ourselves doing things we might not really want to do, repeating things best not repeated, and believing things not really all that trustworthy. We have an obligation to each other as members of God's family to 'fact check' the things we believe, act upon, and repeat to others. If we don't, we can lead others into some pretty confusing places in their lives!

So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight. When we worship the right way, God doesn’t stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. (I Corinthians 14:26, 33)

As we are all made up of differing personalities and unique talents, we owe it to each other to nourish the talents of those God brings into our community of believers, but we also owe it to ourselves to not just blindly accept all they say and do. Gather together, but create a culture that is safe for all - that adheres to the truth as outlined in God's Word - learn to 'fact check'. Do their teachings align with what God tells us in scripture? If not, don't just reject it as untrue - correct it. Share truth because others may not realize they have just followed what was 'acceptable' in culture today rather than what is 'right' by God's standards.

I don't want to presume to be right. There are times when I am clearly wrong. I always want to be open to correction wherever it is needed in my life. How about you? Have you ever had the 'facts checked' in your life and found you likely needed a little bit of 'correction'? It may not be the easiest to admit that we need to reject something we have accepted in our lives, but when we willingly lay it down we might just experience freedom from something that was actually holding us back in our spiritual growth. This Christian walk isn't always 'intuitive' - especially when we receive so many conflicting messages from this world we live in.

We live in a world where there is a lot of confusion about what is right and wrong. Believe it or not, some accept things just because others do. At some point, it becomes the blind leading the blind and that isn't going to end well! Be a leader of truth. Be an example of righteousness. Bring truth and light wherever you go. Allow God to do the 'fact checking' in your life and then when you gather together with others - you won't be adding to the confusion, you will be bringing order and light! Just sayin!

Who's looking out for you?

God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. (Ephesians 4:15)

Oh...grow up! Have you ever heard that said to someone? Perhaps it was said to you a time or two in the course of 'growing up'. What does it mean to 'grow up'? I am aware of individuals who 'grow up' in size, but not necessarily in intellect, emotion, or even spirituality. Sometimes our bodies grow faster than the rest of us - we look like we are all 'grown up', but we have limited experiences, untested theories of how life works, and are kind of 'green' around the edges. There seems to be various areas of our lives that can be 'stunted' in growth - not all grow equally, nor ever developing in some areas as well as we may have desired to develop. As a teen, I recall other girls in my class seemingly developing at great speed and there I was - looking every bit like a pre-teen and acting that way, too! My development hadn't reached their developmental stage - so I was kind of down on myself. All God asks of his kids is that we continue to grow - that we don't refuse nourishment that will help us to grow as strong and healthy kids in his kingdom. We may not all develop as fast as we would like, but God has something to work with if we are growing even a little bit!

To grow up in God's kingdom means that we stop holding tight to some of the lies we have believed in life and begin to see those lies replaced with his truth. What might some of those lies be that we hold on so tightly to? Perhaps it is the lie that we can live with a foot in the old way of living and a foot in this new way of living in Christ Jesus. That is a dangerous road to travel - the footing isn't secure and it will not produce the growth he desires. In fact, it will seem like others are developing all around us and there we are - not seeming to be developing at all. God has always required his kids to choose a path - not multiple paths. One path leads to life - the other to death. Choose one or the other - you cannot walk both and expect to grow up in Christ. Maybe we have been believing the lie that our 'sin' is really not all that 'big' and that compared to another's 'sin' ours is just not worth all that much attention. The truth is that there is no 'menial' sin - all sin is sin. Murder may be a big sin, but so is malicious gossip. Adultery is a big sin, but so is not being invested in the relationship you have been given. There is no 'degree' to sin, but that is a lie the enemy of our souls wants us to believe. Why? As long as he has us 'comparing' our sin to another's, he knows we will find a way to justify continuing in it. We walk two paths that are contrary to each other.

Keep in step - have you heard that one? In basic training we had to learn to 'march' in formation. It wasn't as though we were taking steps in the 'wrong direction', but we weren't 'in step' with each other. Some were on their left when they should be on their right. What was being taught there? I believe that being in 'sync' with each other is important - especially when it comes to prospering in relationship. We had to look out for each other - be aware of where the other was, what they were doing, what was around them, what dangers awaited them just around the corner. We don't just have good relationships with each other by accident. We 'keep in step' with each other. We also 'keep in step' with Christ. If two are agreed and moving in the same direction at the same pace - what a powerful force they will make. Growing and keeping in step have some things in common, don't they? We don't grow alone - we need to be spurred on to good growth. We need others looking out for us - watching our back, so to speak. We have one in the place of oversight in our lives - Christ. We also have each other - watching, helping, challenging us to keep in step, helping us to 'stay in sync' when we get our feet all jumbled up and our 'march' begins to be disordered. Disordered steps lead to disordered decisions. No wonder God tells us to keep in step! No wonder he places us in community to help us stay in step! Just sayin!

Determined to not just be "inside the line"

Pure lives - those lives which are unhindered by things which contaminate - either from external force or internal pressure.  Most of us struggle with one or the other of these, but most likely it is both.  We recognize the pull of things external to our lives which easily get us muddled up and kind of leave us feeling a little "dirty" or "contaminated".  It might be the not so "clean" joke at the lunch table, or the flashes of inappropriate images and language which enter in through our eyes during the viewing of a TV show. The sources are many - the influence is greater than we might think. To this we add our own internal "pressures" to conform to this or that image of what we think we are meant to me - either because we imagine it is what we are supposed to be, or someone has somehow convinced us it is the right way for us to act.  Either one of these produces enough internal pressure to get us thinking and acting in ways which aren't always the best for us, or the wisest.  In the end, we are left with some pretty confusing thoughts and actions. What keeps us from being affected from all these internal and external forces or pressures?  It is close consideration and adherence to the principles taught in God's Word. 

Great blessings belong to those who live pure lives! They follow the Lord’s teachings. Great blessings belong to those who follow his rules! They seek him with all their heart. (Psalm 119:1-2 ERV)

God's Word isn't meant to be an extraneous force - it is meant to be an internal "compass" by which we allow our path to be directed. In order for this to actually "work" in our lives - we have to get into the Word and allow it to get into us.  It is more than a casual acquaintance with it - it is a daily and consistently focused consumption of it.  You have heard it said that we are what we eat. I challenge us to begin to also think that we are what we consume in the way of influencing thoughts, guiding principles, and valid instruction.  The Holy Spirit gives us influencing thoughts - what we choose to do with them and how we ultimately allow them to guide our actions is our own choice.  The Word of God is filled with all manner of guiding principles - some steering us away from one course of action and toward another, others simply stating truth and giving us a standard by which to live (no matter what).  It may come as a surprise to some, but to avoid the influence of external forces and internal pressures, we need God's wisdom, direction, and stable principles by which we guide our steps and measure our actions.

As I have said on numerous occasions, we all kind of chafe against the "rules" in life at one time or another - some of more frequently than we'd like to admit.  It should come as no surprise that we are creatures who like to live as close to the edge of being "inside the rules" while being just close enough to being "outside the rules" to give us a little bit of a thrill and taste of what we somehow think we are "missing" by keeping the rule.  We don't recognize how dangerous this is for us, though.  The closer we walk to the line of being "just barely inside the rules", the closer we are to the influences which can be our undoing and easily ensnare us.  God didn't give us rules to make us "miss out" on things which would be for our good, but he gave us rules to live by which would ultimately keep us from the destructive influences which would lead us into areas of compromise which would "contaminate" our focus, "stain" our character, and "corrupt" our thinking.

David begins this rather long psalm with the premise he will build upon throughout the 176 verses which follow.  In essence, he sets the stage for what he will reveal as true and trustworthy as he goes on to elaborate about the choice he has made to follow the teachings of God in his life.  I would have to concur with David as it comes to living life by a "different" set of rules than most.  As we make this determination to follow the instructions God lays out, choosing to walk well within their boundaries, not dangerously close to the edge, we find blessing (contentment, happiness, joy, peace, emotional well-being).  I haven't found those same blessings in much else in life - have you?  How "close" we choose to live by the rules and how "determined" we are to actually become familiar with those rules will make all the difference about how well we fair when the external forces mount their attack and the internal pressures build.

Two things for us to take away from this today:  1) We have to follow God's teachings, not just make them a nice set of "ideas"; and 2) We have to do more than occasionally glance God's way for advice or deliverance in life.  This is the meaning of following the Lord's teachings - it is a determined commitment to not just acquaint oneself with what he instructs, but to use those instructions to order our steps and settle our thoughts.  This is also the meaning of seeking him with all our heart - nothing deterring us from actually spending time with him, drawing us away when we are, or pulling us back to the edges of the rules.  Seeking implies action - sometimes action requires a little more effort than we might want to exert, but I have never known God to ask for any action in my life that isn't "rewarded" by something great he reveals (maybe not immediately, but when I do as he says long enough, I see the action producing an outcome much more desirable than any I could produce on my own).  Just sayin!