Post-Haste

Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows from those lights. He is always the same. God decided to give us life through the true message he sent to us. He wanted us to be the most important of all that he created. (James 1:17-18)

Whenever we are faced with something that is less than good, honorable, or pure, we can know for sure that it is not from God. It is something of this 'earthly realm' that really isn't meant as 'the best' for us. When we settle for what isn't the best, we actually are rejecting what God has prepared for us that is meant for our good. We should never think God is tempting us with the 'less than' stuff in life - it is either our own fleshly desires having their way, or the enemy of our soul purposing to redirect our attention away from God. 

We are important to him, so he prepared in advance to send his Son to this earth to ensure there was a way to always enter into his presence and enjoy the privileges of this 'family life' with him. What 'perfect gift' have you rejected in the pursuit of something that is actually 'less than' what he intended for your life? It isn't too late to turn away from the pursuit of that 'less than' thing and turn fully toward all the good God intends. One thing I have noticed about my own 'fluctuating desires' is that they are definitely not consistent. One day I may find things of this 'earthly realm' to be appealing and the next I find myself disgusted by them. God's gift to us is always there - we just need to recognize them as consistent and good.

How do we get to the point we choose the best and not the 'less than' so often? It comes in choosing to take in the Word of God. God sent 'the true message' to us so that we'd seek things that are good and that add value to our lives. The living Word of God came, leaving us his written Word, providing us with a teacher of the Word so we'd learn to choose the best and reject the 'less than'. Get into his Word and allow it to begin to reveal the 'good', 'pure', and 'honorable' things God has prepared for your life. You will begin to see the 'less than' things of this world for what they truly are. When you do, you will soon realize they are to be rejected quickly and the things God offers are to be embraced 'post-haste'. Just sayin!

Be unstoppable

If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God. (I Peter 3:18)

I am gonna meddle a bit this morning, so get ready. I have to ask you how your 'conscience' is fairing these days - is it clear some of the time, most of the time, or very infrequently? Truth be told, hardly anyone can say their conscience doesn't get a little 'muddied' from time to time. We all entertain doubts, get wrapped up in ways of thinking that are not very edifying for us or the other person we are thinking about, or just get a little too close to entertaining things in our minds that we would be best to never have explored. How do we keep a clear conscience before God? It really isn't all that difficult, but it does require some concerted effort on our part. This whole business of 'taking every thought captive' is harder than it sounds. Get one thought reined in and the next unruly one begins to brew. That's why our passage today reminds us we need to 'keep' our hearts 'at attention' - in full adoration. 

I served in the military after high school and remember being called to attention for the first time as we all piled off the bus onto the grounds of our training base. We were a rough looking bunch, all mismatched in our civilian clothing, and a bit 'unruly'. Let me assure you of one thing - those Drill Sergeants were not going to allow any 'mismatched' or 'unruly behavior'. Why? They were charged with getting us into sync with each other, creating a group of individuals that no longer thought only about themselves. We don't keep our hearts at attention all alone - it is hard to do that alone. We need each other and the 'company' of positive influences. I oftentimes keep Alexa tuned into one of my favorite Christian artists or music stations for this very reason. The 'background' of the music reminds me whose I am, how much I am forgiven, and how greatly I am loved and cared for each and every moment of the day. 

Too frequently we give the opposing forces in our lives way too much of our attention. As pointed out in this passage, we aren't even to give that opposition any 'mind space' in our lives. That means we don't entertain those thoughts that the enemy of our souls wants us to ponder - even for the smallest amount of time. Do you want to be an unstoppable force on this earth? Then keep your conscience clear! How? By 'filtering out' the stuff you don't need to ponder and allowing a continual renewal of your mind by 'bringing in' the stuff you do need to ponder. A steady 'diet' of the Word of God. The pleasant reminders of worship songs that center our attention on the one who loves us so much. Solid and honest conversation with God on a regular basis. These are the things we can do to 'bolster' our thought life. In time, our conscience is 'filtered' because we are allowing the 'evil' or 'vile' to be washed out by the 'holy' and 'pure'. Just sayin!

A little litter box story

I will praise You with a heart that is right when I learn how right You judge. 

(Psalm 119:7)

I had to reread this passage a couple of times this morning, until it finally sunk in and I 'got' what God was trying to tell me! Ever have one of those moments when you know something is right in front of your face and you just cannot see it? Sometimes I praise God a little 'timidly' because I am sure he knows I haven't been all that good, or that I am walking too close to the line with something he asked me to stay away from. I am not really on the 'wrong side of the law', so to speak, but I have this feeling inside like I have been on that 'wrong side of the law' too many times and maybe there is something lingering there that hasn't been forsaken, so it hasn't been forgiven. I bet some of you are like that at times, too. You cannot get that stuff out of your mind that keeps telling you God isn't happy with you, or that he is about to unleash a bit of judgment on you because of that thing you haven't let go of yet. Let's both get this straight in our minds, so it can begin to affect our hearts - God 'judges' us based on what he sees when he looks at Jesus in us! I didn't quite get that until I looked at how God sees Jesus - as perfectly fulfilling every 'requirement' for our forgiveness.

Learn how right God judges - it will set you free when you do! It isn't that we don't 'deserve' the judgment he could mete out, it is that he chooses to remember that sin has already been forgiven at the cross - there is no further judgment necessary. We are the ones doing the 'judging', my friends. We judge our actions as 'wrong' and even 'unforgivable', but God sees our actions as 'under the blood' of Jesus. His blood shed once was sufficient for all of mankind's sin for all of time. That doesn't give us license to live any old way we'd like, but it does ensure us grace any time we get a little too close to being on the 'wrong side of the law'. We can praise God with a heart that is right because he has made it right - period! The 'rightness' we are seeking in trying to make things 'right' in our lives is really silly - because we are already 'made right' in Christ Jesus. All that effort we spend trying to figure out if we can approach God with a clear conscience just keeps us from spending time doing the one thing that actually helps to wash away all that sense of guilt, shame, and anxiety over our wrongdoings - worshiping him!

Rather than focus on what is wrong in our lives, maybe we could begin to refocus on what is right. Yep, we get things wrong from time to time. We even try to cover it up a bit like a cat trying to bury a turd in a litter box. The turd is still there - no matter how many layers of sand the cat scratches over it. Until the scoop is applied - the turd lingers. Now, I hope that isn't too graphic for any of you today, but we try to cover over a whole bunch of 'turd-like' things in our lives and then wonder why we fear approaching God in praise. We cover over the 'turd-like' stuff because we think God may not be very happy with us if he saw the 'turd' there in our lives. Truth be told - he can smell it! He doesn't even need to look for it - he clearly knows it is there. God judges right because he sees us as we are in Christ Jesus. We forget that at times, thinking he must see us as flawed and unholy. He sees us as perfect and holy - because Christ is perfect and holy and he is looking through Christ at us. Get it? If Christ be in you, and you be in Christ, then you can praise God with a heart that is right because it is right in Christ Jesus. Just sayin!

Oh, I am dirty again!

What are some of the ways you get the 'dirtiest' in life? For me, I am tinkering with learning to work with wood. All that type of work can leave you incredibly 'dusty', 'stained' with this or that, and kind of 'stinky' by the end of the project. Clean hands and a pure heart - two conditions we often find eluding us or hard to maintain. Our hands get "dirtied" by the things we do - the actions we take - like the times I am working out in the shop. Our hearts reveal their "soiled" condition by the words we speak, the thoughts we entertain, and the ways we respond to life around us. There are clearly benefits to maintaining both clean hands and a pure heart, but I wonder just how often we focus on one and not the other?

Who may go up the mountain of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. He who has not lifted up his soul to what is not true, and has not made false promises. He will receive what is good from the Lord, and what is right and good from the God who saves him. (Psalm 24:3-5)

The question posed - who may go up to the mountain of the Lord? Today we don't find ourselves making the journey to the city of Jerusalem like they did in the times this passage was penned. The journey was for them to go to the Temple of the Lord - to kind of 'go to church' as some might think of it today. In the times of the psalmist, this was a regular journey for the worshipers of the Lord. In fact, there were regularly "scheduled" feast days when all of Israel was to gather, bringing various types of offerings all the way to the city - regardless of where they lived or how long the journey might be for them. Each offering served a purpose - some to make "atonement" for sins, others to offer thanks for the tremendous harvest taken in from the fields - but all pointed to some aspect of the work of God in our lives and the ultimate sacrifice his Son would make for us.

Today, we think of "going up to the mountain of the Lord" as approaching the throne of grace - getting ourselves in a frame of mind and heart to receive from God what he might provide to us in that time of focusing on him for just a while. It is us going into God's presence, sitting at his feet, and worshiping him - not always alone, but with deliberate focus and purpose. Since the completed work of Christ at the cross, we all have this access to the "holy place" of God's presence. In fact, scripture declares we may come boldly into his presence! Yet, the "condition" of our hands and hearts may give us a little concern in doing so! We 'get dirty' with things we don't even know are 'soiling' our lives at times. The condition of our hands and hearts oftentimes isn't even in our focus as we enter his presence, but God knows the condition of these two things determines how well we will receive what he has prepared for us!

Clean hands and a pure heart are not a one time condition. The ability to keep clean hands is impossible without frequent washing! Think about it - how many times in a day do you "physically" wash your hands? Why do you wash? Simple - to get rid of what "contaminates" those grubby little hands! You probably are like me and desire they be clean before you eat, after you touch something which "soils" them, or just as "good measure" to avoid spreading all manner of 'unseen diseases'. The same is true of our "spiritual hands". They need frequent washing to remain clean! Purity of heart is elusive if the heart is not continually touched by the great healer himself. In time, our physical heart, if not taken care of, will become "occluded" with all kinds of fatty build up and hardened by "calcified" crusts. A similar process occurs when our spiritual heart is not continually renewed by the touch of God's healing hands. We begin to feel the "choking off" of the very supply we need in order to survive. We become hardened to the very things which move his heart so freely. Our hearts need "tending" and "mending" in order to beat as his does!

He who has not lifted up his soul to what is not true and has not made false promises will enter boldly into the presence of God. Guess what? All of us struggle with getting a good and solid grip on truth! All of us absent-mindedly promise things we have very little intention of ever doing! Yet...by the grace of God, we can enter boldly into the presence of God - even when we aren't all that 'pure' or 'washed' prior to coming into it. It is as we "wash again" and submit to the "purifying process" of God's touch we are made "clean" and "pure" all over again. No one struggles with this 'purity' thing alone - we are all in the same boat! Maybe this is why God encourages us to look out for each other, spurring one another on in this walk of grace! We all need grace - renewing of our minds, cleansing of our hearts, and our actions being anointed by his grace. So, who goes up to the presence of God - ALL who are willing to be washed! We don't wash alone! There is BIG "sink" in God's house! The moment we realize we need to be 'washed' is the moment we realize where it is we find this 'cleansing'. Just sayin!