Diligent Service

Diligent Service

 

“He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child,
so you do not know the works of God who makes everything” – Ecclesiastes 11:4-5

It’s February, the heart of winter, and yet buttercups are blooming!  I saw them this weekend and they were such a welcome surprise shining bright yellow in the dead brown grass.   While it’s not their season to bloom, they seemed to say “Hang on! Spring is coming!” Here in February, they were an unexpected blessing. 

Ecclesiastes 11:4-5 tells us that “He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything”.  Just as the buttercups were God’s creation, blooming when they were not expected, we are expected to be diligent in our service to Him, even when no harvest is expected.  We don’t know God’s ways and His timing.  We are to sow, and allow Him to harvest.

Paul was such a wonderful example of diligence, travelling from one place to another, preaching the gospel as a free man and in chains.  In Acts 24 he has been arrested in Caesarea.  The Jews had accused him of creating “dissension among all the Jews” and being “a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes” and profaning the temple.  Yet at every opportunity to be given time to speak, Paul preached.

He stands in court before Felix, the brother to the richest man in Rome, and husband to Princess Drusilla.  When it came time to speak against the accusations of the Jews, his hearts intent was instead to preach.  In Acts 25:14 he says “But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.”  Paul readily gave his testimony, without fear of self-incrimination. 

Felix didn’t know what to do with Paul.  There was no evidence of rioting or disruption of the peace.  So he told the centurion to keep Paul, but let him have liberty and allow his friends to visit.  Felix said he would hold him till the commander, Lysias, came. Then after his wife Drusilla came, he calls Paul back in front of him several times to be heard.  In Acts 25:25 we read that as Felix “reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.”

Felix felt conviction and “was afraid”.  But he had an ulterior motive in continually calling Paul back.  It wasn’t to learn of God’s word.  He had hoped Paul would give him money, a bribe to go free.  How sad that Felix’ eyes were set on a different prize, and yet Paul was trying to give him something more valuable than money, eternal life. 

This went on for two years.  After two years, Felix still had Paul in chains, and Paul was still preaching to Felix every time he got an opportunity.  But after two years, Felix was succeeded by Festus, and taken out of office. 

Two years.  Two years of being sent out to sow, and returning without a harvest.  Few of us would have the stamina to continue witnessing to one person for two years with no hope of salvation in return.  Continually Paul must have heard “when I have a convenient time I will call for you.”  He must have crafted many sermons knowing Felix would again call for him again, and yet Felix refused to apply the knowledge he had gained for salvation. 

Paul’s student, Timothy, writes in 2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” When times are good – preach the Word.  When times are bad – preach the Word.  When it’s easy – preach the Word.  When it’s hard – preach the Word.  When you expect nothing to come from it – continue preaching God’s Word.  We don’t determine the seasons of man’s heart, and we don’t know the inner workings of God in the heart.  If we only sow when we expect a harvest, we have missed the point of our service.  Our job is to sow.  God will reap the harvest.

A New Identity

A New Identity

 

“So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” – Genesis 32:27

Jacob was the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham.  He was the twin brother to Esau, but not the first born.  When born, Jacob was holding to the heel of Esau, as if to pull Esau back and take his place.  There was deceit in Jacob from the beginning.  His name means “deceiver or “supplanter”, someone who takes the place of another.

Esau, having been born first, should have received the larger portion of an inheritance when Isaac died.  But Jacob found his brother hungry one day, and used his hunger to entice him to give up his birthrights for a bowl of stew.  To assure that Jacob received the blessing of his father when Isaac was dying, his own mother helped him deceive his father into thinking that he was Esau. 

Maybe because of the name he had been given he didn’t trust that God could make him anything else.  Maybe he felt that his walk in life was set when he was born, and there was no other blessing to be received unless he stole it, or deceived someone for it. 

God wanted to show Jacob how his deceit affected others.  He allowed him to be on the receiving end of deceitfulness.  Jacob, running from Esau after stealing the blessing of his father, went to Haran.  There he fell in love with a woman named Rachel.  He made a pact with her father Laban that he would work for her hand in marriage for seven years.  But at the end of the seven years, when he received a wife from Laban, he was tricked into taking her older sister Leah.  God used Laban to teach Jacob the effects of being deceived.  Jacob worked another seven years to receive Rachel as his wife.

When we look at the story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, we can see God’s punishment for Jacob’s deceit in the seven extra years he worked for her, and in the struggle between Leah and Rachel.  But we cannot overlook God’s blessing as well.  Laban chose to pay Jacob for his labor as a herdsman by selecting a certain marking of the sheep and goats that would be born each season.  But if Laban said to Jacob that the speckled ones would be his, then most of them would be speckled.  If Laban said that the ones that had white on them were to be Jacob’s, most would have white on them.  If Laban said the spotted ones would be Jacob’s wages, then most would have spots.  God assured Jacob would be blessed by marking the sheep and goats before they were born as Jacob’s wages.

Jacob had made a vow to God while running from Esau.  He came to a place called Luz. While he lay there and slept God gave him a dream.  In the dream angels were going up and down a ladder to Heaven.  God spoke to Jacob in the dream, and said “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.  Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”(Genesis 28:13-15)  God has told Jacob that He was going to bless him.  He told him that wherever he did end up, He would see that he was brought back to that place.  He tells him, “I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” God was intent in blessing Jacob from the beginning, and the sheep and goats were evidence of that blessing. 

Then Jacob awoke from the dream and said “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”(Genesis 28:16) and made an altar of stones there, anointed it with oil and named the place Bethel, which means “house of God”.  He found that God lived there, and that there, God told him He would give the place to his descendants.  Where God lived, there they would live.  (Do you see the foreshadowing of the Holy Spirit living in us?)

Jacob is then overwhelmed with God’s love, and makes a vow to God.  Yes, Jacob the deceiver makes a vow, one that he keeps.  In Genesis 28:20-22 he says “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on,  so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.  And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Twenty years pass before Jacob returns to his family.  He’s now got two wives, Leah and Rachel.  He has children, servants, and livestock.  He has riches from the wages earned while with Laban, his father-in-law.  God had kept up his part of the vow, and Jacob had been faithful to God. 

Yet Jacob was still known as the deceiver.  That was his name.  Now, on the way back home, where people only know him by the way he had walked in the name he had been given before, he had to face that identity again.  To try to prove his changed way, he begins sending waves of gifts to his brother Esau.  He wanted Esau to see the change in him before he faced him.

Jacob came to the Jabok River, which was a stream off the Jordan River.  He crossed over it with his wives, sons, and servants, and spent the night there in a place alone.  While there, the Angel of God came to him and they wrestled until morning.  During the wrestling, the Angel touched his hip socket, and his hip went out of joint.  In Genesis 32:26 the Angel says to Jacob “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”, but Jacob replied “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”

Jacob again sought to be blessed by God.  What happens next is the blessing. 

The Angel asks Jacob “What is your name?”  Shame must have come to Jacob as he had to admit to being named the deceiver, the supplanter, the heal-grabber, the one who puts himself in a position that’s not his.  I’m sure it was with a heavy heart that he answered with only one word, “Jacob”.  Then the Angel spoke and said “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”(Genesis 32:28). 

He blessed him with a new identity.  But before he could bless him, he changed him.  He took his hip out of joint.  He changed Jacob’s walk.  He changed how he would be seen by man as he returned to his family limping. 

The place where they wrestled is called Penuel, which means “face of God”.  It was there that Jacob had an encounter with the Angel of God.  When you see the face of God, have that one-on-one encounter, you will be changed.  He will change your walk.  He will change the way people see you.  They will see Him living inside you, and His blessings on you.

Jacob was no longer the deceiver.  He became Israel, because he had struggled with God and man, and prevailed.  Yet, the name Israel means “God prevails”.  When you come face to face with God, when you allow Him to enter into your heart, His Spirit lives within.  God prevails!  He prevails over who you are, and makes you into who He wants you to be.  You receive a new walk.  You become an overcomer through Him.  You become blessed by Him.  His Spirit in you gives not only a new life - but also a new identity. 

Sometimes we live with such a burden from who we were in the past that we feel we can’t go forward.  We can’t walk away from the sins we’ve committed.  We can’t free ourselves of our reputation.  We can’t silence the voices in our heads that speak shame and guilt.  God says “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”(Matthew 11:28-30) Come to God, come face-to-face with Him in prayer and ask for a new identity in Him.  He will change your walk and receive you as His Child, reborn, renamed, with a new life.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”(2 Corinthians 5:17)

Honest to Goodness YOU

Honest to Goodness YOU

12/22/2007

 

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” – Luke 15:17


I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what my future might hold. I’ve lived for years basing what I did on pleasing other folks – my parents, my friends, my church, my spouse, and even my kids. But God’s been talking to me lately about being honest with myself. When you’re honest with yourself you start asking deep questions like why do I part my hair on the side instead of the middle? Why should I ever wear a dress when they’re so darn uncomfortable? Do I really like coffee, or do I just like the thought of drinking the same thing as everyone else in the morning?

What I’ve discovered in being honest with myself is that a lot of what the world has chosen to be important is no longer important to me. When you really become honest with yourself, you discover who you are, and who you are in Christ. For example, just because a shoe looks good on me doesn’t mean it’s comfortable. I’m more about comfort than looks now because I’ve outgrown the need to look good for everyone else. Likewise, simply because it’s popular to party on New Years Eve doesn’t mean I want to. I enjoy the sleep I so dearly love far more than the countdown of a fancy clock! And while everyone else might like reading the popular novel of the day, I still find my good old Bible to be the most interesting book on the shelves – filled with deep meanings that make my heart flip just at reading it!

The prodigal son came to a point like this where he was honest with himself as well. Luke 15:17 says “But when he came to himself…” He had a moment of reflection on his situation, and it showed him his true identity. He realized the affliction he had given himself. Then he was willing to crawl back to his father and seek forgiveness.

Before you can come to Christ, you have to come to yourself. You can’t be a Christian and carry the cross you’ve been given without understanding why you are willing to bear that cross.

Friends, take some time to ask yourself the deep questions. Is the YOU you’re living really the honest to goodness YOU?  Do you really want to do what you’re doing now for the next 20 years? Is this the life God has designed for you? Come to yourself, and then bow to Him. Life is so much easier when you’re walking the path God has cleared for you rather than trying to clear your own.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

 

“Then the men of Ephraim gathered together, crossed over toward Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the people of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you with fire!” – Judges 12:1

There’s no fight like a family fight!  I don’t know why God has brought this up today, but we’ll just roll with it and see where it goes.  I don’t often talk about my family because I respect their privacy, but I have to respect God’s lead to a greater extent.  My family story is an example I think MANY can relate to.

Years ago when my grandmother died, my Dad was made her sole beneficiary and executor of her will.  This would seem right to most since he was her closest surviving relative, but she had also adopted and raised my two cousins.  Their father had died when they were three and five years old.  My grandmother raised them from that point on.   The younger of the two and I were best friends growing up.  Yet I haven’t seen her in years because of what happened at the reading of my grandmothers will.

Unknown to my cousin, my grandmother had rewritten her will while she was sick with cancer, and turned everything over to my dad except a few household things that she listed as to who they should go.  Originally, her possessions, as meager as they were, would have been split between my Dad and my two cousins, allowing them to inherit their deceased father’s share.  But after the will was rewritten, she would only receive a large gold framed mirror that had always hung in my grandmother’s house, and I believe that was all.  I managed to stay out of the fuss enough that I don’t have all the details.  But I remember the mirror even as a child.  It was something my grandmother cherished. 

I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I know there were harsh words said on both sides, and my cousin never came to get the mirror.  Now years later, I don’t even know where she is.  That truly breaks my heart.  Growing up she was one of my closest friends.  We would play in my grandmother’s house, sleeping upstairs in feather beds and jumping from one to the other!  We climbed trees, went fishing, road bikes, and had all sorts of adventures.  I remember the mirror being part of our play as we would dress up, stand in front of it and recite the words from Snow White, “Mirror, mirror, on the Wall, who is the fairest of them all?”  In the end, there was no fairness to be found.

Now I don’t even have a phone number or address for her, all because of a STUPID family fight over possessions.  There was wrong on both sides, so no one was without blame.  As happens in most family fights, both sides lost.  They lost the greatest gift of all – family.  I don’t know why my grandmother kept the rewrite of her will secret.  But if she had seen this coming, I know for sure she would have sold everything she owned before she died!    

In Judges 12 we read of a family fight.  The fight is between cousins.  Manasseh and Ephraim were the sons of Joseph.  Jephthah was from the tribe of Manasseh.  In Judges 12, Jephthah has fought the Ammonites, returned home, and has been home for at least two months.  He has already demobilized his army when the tribe of Ephraim, his cousins from across the Jordan River, came for a visit.  They were angry because Jephthah had not called them to come and fight with him.

Now to understand why that would make them angry, you have to know that in those days war had its reward.  Those that died in war left behind possessions.  These were plundered and taken by the victors of war, which in this case were Jephthah and his army.  Ephraim wasn’t so much upset that they hadn’t gotten a chance to fight, but that they hadn’t gotten to receive any of the spoils of war.

This is the second time the tribe of Ephraim had pulled this number.  They had made the same complaint of not being called into war to Gideon when he fought the Midianites in Judges 8:1-3. Ephraim seems to have had a pattern of wanting something for nothing.  When Gideon was faced with their spirit of entitlement, he subdued them with diplomacy. But Jephthah wasn’t like Gideon.  He was born a fighter and at odds with his family.  Having been the illegitimate son of Gilead, born to a prostitute, he was use to family fights and having to defend himself. 

He didn’t back down from Ephraim.  In Judges 12:2-3 he says “My people and I were in a great struggle with the people of Ammon; and when I called you, you did not deliver me out of their hands. So when I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the people of Ammon; and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” Jephthah immediately remobilized his army and fought against Ephraim. 

During that fight they had to have a way to determine who was from the tribe of Ephraim, and who was a Gildeadite.  Cousins look alike.  Being separated by the Jordon River, they had grown different speech dialects, and Jephthah used this as a means to determine who was who.  After having seized the fords (shallow places for crossing) of the Jordan River, they would ask anyone wanting to cross “Are you an Ephraimite?”  If they said “No”, they would make them prove it by saying the word “Shibboleth”. The Ephraimites were unable to pronounce the "sh," pronouncing it as "s" instead.  If the person could not pronounce “Shibboleth”, they would kill him. 

Forty-two thousand lost their lives during this civil war between cousins, and over what?  A bunch of stuff that would later rot, rust and decay.  Forty-two thousand people would have had their own ancestors, their own families.  How great could the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh become had this war not occurred.

Family fights are senseless, and cost more than any other conflict we can have.  We often say that blood is thicker than water, meaning family ties are stronger than any other.  But when it comes to respect, we give those that are not kin to us far more than we do our own family.  We take family for granted because we have this unconscious belief that the tie cannot be broken. 

Be careful what you say or do to your family in haste or anger.  Choose your words and actions carefully, considering them as if you were on the receiving end.  In the end, you stand to lose far more than a fight.  You can lose your family.

Willing to be Led

Willing to be Led

 

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.” – Psalms 32:8-9

Do you know any stubborn people? I laugh at the thought of the question because we all know a few.  We can all name off several people we consider stubborn, but would rarely put ourselves on the list.  It’s hard to recognize our own stubbornness. But stubbornness is something God deals with in His children every minute of every day.  We know the His way is the right way and we know that His way is best for us.  Yet because we’re stubborn, we just refuse to be led.  When He calls we question His voice, turn a deaf ear, and walk away. 

When I was a little girl, about 10 years old or so, my granddaddy pulled into our drive way one day with a horse trailer behind his old red Ford pickup truck.  It was his birthday, but being the loving Granddaddy that he was, he had brought me a present.  I peeked in the horse trailer, and there she was!  She was a bay colored pony with a thick white mane and tail, not too tall, and very gentle.  Her name was Lady.

We kept lady in the pasture between my parent’s and grandparent’s house.  It was about 30 acres or so in all, and as a little girl, I’d walked every inch of it at one time or another!  But there would be no more walking for me! I had a pony to ride!

Lady didn’t come with a saddle or a bridle.  When I wanted to lead her, I just tugged on her mane, and she followed my lead.  When I wanted to ride her, I would lead her to where my granddaddy parked his bush hog.  I’d step up onto the bush hog, and then I would be tall enough to throw a leg over her back and climb on.  Without a bridle I could lead her just by tugging left on her mane to go left, or right to go right.  She was the very best pony, always gentle, and always willing to be led.  I didn’t have to entice her with a carrot on a long pole, or put a bridle in her mouth.  She wanted to go where I went. 

Sometimes I would step out of the house, and see that she was far off in the field.  I could just begin to call her name, “Lady! Lady! Come here girl!”, and she’d pick up her head and come to me.  Even now, when I think of her I have to smile.  Lady and I spent a lot of time together and went all over that pasture!  I loved that pony, and the friendship we had.

In Psalms 32 David is praying to God.  He speaks to God about how his sins had made him feel bad, and when they were unconfessed his “bones grew old” because all day he was groaning, and feeling the conviction from God.  He prays, “For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me”, describing how his spirit was heavy because God was at work, correcting him and trying to lead him.  But his stubbornness left him in pain until he finally cried out in Psalms 32:5 and said “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” David then says that for this cause, all should confess their sins to God and get relief from His heavy hand. 

But then in Verses 8-9 David hears God’s voice as he speaks to him in prayer and says “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”  God says, follow me and I’ll teach you the right way to go.  By “My eye”, He refers to the spiritual leading of His Holy Spirit, going before us. 

Then God goes on to give a warning, and says “Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.” Horses, can be very stubborn animals.  I’ve seen horses my granddaddy owned buck him off and run away!  There wasn’t a very good relationship between them and my granddad while they were acting that way.  

God is speaking of our stubbornness.  We have no understanding, no spiritual wisdom, no discernment, because we won’t allow His Holy Spirit to lead us.  We won’t come near when He calls, and “must be harnessed with bit and bridle”, forced to submit to His leadership.

Have you ever tried to put a bridle bit in a horse’s mouth?  It’s somewhat of a mix between a wrestling match and tricking the horse.  You have to get them to open their mouth before you can get the bit in.  The bit is a rod of metal that goes from jaw to jaw across the tongue and is attached to the bridle leads.  It doesn’t feel good in their mouth!  They have to be forced to accept it.  But once you have it in, the horse becomes a willing servant that you can lead. 

When we fail to seek God, He will come looking for us - with a bit and bridle.  We’ve all cried out to Him as David did, hurting as our spirit groaned within us because of our circumstances.  God loves us just as we are, but far too much to let us remain this way.  He seeks to have our submission, to have us come near Him of our own will.  He wants an intimate friendship with us that can’t be had if we refuse to listen when He calls. 

How much better would our relationships with God be if we were more like Lady than our stubborn selves?  When He called, we wouldn’t deny His voice.  We would raise our heads and come to Him.  When He wanted to lead, it would only take a tug on the heart, not a bit in the mouth.  We would listen to His will, understand His ways, and be willing to follow His lead.  We would enjoy a fellowship based on love instead of guilty commitments and religion.  Oh, the places we could go if we would allow Him to lead us.

Buy From Me - Or Remain Lukewarm

Buy From Me - Or Remain Lukewarm

 

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.  So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.  Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.” – Revelation 3:15-19

A few years back God had me searching for a church.  During that time I visited many churches in my home town, and other towns.  Some were powerful, and others were not.  But in all of them, within the first few minutes of being in each one, it was easy to discern the true power of the church. 

The power of a church isn’t about the beautiful voices of the choir or praise group.  It’s not about the quality of the carpet and pews.  It’s not about the church’s bank account, or even the many programs that are given as “opportunities of service”.  It’s not even in the message preached from the pulpit.  The power of a church is found in its true worship of God, for only the TRUE worship of God can bring His manifest presence. 

John 4:23-24 tells us how we should worship God as it says “the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Worship should be “in spirit and truth”.  To worship in spirit (lowercase ‘s’), means to worship from your spirit, your innermost being.  And to worship in truth means being genuine with God, without pretense. 

We could probably all name a house of worship that is just a church.  They are without worship in “spirit and truth”.  They occupy themselves with the events and business of the church more than with God.  Many prepare for church by putting on their church faces, their church attitudes, their church behavior, and their church clothes.  As soon as they leave, they take it all off and become who they really are again because they have not been in true worship of Almighty God.  Having lived this religious life, I know it well enough to rebuke it, and I know its high cost.  This isn’t worship! This is like the childhood game of dress up.  It’s playing church. 

I’ve often wondered where we got the tradition of dressing up for church. We know that God looks upon the heart, not the clothing.  He told His own disciples not to take clothing with them when they went to minister.  God isn’t concerned with our outer garments, but with the garment of the spirit.  The only reason we have for trying to look like movie stars when we go to church is to be pleasing to everyone else there.  Friends, be careful that you don’t derail your worship of God by caring too much about what you wear and how you look when you attend worship!  I cannot begin to count the number of Easter services I have participated in that were more about the new clothes and Easter egg hunt than the One who died on the cross!  Can we not see how our pretend worship makes God sick?

In Revelation 3:15-19 God speaks to the lukewarm church, the one that is not really worshipping but just going through the motions.  He says that He is sick of watching them, and “will vomit you out of My mouth”.  Do we realize that our insincere worship of God makes Him sick?  Do we realize that our pretense of worship, for the sake of on-watchers, makes Him want to throw up?

God begins describing the lukewarm church in Revelation 3:17 by saying we aren’t humbled for worship.  Our hearts say “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’.  Yet all the time, God sees our heart in its genuine state, and says we are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”.  So often the one who needs God the most is the one who feels they need Him least.

Friends, it’s time for you to be honest with yourself, and for me to be honest with myself.  How does it feel to have our loving God call us “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”?  It hurts!  Who have we have compared ourselves to in order to put ourselves on such a high pedestal that we feel we are not in need of more of Him?  Our only example of Christianity is Jesus Christ himself. No other man man or woman is holy.  Unless you are as pure and holy as Christ, jump off the pedestal!  It’s much easier to humble yourself than be thrown off by a Holy God.

But God doesn’t just criticize the lukewarm church and walk away sick to His stomach.  He offers us a way out, a way to longer be “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”.  He tells us to go “buy from Me” three things.  These things are bought - they have a price of sacrifice.

First, He says to go buy gold refined with fire so we can be rich.  The refining fire is often spoken of in God’s word, and used by God to purify His children.  In Isaiah 48:10 He says “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”  Psalms 66:10 says “For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined.”  His purification will make you cry out.  God instructs us to submit ourselves to it.  He wants us to put away the sin in our lives and follow Him with all our heart.

In 1 Peter 1:7 it says that the “genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. God is seeking genuine Christians, full of faith that has been tried through tests and affliction. The gold that we buy through that sacrifice leads us to holiness, which makes us rich in Him. 

Secondly, He says to go buy white garments so that we won’t be naked.  Sin leaves us naked, just as Adam and Eve found themselves naked when they sinned.  The white garment represents salvation.  Isaiah 61:10 refers to salvation as a garment, saying “For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness”. Unless He covers you – you remain naked.

Keep in mind that the entire time God is speaking in Revelation 3:14-21, He is speaking to the church – not the lost world.  What God is telling us is that we have church members that are not sealed with His Holy Spirit.  They haven’t accepted Christ for salvation, and don’t wear the white garment.  Friends, all the holiness you can muster up won’t bring you righteousness in His sight!  You can work every position in your church, organize events, sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, and never find righteousness in and of yourself.  You may fool your church, but you’ll never fool God. 

Your works will not buy your salvation.  Christ paid for it on the cross.  It is through faith in Christ that you receive salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Unless you submit to Christ Jesus in faith, buying from Him the white garment of righteousness, you’ll be found naked.  Do you want to go to Heaven?  You can’t get there without Him.  The clock of your life is ticking down.

Lastly, He tells us to buy salve for our eyes, and anoint them so that we can see.  God refers to the spiritual eye, and spiritual blindness.  While the eyes in our heads allow us to see the things that are visible, the eye of our spirit allows us to see and know the invisible spiritual things.  In Matthew 6:22-23 Jesus refers to the spiritual eye and calls it “the lamp of the body”, and says that “If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness“.  In Psalms 19:8 we read that “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes”, and again Psalms 119:105 we read “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  God’s word is the salve that cures spiritual blindness, and allows us to see ourselves as He sees us. 

In Isaiah 42:16 He says “I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them.” God seeks to guide us, but requires our sacrifice of time to read and follow His word.  Apart from taking in His daily bread, you’ll remain lukewarm and weak in your spirit. 

We have a cure for being lukewarm straight from the mouth of God.  But we don’t want to be anything else because lukewarm feels good.  It feels good, even though it’s lacking the joy of salvation.  It feels good, even though it is complacent and apathetic about God’s will.  It feels good, because we can check into and out of church feeling accomplished, and then go back to our life of sin and self-satisfaction.  We don’t desire anything more.  We’re lukewarm.  We love ourselves more than anything in Heaven. 

Lukewarm comes with a cost just as buying these things from God come with a cost.  But being lukewarm costs us so much more! Romans 8:32 says “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”  I want the “all things” that He “freely gives”.  Don’t you?

In his book “Crazy Love”, Francis Chan sums it up by saying “The core problem isn’t the fact that we’re lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He’s great and deserves to be the center of our lives.”  

Why can’t we understand - with a passion in our hearts - that God that deserves to be center of our lives?  Choose to buy from Him - who gives freely - salvation, His daily bread, and spiritual vision.  We’ve wasted enough time being lukewarm.

Trading Complacency for Passion

Trading Complacency for Passion

 

“And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight.” – 2 Samuel 6:22

I’m often amazed at how God will speak to our hearts in that “still, small voice”. Lately He has spilled the same two words into my heart over and over… complacency and apathy.  The two are exact opposites.  Complacency is defined as “self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies”.  It’s a feeling of quiet pleasure and security, smugness, while danger is on the horizon.  Passion, on the other hand, is an “intense, driving, or overmastering feeling that brings desire and devotion”. While one is cool and calm, the other is hot…and getting hotter!

Consider how a live lobster is cooked.  When cooking a lobster, you don’t put it in hot water or they tense up and become tough and hard.  Instead you put them in lukewarm water that is gently warmed over a hot fire.  Though the water becomes hotter by the minute, the lobster becomes complacent, relaxing into the warm water until, eventually, it takes their life.

Passion, on the other hand, is more like the water in the pot.  It starts with a warm bubble.  The longer it stays in the heat, the hotter it boils until, eventually, it bubbles over onto everything around it.

Complacency and passion don’t just live in the lobster pot.  They are thriving in our churches.  Oh that we children of God would exchange our complacency for passion!  What changes we could bring about in our families, churches, neighborhoods, and nation if we would love God in such a way as to become passionate about Him!  What a bubbling over of His Spirit for all to see we could have if we allowed that passion to drive us and give Him our full devotion as we burn hotter and hotter!  Meanwhile our homes are broken, our children rebellious, our churches beg for volunteers, and our nation lacks morals.  We’re sitting in the warm water and not noticing the destruction.

We fill our prayers with pleas, begging for the things we think we need.  We pray and pray asking, yet all the time feeling distant from Him.  What we need most we don’t even recognize as our seared conscience and religious lives have made us spiritually blind.  We’ve let the altar grow cold.  We need a passionate love for Him, but we’re so deep in the warm water that we’ve become comfortable there, and don’t want to change.

What does passion for God look like?  King David was a man passionately in love with God.  David repeatedly told God of his love for Him, saying:

 “I will love You, O Lord, my strength.” – Psalms 18:1

“I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever.” – Psalms 145:1

“Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, And the place where Your glory dwells.” – Psalms 26:8

“I love the Lord, because He has heard My voice and my supplications.” – Psalms 116:1

“Consider how I love Your precepts; Revive me, O Lord, according to Your lovingkindness.” – Psalms 119:159

David longed to be near God, and then even nearer to God.  When the Ark of the Covenant was returned to the City of David, King David was filled with passion!  2 Samuel 6:14-15 says “Then David danced before the Lord with ALL HIS MIGHT; and David was wearing a linen ephod.  So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with SHOUTING and with the sound of the trumpet.” He was in love with God, and so filled with excitement because the mercy seat of God was back in his city. 

But King David’s wife didn’t share his passion.  Michal saw David dancing and criticized him because she felt he wasn’t being “king-like”.  Can you relate?  There are people who expect Christians to be “church-like” as well.  They will criticize you when your passion breaks you to tears because they don’t think that’s appropriate for church.  They will gossip about you when your praise and worship turns you into a bubbling brook!  They will expect something to be wrong with you when your tears push you to the altar for no reason other than to give thanks for the love that is overtaking your heart. 

Michal gave David this same kind of criticism, sarcastically saying to him “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” Ah, but David’s reply was rooted in his passion and he said, “And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight.” David didn’t care what Michal thought because his passion for God was a red hot flame of love inside him.  Nothing puts out a flame like that!  It ignites all that come near!

God has burned the song “consuming fire” into my head the past few days.  I continually find myself hearing and singing the lyrics that say “There must be more than this, O breath of God come breathe within. There must be more than this, Spirit of God we wait for You. Consuming fire fan into flame, a passion for Your Name. Spirit of God would You fall in this place, Lord have Your way, Lord have Your way with us”.  It’s a breathing within, a consuming fire, a passion for His name, that falls inside where His Spirit lives.  It’s humbling yourself to say “Lord, have your way”.  God, can we trade in our complacency for this?

If we want “more than this” from God, we have to be willing to give “more than this” to God.  We have to pray, find passion, and seek out a greater love for Him.  We have to dethrone the Michal’s who will criticize our worship, and put God back on the throne of our hearts.  We can throw up our hands in praise! Sing! Dance!  We can be filled with passion for Him, and be humbled in His sight.  We won’t care what the on-watchers think because Almighty God has our undivided attention.  We will not the complacency of others stop us from a deeper relationship with Him! We will tell God how much we love Him. We will become even more undignified if that is what service to our King requires!  We will give Him our PASSIONATE worship because we love Him…above all!

And it won’t stop at worship!  Our lives will be transformed by the deep and burning love we have for Him.  We won’t live defeated lives, being sick and not knowing why, being overcome by dragging emotions, being disappointed with our day to day lives.  When God takes the throne of our hearts – peace will enter in!

Stir it up in our hearts Lord, a passion for Your Name!

A Life Planned with Purpose

A Life Planned with Purpose

“Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May the Lord, the Judge, render judgment this day between the children of Israel and the people of Ammon.”–Judges 11:27

Jephthah is an interesting character.  He was the son of Gilead, one of the twelve sons of Israel. But he was also the son of a prostitute.  Yet even in his name we see that his life was not accidental, but had purpose from the beginning.  Jephthah means “God opens the womb”, and as every child born is born from life given by God, not their parents, Jephthah had purpose in God’s plan.

Yet his brothers, the legitimate sons of Gilead by his wife, didn’t care for Jephthah.  They ran him out of town, telling him in Judges 11:2 “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” Imagine the pain of being told by your own family, when you have no one closer but your own mother, to leave town!  So Jephthah did leave, and made Tob his home.  There he befriended a group described as “worthless men”, who were social rejects as well, and they “went out raiding”.  They became protective forces for settlements that found themselves needing an army to fight their enemies. 

As Tob was only fifteen miles east of Gilead, Jephthah’s reputation as a warrior made its way back to Gilead.  When the people of Ammon came against Israel to take back the land God had given them, the elders of Gilead went to Jephthah begging him to return and become their leader.  That’s right! After running him out of town, now they want him back to not only live with them, but be their leader and fight for them. Can you see the restoring hand of God at work?

Jephthah was as surprised by their request as anyone! In Judges 11:7 he says to the elders, “Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?” The elders said “That is why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the people of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” So Jephthah said to them in Judges 11:9, “If you take me back home to fight against the people of Ammon, and the Lord delivers them to me, shall I be your head?” Note that he still considered Gilead his “home”, and no doubt yearned to go back to the place where he had been raised.  To seal the contract with Jephthah, the elders of Gilead made a vow him and God that they would make him their leader if he fought and won against the Ammonites.

But Jephthah wasn’t the average warrior because we’re told that the Spirit of God was with him.  His first response to the people of Ammon was not to arm himself and go to battle, but to try diplomacy.  He first sent messengers to the King of Ammon explaining to him their plight coming out of Egypt, and how they did not steal the land of Moab, but fought those that oppressed them and through the victory God gave, won the land.  His intent was to explain to the King that the land that they lived in was theirs, fair and square, and had been for over 300 years.  Jephthah reasons with the idolatrous King in Judges 11:24 “Will you not possess whatever Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the Lord our God takes possession of before us, we will possess.” Jephthah basically said, you serve your god and take the rewards he gives you, and we’ll serve our God and take the rewards He gives us. 

He goes on in verse 27 to tell the King, “Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May the Lord, the Judge, render judgment this day between the children of Israel and the people of Ammon.” With that statement, Jephthah turned his battle over to God.  “May the Lord, the Judge, render judgment this day” was saying God will give victory to the one who is right.  It was a statement of faith in God, and faith in his position in this battle.  But the King of Ammon wouldn’t listen to Jephthah’s diplomatic reasoning, and decided to fight. 

Then Jephthah’s faith seems to crack.  He made a vow to God that if God would allow him to win the battle for his people, that when he returned “whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.” 

Making a vow to God in a time of trouble shows a heart that doubts God.  Had Jephthah had full faith that God would deliver him, the vow would have been unnecessary.  Be careful what you promise God when you feel desperate to get His attention.  Rest assured that God’s children always have their Father’s attention.

God gave Jephthah victory over Ammon, and when he returned, the first to come out the doors of his house was his only child, his daughter.  She was dancing and singing and happy to see her father return from war.  Then Jephthah’s vow became bitter to his heart as he said to her “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I have given my word to the Lord, and I cannot go back on it.”

His daughter then answers “My father, if you have given your word to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon. Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my friends and I.” So Jephthah sent his daughter away for two months, and at the end of the two months, she returned to him.  Then, in Judges 11:39 we read that “he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man.”

To truly understand this passage, you have to know the character of Jephthah.  He was raised to know the laws and commandments of God, and murder was sin against God.  Nor did the people of Israel didn’t have a custom of sacrificing their children to God, and Jephthah would not have done that to try to please God because of his vow.  It would have been contrary to what he knew God would want him to do.  But the people of Israel did dedicate their children to service to God, as shown by Hannah’s dedication of Samuel when she vowed him to God in return for him opening her womb.  Jephthah dedicated his daughter to God.  She didn’t give up her life, but she gave up her future for child bearing and marriage.  When she went away for two months it was to mourn her virginity, not to mourn for her life.  The ending of verse 39 telling us that “she knew no man” would have been useless information if he had killed his daughter.  But instead, it speaks to how the vow of giving her to God was fulfilled. 

Having no family of his own after being rejected by his father’s household, Jephthah’s only chance of having a family of his own was in the hope of children his daughter would bear.  His vow to God meant that he gave up his lineage.  His family name would die with his daughter. 

When we understand Jephthah’s sacrifice, we better understand the man he was.  He would not break a promise to God, showing that his allegiance to God was unshakeable.  And though his faith wavered, he is still named among those that overcame by faith in Hebrews 11.  He is listed with great names like Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel, and the prophets in Hebrews 11:32. 

Jephthah’s life may have started out looking like a life of failure.  Being born to a prostitute, he did not have the favor of man.  Growing up he probably felt the shame and guilt of what he could not control, his own conception.  His own family had rejected him.  Being asked to leave and never come back, he must have longed for someone to love him.  Someone did.  Jephthah’s life shows that God did love him.  His loyal to God showed that he loved God in return.  With His favor, you have all that you need to find success.  “God opens the womb” and He does so with a good life planned.  What we do with that life is up to us, but each life is precious to God, and planned with purpose.