Tag: Peace

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Are You Valued the Right Way?

1 Samuel 16:7, “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.'”

I was told this story by someone who didn’t know who originated it; if you do, let me know, and I will amend this post. It’s a perfect parable for defining personal value.

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A father said to his daughter, “You have graduated with honors; here is a car I bought many years ago.

It is a bit older now, but before I give it to you, take it to the used car lot downtown and tell them you want to sell it and see how much they offer you.

The daughter went to the used car lot, returned to her father, and said, “They offered me $1,000 because they said it looks pretty worn out.”

Now, the father said, “Take it to the pawnshop.” So the daughter went to the pawnshop, returned to her father, and said, “The pawnshop offered only $100 because it is an old car.”

The father asked his daughter to go to a car club and show them the car. The daughter then took the car to the club, returned, and told her father,” Some people in the club offered $100,000 because it’s a Holden Torana and an iconic car and sought by many collectors.”

The father said this to his daughter, “The right place values you the right way,” If you are not valued, do not be angry, it means you are in the wrong place. Those who know your value are those who appreciate you. So never stay in a place where no one sees your value.

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Are you in the right place; are you valued the right way?

When I received my first promotion at work, I thought it was because I was the guy with all the answers. Luckily, I had a boss that corrected me on that. I was a command-and-control manager. It was my way or the highway. John McAlister was my boss; he was an old man of forty-five or fifty with many miles on his tires. He taught me that people needed to learn how to do things within their skill set and personality traits. They couldn’t be me anymore than I could be them. John taught me a lot for an old guy. Fifty years later, I still think of him.

When we are born, the two challenges God gives us are finding out who we are and finding where we fit. We are all God’s Holden Torana’s looking for a home. The world will put a value on you, but if you end up at a used car dealership or a pawn shop, you will never know the actual value of who you are.

Psalm 139:13-15, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. So I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.”

Never underestimate your value to God. You are more precious than gold. If others do not see that in you, do not question yourself; question where in life you are; you are in the wrong place. One of the hardest things we do is abandon what we know for what we do not know, even when what we know isn’t good for us. Spiritual maturity is learning to walk away from people and situations that threaten your peace of mind, Godly self-respect, Christian values, or self-worth. Walking away has nothing to do with weakness and everything to do with strength. You walk away not because you want others to realize your value but because you finally realize your value.

Peter 1:18-19, “Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

My Dad once told me that if I was the smartest guy in the room, I was in the wrong room. Everyone brings something unique to the table. We don’t have all the right answers; we don’t even know all the right questions. We must remind ourselves that sometimes our friends will lie to us, and sometimes our enemies will tell us the truth. Please don’t buy into the lie because it makes life more comfortable; always seek the truth. Those we travel with must see the unique value created within us by Christ. When you recognize your value, you will find it harder to be around people who don’t.

John C. Maxwell says, “Your core value is the deeply held beliefs that authentically describe your soul.” When you doubt your value go to scripture; God will reinforce your value to Him.  Always remember that you are God’s ambassador to the world.

1 Peter 3:4, “But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”

Never settle for a life that is less than the one God created for you.

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Doing Nothing Accomplishes Nothing

Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

It is interesting that as I open my eyes to the people around me, I see the greatness that God has put in each of us. I can see the light in their eyes come on whenever we touch on their passion; they sit taller; their back is straighter, and they’re more alert and engaged. It is true even when they do not know their passion. The person inside of them comes alive.

James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

The person God wants you to be is alive and well. But it is kept in chains because we are afraid of being everything we were meant to be. Somehow, we confuse serving with servitude. We confuse the free desire to be a benefit to others with the worldly view of being subordinate. We have this innate desire to be something more significant, but we somehow are afraid of actually being that person.

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” – Francis Chan

It is not you but the Holy Spirit in you who will guide you. The first fear you have to let go of is the fear of failure. The freedom you seek is not the freedom to chase worldly ambition but the freedom of allowing Christ to pick your path. With obedience, we eliminate the worry of failure; it’s God’s plan, and He never fails.

Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”

ASK

Everything starts with prayer. Ask that your real passion be made visible and complete. Set aside your worldly needs, God knows you have them, and He will meet those needs.

Matthew 6:25-34, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Concentrate on asking for guidance for living your life with the highest level of joy and obedience.

I sincerely believe that one of two things will happen in your life; either the passion revealed to you will become your vocation, or God will give you a tentmaking vocation that also supports your passion. God will always connect the two. God does not expect you to survive on air while chasing your God-given passion. God is enormous on sustainability.

John 6:27 “Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him, God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

DO

Philippians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

“You can’t steer a stationary ship” – I don’t know who initially said it; I assume a pirate; seems fitting. You cannot get anywhere without movement. The most remarkable ideas and plans in life fail for lack of execution. Sometimes making the wrong decision helps you find the right decision. Doing nothing accomplishes nothing.

In some miracles, Jesus asked the receiver to do something. First, turning water into wine required them to “fill the jars with water” (John 2:1-11). Next, there was a blind man who was asked to “go to the pool of Siloam” (John 9:6-10). Next, a grown man healed of leprosy after dipping seven times in a river (2 Kings 5:11-14). Finally, Jesus made a coin appear in a fish’s mouth (Matthew 17:24-27). Please don’t wait for an answer; start searching for it. God will direct your steps if you ask. The best place to start is to inventory what God has already done through you up to this point.

James 2:17-18, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

I am always surprised by the number of people that discount their experiences. Things that we try and don’t like or are not good at doing open the door for what we enjoy and can do well. Things we enjoyed doing but didn’t seem to have an objective are discounted as leisure-time activities with no material value other than to entertain us. Everything that happens is part of God’s master plan for your life; every moment has a message; each experience is a guidepost.

Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

ENJOY

Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Once you have a rough idea of what God has already done in your life, you can start moving toward the future. He will build off of your past to create your future. You don’t have to create the person God made you be; it is already there. Instead, you need to find that person and coax them out of the darkness.

God has never wanted His people to live stressful, uneventful lives. He understands how He has made each of us and understands that joy brings us both physical and mental health. That is how He created us. We will receive our highest fulfillment and satisfaction from living the life God has prepared for us.

Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

It is your life; it is your shot at happiness. You can focus on worldly success, knowing that in the end, it will not matter, or you can focus on chasing the pure passion of God’s desire for you. That desire will last for eternity.

Isaiah 55:12, “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

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Joy Before the Angels

We remember from Sunday School the remarkable story of Jonah and the whale. We know how Jonah ran from God because he did not want the Ninevites to be allowed to repent. This story brings to our attention that just as God has shown us mercy, he will show it to those we don’t feel deserve mercy. It also shows the extent to which God will go to pursue us for His purpose.

Jonah 1:1-3, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before Me.” Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.”

Few of us remember the story of Nahum. Nahum came along well after Jonah. After the Ninevites first repented, they again returned to their sinful ways. This time it was Nahum who brought them the message. However, the message was quite different.

Nahum 1:3, “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”

The Ninevites’ sin was so entrenched there was nowhere for them to turn. Our God is merciful, long-suffering, and gracious, but He has His limits. God’s judgment will fall on the unrepentant.

We forget that sometimes. We want to dwell on all the richness of God’s love for us to the point that we shy away from what happens when we become unrepentant. We love that God is patient, kind, long-suffering, and willing to bear with our sinfulness. We find comfort in that if we are willing to repent and turn from our ways, He is quick to forgive.

1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

But what happens if we harbor unrepentant sin? What is the judgment for those that hold back certain sins as personal property? You know, the sin that we can not shake. The sin that we feel is not destructive; the victimless sin in our lives. The sin we hide in the darkness of our lives? There is no victimless sin. There is no sin that God deems trivial or meaningless.

James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”

I’m not trying to shame anyone, just bringing to our attention that we all have unrepentant sin. We all have sins that we don’t recognize as harmful or, worse, don’t recognize as sins. I’m not talking about unintentional sin, although that also is an issue, but unresolved sin. We live in a dysfunctional world that has normalized sin. In the last 50 years, we have normalized most of the sins mentioned in the Ten Commandments. Our quest for personal freedom has made it unacceptable to criticize someone else’s lifestyle choices. This passive acceptance tends to water down our perception of sin. Comparatively speaking, we feel we live less sinful lives as Christians. We don’t do the things that others do.

Isaiah 1, 18-20, “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land. But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.”’

This blog does have a happy ending. Just because we have sins in our lives that have become entrenched or unrecognized doesn’t mean we will face the wrath of God. It does not disqualify us from salvation.

Psalm 62:1, “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

It is not our behavior that determines our salvation; it is the redeeming grace of Christ.

Acts 16:31, “He has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.”

This blog reminds you to periodically quiet your mind and think about those things that have transpired. Think not just of the significant issues but the minor sins that pop up now and then. Maybe the habitual way you address specific issues or the bias and prejudges that have developed over time. We all have them, and they hurt God as much as the significant issues. Sometimes I think they hurt more because they are unacknowledged and unrepentant. Think of the joy you will bring to God by caring enough about His happiness to seek forgiveness for even the little sins in your life.

Luke 15:10, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

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Thorns

Issyk Kul Lake Kyrgyzstan

2 Corinthians 12: 7-9, “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

THORNS

We all face obstacles in our lives. The easy parts are when the car breaks down, or the furnace fails, we know who to call. There is a point specific solution that meets an immediate need. As we mature, we expect these problems; products fail and need to be fixed or replaced. But what do we do when aspects of our lives seem to be failing us? What do we do when the ways of the world invade our peace?

Now, every time I witness a strong person I want to know: “what darkness did you conquer in your story? “mountains do not rise without earthquakes. – Katherine MacKenett

Life’s problems are like splinters under our skin. If untreated, it starts to fester. The small splinter becomes an irritant we can’t ignore. Sometimes our irritation with the splinter worsens as we scratch, poke, and dig at it until it becomes infected. Life is always giving us splinters; Paul called them thorns.

Paul’s thorn was opinioned to be one of several things; sickness (Galatians 4:15), emotional turmoil about the churches (2 Corinthians 2:4), his false opposition (2 Corinthians 11:3-5), a speaking disability (2 Corinthians 10:10), or possible demonic opposition (1 Thessalonians 2:18). It is not that any of these were given to him by God; he called them a messenger from Satan. But to Paul’s credit, he recognized that God could use them to make him a stronger representative of the Gospel.

Deuteronomy 31:8, “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

INFECTION OF OUR WORLD VIEW

How do we accept the challenges presented to us daily and turn them into lampposts for the Gospel? This seems so counter-intuitive. In the middle of a bad day, how do I stop fixating on the issues and start reflecting on the good news? I don’t know about you, but most of my issues revolve around someone’s personal agenda; they have or haven’t done something that has caused a problem for me. Maybe it is the way someone twists the Gospel to meet their political agenda. Or maybe it is an issue of recurring ache or pain that never goes away. Maybe it is a constant feeling of not measuring up to our or someone else’s expectations. We all have to deal with what Paul would call “thorns.” We all have aspects of our lives that fester and infect our world view.

Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

When we are in the middle of one of life’s storms is the perfect time to reflect on Christ. Christ allows, endorses, and even creates these opportunities to demonstrate our need to depend on Him and how He can be glorified through its resolution. In the middle of these storms, God looks for us to call on Him. And when we do, He does not disappoint.

Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”

FINDING A CURE

We need to find ways to take world’s weaknesses and shortcomings and make them our personal strengths. Glorifying Christ by using the circumstances we are in to overcome the obstacles put before us. Demonstrating to others that we can not only endure but prosper within adverse circumstances through Christ’s grace.

Romans 12:12, “rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer.”

We need to take this moment in time to reverse our fortune. Knowing that God’s plan for us is to prosper, not destroy, should give us the confidence to distance ourselves from self-incrimination and fear to embrace the opportunity to show grace. Situations that could be seen as opportunities to demean or diminish us can become launching pads for us to show our confidence in Christ’s redeeming grace.

John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

It is not us that overcomes the worldly issues around us; it is Christ. And in Christ, we have the assurance that He will do just that. If we want to be a positive Christian example to the people around us, we need to do it during our times of adversity. It is our time to rise to the occasion. It is our time to change the world around us one person at a time.

Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.”

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Is God With Us?

Matthew 20:17-19, “Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

I hate stories about myself. I like to live in the shadows. When I’m in a position where I must “perform,” I get not just uneasy but irritated. I hate getting awards; I love achieving them, just not getting them. My social anxiety is paradoxical because I have run large organizations with hundreds of people. I’m fine when I can talk about a subject that does not include me. I don’t like the spotlight on me.

Today I’m going to suck it up and talk about myself. I think there is something in this story that might brighten your Easter. At Easter, we say, “He has Risen.” The response is, “He has Risen indeed.” But do we believe God is with us, or do we go along? Is God tangible?

Luke 24:6-7, “He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”

THE STORY

Over forty years ago, I was rising in my career and healthy. I ran ten miles every day. I later was informed that I ran every day because I had an addiction to endorphin, not because I had a fixation on my health. Stress filled my life. Because I had never experienced sustained success in my life, I thought stress was just part of the job. So, I ran to be sane. The endorphin kept me on an even keel so that I could cope. Although I must add that I still exercise and believe in exercise, I’m no longer addicted to it.

It was spring, so I wanted to step up my daily routine, but I had an odd problem. After about four or five miles, my vision would collapse into a small hole in the center of my eyesight; it’s called myopia. I would walk a couple of hundred yards, myopia would go away, and I would start running again. I felt great. There were no other symptoms. All I needed was a shot or a pill to make it go away, and I could increase my workouts. I had a friend, Charles, a doctor; he was a cardiologist. I didn’t have a regular doctor because I didn’t seem to need one, so I got an appointment with Charles. Here is where the story takes a twist. After just a few minutes in the examination room, Charles calls one of his partners in; they talk cryptically and then ask, “What are you doing this afternoon?”.

THE TWIST

I’ll try to make this less boring by getting to the part you want to hear as fast as possible. I spent a week in the hospital as they ran an encyclopedia of tests. The results were that they knew I had a severe problem but couldn’t isolate it. So, they demanded that I quit all forms of exercise until they knew what was causing the problem. This is the place in the story where I learned about endorphin addiction and withdrawal.

Months went by, and the problem progressed. I was sitting on the couch watching TV one night, and myopia struck. These episodes were becoming more frequent. I was instructed to call Charles every time I had one. Charles said stop what you are doing and come to his office a 7:30 in the morning before it opens. I told him that I couldn’t do less short of stopping breathing. It was the first time I was concerned; up to this point, I was mainly perturbed. It was an inconvenience in my life. So, I went to bed.

MY MOMENT

This night I was to understand what it meant to have Christ be with me, not figuratively but literally. At around two o’clock in the morning, I woke to see myself lying in bed. I was above the bed, looking down at myself, sleeping. It wasn’t a dream; I was hovering above myself. I slowly slid down the wall until I was back on the bed, eyes wide open, terrified.

Isaiah 41:10. “‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely, I will help you, surely, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”

A thousand thoughts were racing through my brain. Everything I thought had significant risk. Then, all of a sudden, Christ reached down. His message was clear and concise, go to the emergency room across the street from Charles’s office and wait. I was calm and relaxed. It was only a couple of miles away, and there was no traffic in the early morning. I went inside and took a seat. I told the nurse that I was waiting for a doctor’s appointment across the street. I had this odd dialog inside my head, part prayer and part discussion; we talked about my future. The nurse interrupted this discussion to say either you’re in or out; this isn’t a waiting room. I guess I’m in was my reply.

1 Corinthians 15:20-21, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.”

My heart stopped four times in the emergency room before Charles arrived. I apologized for getting him out of bed, and then the lights went out. The next thing I saw was a masked man looking down at me, saying it would be alright. God smiled and said, “I told you so.”

GOD IS TANGIBLE

I could have died that night at home alone, but God had other plans. It was His presence that calmed my soul and gave me clarity. It was His plan for my life that pulled me through. Christ was a presence as real as Charles.

Easter isn’t a feel-good story. Instead, it is the culmination of eons of compassion, love, and caring. If we don’t experience His presence in our lives, it is because we don’t believe He is truly with us. Christ paid an enormous price so that we could have a deep, personal relationship with Him. He is there in the room with you now. He will not desert you or grow tired of you.

Romans 10:9, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

HE HAS RISEN INDEED

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God’s Insatiable Love for Us

Psalm 31:7, “I will be glad and rejoice in Your unfailing love, for You have seen my troubles, and You care about the anguish of my soul. “

Love is a tricky animal to tame. It can be the thrill of a lifetime while simultaneously being our greatest fear. Love is one of those things we crave to the point of distraction. We know, untamed, it will destroy us, and yet true love is a bond that can’t be broken. We have committed so many sins chasing after love. If we were ever the fool, it was because of love. But there is only one pure, deep, passionate, and powerful love; it comes from Christ.

The love that God lavishes on His people never operates apart from His holiness, mercy, omnipotence, justice, or other divine attributes. It is the glue that holds all of His attributes together.

PURE

1 John 4:18, “Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love. “

Pure love drives out fear. When we rest in the arms of the one who truly loves us, we are secure. Pure love is described in Corinthians. When we read this passage from a human perspective, we see a goal or an objective to which to aspire. To be all of these things for another seems impossible. But God is all of these things for us. Corinthians not only describes how we should approach love toward each other, but it also describes how God loves us. God did not create two standards, one for us and one for Himself. He created a single standard of how He loves us, then asks us to try to love others the same way. Reread this passage; this time, read it as God’s description of how He loves you.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud, or rude. It does not demand its way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. “

How pure is this? He was scourged, humiliated, and hung on a cross to demonstrate His love for us. He did not do this because we deserved salvation. He did it to open the door to salvation for wicked, stubborn people. His love for us was not dependent on our love for Him.

Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

DEEP

Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Several passages in the Bible help us understand that God’s love runs deeper than anything we have ever experienced. This last week, NASA reported to have observed a single star 28-billion light-years away; that’s 168 trillion miles. When God says that nothing in all of creation can separate us from His love, imagine 168 trillion miles in front of you, in back of you, above you, and below you. His love is greater than all of that. But more importantly, it is the depth of His love within your heart. It goes to the core of who you are; who you were created to be. You were created to be loved by the author of the universe.

Ephesians 3: 17-19, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

PASSIONATE

John 11:35, “Jesus wept”

Jesus wept. I don’t know of a more provocative statement than this. The God of the universe, a perfect being in nature and existence, cried over one of His own. Knowing the nature of Christ and the nature of man, it is incredible that He would weep over us, but Christ does. He does because we are part of His family; we are errant, headstrong, wayward children, but we are His children.

1 John 3:1, “See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are!”

One of the more remarkable aspects of God’s passion for us is that He knew what we would become from creation. All of our pigheadedness still gives Him great pleasure to call us His own.

Ephesians 1:5, “God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.”

All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of His wings; His passion for us is unceasing. There is nothing we can do to make Him desert us. All we need to do is repent, and He is gracious to forgive.

Psalm 36:5-7, “Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is Your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of Your wings. “

God left us a guide and companion so that we would always know He is present in our lives. He understands that we cannot love as He does. He gave us a voice to reassure us when we feel alone or forgotten. The benefits of the love of God towards His children are blessings of joy for those who keep His Commandments.

Romans 5:5, “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. “

POWERFUL

Job 36:22, “God’s power is unlimited. He needs no teachers.”

Job said it very succinctly; His power is unlimited. There is nothing He can’t do; no task is too small or too big. His power is beyond our ability to understand. The God that loves you, the God that wept over you, is the God of unlimited power that can make your life meaningful. He not only wraps you in His love, but He also has the power to protect you from evil. Here in Job, we read the definition of His power.

Job 26:7-14, “God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. He wraps the rain in his thick clouds, and the clouds don’t burst with the weight. He covers the face of the moon, shrouding it with his clouds. He created the horizon when he separated the waters: he set the boundary between day and night. The foundations of heaven tremble; they shudder at his rebuke. By his power, the sea grew calm. By his skill, he crushed the great sea monster. His Spirit made the heavens beautiful, and his power pierced the gliding serpent. These are just the beginning of all that he does, merely a whisper of his power. Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?”

LASTLY

1 Corinthians 2:9, “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him'”

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Battle for Our Soul

We live in a crazy world. When I think it has become as dysfunctional as possible, we find a new level. I was in my teens during the ’60s. The ‘60s in the United States was about anti-war movements, free love, and following your bliss. It was a time of anti-everything. The “Man” was in charge; he needed to be taken down a peg or two. My parents thought our generation would amount to nothing and destroy the world. You see, my parents were part of the “Greatest Generation.” As I grew older and wiser, I began to understand how right that was. Their sense of duty and sacrifice was beyond anything we see today.

Maybe my parents were right about who we were. Many of the unacceptable things in the ‘60s are not only typical today; the law protects them. The book of Revelations warns us about the march of time. It describes the Seven Seals that mark the second coming of Christ. Revelations is clear that no man can determine the time of Jesus’ return. But the battle rages on.

Matthew 24:6, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”

The actual battle is for our soul, and it will never end in a loss for those in Christ. They will not surrender to the evil of this world. They have an army of thousand-thousand angels fighting at their side; they have the King of all creation covering their back. He guides them with love, compassion, and grace. He wrote their story before the universe came into existence; the ending was there for them to choose.

Deuteronomy 20:4, “For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

It is so easy to become bogged down in everyday life that we forget our true purpose. Our purpose is not to gather worldly wealth or achieve worldly acclaim; our purpose is to glorify and serve Christ. But, unfortunately, there will always be those who do not know Christ and will choose the things of the world. They are the ones who will suffer the loss. They are the ones who are losing sleep over political aspirations, economic woes, and social stigmas. They are the ones who fruitlessly pursue peace by forcing acceptance of worldly pleasures.

Romans 8:37, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”

We stand on the bedrock of Christ’s salvation. Although we can not escape the effects of those who do not know Christ, we can rise above it by focusing on God’s plan for eternity. When worry overcomes us, we need to do nothing more than speak with our Father. He will comfort us in our time of need.

Romans 8:35, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

It is tricky, especially when we are younger, not to focus on all the world before us. Life seems like a long time; we have dreams, plans, and dragons to slay. We want to make our mark. We want to leave a legacy. We want to rise above the hum of everyday life to make our voice heard. Our focus is on the next project, the next promotion, the next pay raise, the next anything. We forget that our existence is for eternity.

Luke 10:19, “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.”

We have an inner strength that can sustain us when the world does not make sense. As much as we should try to overcome evil in the world, there is only One who can, not us. The battle is for our souls. The world will do what the world will do; The Garden of Eden sealed its fate. But we each have the opportunity to escape that natural end. We have a chance to focus on eternity.

Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and You will find rest for your soul. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

Every worldly endeavor has an eternal component to it. Therefore, you can use any passion to glorify Christ. Consequently, it is not so much what you choose to do with your life that is important as how you choose to do it. Who do you choose to glorify? Is your purpose focused on the near future or eternity?

Matthew 12:20, “A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out until He leads justice to victory.”

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Kindness

Colossians 3:12, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”

Kindness (noun): the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate; a kind act. — English Oxford Living Dictionaries

We are wired to do acts of kindness; the longer we think about it, the less kind we become. We negate the natural tendency to be kind by overthinking the return on investment. Being kind is intuitive; it is the way God made us. It is part of the design specification from before the universe was formed.

FOR THE GEEK IN YOU

God designed us so that we would benefit from acts of kindness. Kindness produces a significant hormone, oxytocin, “the love hormone.” Oxytocin is associated with stress reduction; it achieves this by inhibiting sympathoadrenal and stress response activity, which includes preventing the release of adrenal corticoids. Oxytocin acts both on the psychological level, increasing bond formation, and on the physiological level, via inhibiting stress hormone release and producing opiate-like effects. (The Science of Kindness).

This explanation is science-speak for “Kindness makes you feel good,” both emotionally and physically. So, why did God create this natural reaction to acts of kindness, and what does God say we should do about it? How do we integrate this into our everyday lives so that they are not individual disconnected acts?

LEAD WITH COMPASSION, FOLLOW WITH KINDNESS

Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Let’s start with the basics. We are, and always will be, sinners. God could hold that against us, but He has compassion for His creation. It is through this compassion that He expresses kindness toward us. Without compassion, there would be no foundation for kindness. We would be rebellious, wayward sinners unworthy of reconciliation. His compassion toward us paves the way for His kindness to us.

We are to mirror God to others. To do that, we need to build a foundation of compassion toward those we do not see as worthy of compassion before our acts of kindness start to looking like genuine kindness. We can be obedient without experiencing kindness. We can act out of obligation or submission without being kind.

Ephesians 4:29, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

A place we might start is to heed Ephesians 4:29. If we focus our speech on building up those less fortunate, it leaves little room for criticism. Whenever we emphasize a fault or weakness, we should instead point out virtue or strength. Would we start to look at people differently? If we do, we start to see the gifts God gave them rather than their shortcomings? Once we recognize their unique value, we can more easily show kindness. Kindness no longer becomes an act of submission or obligation but becomes an act of gratitude.

Matthew 5:24, “leave your gift there in front of the altar. First, go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

Matthew reminds us that we must first make our gift worthy before presenting it to Christ. So you make kindness a worthy gift by making its foundation, compassion.

GIVE TO GIVE, NOT TO RECEIVE

Luke 6:35, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

The other trap we need to avoid is Quid Pro Quo. It is the natural inclination of all people to calculate, even subconsciously, the value of the act. If I extend this amount of effort, what happens? We do not expect a direct tit-for-tat; we expect that we have invested with future value. That value may not come from the person for which we have extended the effort, but it exists just the same. Have you ever thought, or said, why has this occurred with the good I have done? Is there some karma in the world that withholds kindness from those who do not practice it? If I show kindness, should it not benefit me?

Kindness is an act, in and of itself, that does not require external motivation. It is a gift you give to yourself. It is an attempt to be more like Jesus.

FINDING YOUR RHYTHM IN LIFE

Kindness is not an obligation or submission to a higher authority. It isn’t a habit to be performed mindlessly over and over. It does not reach out from your subconscious to grab the moment and steal away. Kindness is a conscious act of will that integrates you into the lives of those around you to share what God has given you. Kindness should be the heartbeat of who you are. God loves you unconditionally. Because of that love, He has compassion for what you are going through. That compassion is expressed in kindness toward you. He paid the total price.

Kindness should flow from you as a natural part of being. It should be like breathing, inseparable from life itself. When kindness becomes the music in your head that lightens your step and softens your outlook, you have started to live the life God created for you.

1 Peter 3:9, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

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You are God’s Delight

Psalm 149:4, “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation”

In his book “The Heart of Christ,” Thomas Goodwin states, “Christ’s joy, comfort, happiness, and glory are increased and enlarged by His showing grace and mercy, in pardoning, relieving and comforting His members on earth.”

Aside from the question of how can a God who is holy, eternal, almighty, and self-sufficient can increase in anything? How can this God that suffers no lack, knows no limitation, and experiences no deficiency be enlarged? Aside from that, we know that God delights in us asking Him for anything. The very act of asking means we have brought Him into the equation; we have thought of Him.

Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

‘I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.’  From “The Rose Garden” (circa 1259) written by the Persian poet Sa’di.

I need to do what I can, and He will do what I can’t; I need to prioritize my requests. Some problems and needs are just too small for a mighty God. I should not whine and snivel; others have it worse than me. I need to get away from the concept that God is limited in His ability to answer prayer.

We are conditioned to optimize resources, and we see God as one of those resources, thus making God into our image. When we put constraints on God, we do not constrain Him but constrain what we ask of Him. We limit His impact on our lives by limiting His involvement.

God has unlimited wealth; we, the global eternal Christian community, can not exhaust His resources. His world works in infinite parallel processes that are not limited by the volume of requests; we don’t wait in line or queue up for help. He has no supply chain issues. 

FOUR REASONS WE DON’T APPROACH GOD

  • Believing sadness disappoints God
  • Our Sin Leaves Us Feeling Unworthy
  • The need to be in control
  • Hard seasons disqualify us from God’s promises

Believing Sadness Disappoints God

Hebrews uses the word “sunpathesai,” which means cosuffer. The implication is that once we are God’s children, he sympathizes with what we are going through. He is not disappointed in the muck and mire of our lives; He is sympathetic. I have said this more times than I care to count; we live in a fallen world, God knows this. God is compassionate that there are days when we feel we are drowning. What brings Him joy is when we turn to Him during those times. It is when we get comfort from laying our head on His chest to listen to His heartbeat; those are the moments He cherishes.

Our Sin Leaves Us Feeling Unworthy

John Piper made this statement, “The power by which you daily strive to overcome the imperfections in your life is the confidence that you are already perfect.” Because of Christ, we believe in Him and what He did on the cross and His perfect life. We believe in Him, and by faith, God unites us to Christ. His perfection is counted as ours. It is the devil who wants you to feel inadequate, not God.

We ask God from the desires of our hearts, and He gives us what we need. What we need may not be what we desire. You are the source of His joy, comfort, happiness, and glory. He created you to have communion with Him. So don’t start believing that just because you didn’t get what you prayed for, God treated you as unworthy. No, He gave you something better, and you didn’t recognize it.

John 6:37, “Whoever comes to me I will not cast out.”

Talk to God about everything. He loves to hear the sound of your voice. You can not exhaust Him or bore Him.

The Need to Be in Control

Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

Whether you are willing to accept it or not, you are not and never have been in control. Even if you do not believe in Christ, you still are not in control. Believing is not a condition put on the creator of the universe.

We are His body, His body which He is concerned over; its health and wellbeing. He does not want His body to suffer needlessly. Pain is an indicator in the human body; we immediately want to understand it and relieve it when we feel pain. Sin indicates to the Spirit that something wrong in the Christian body that needs to be understood and fixed. That is God’s domain which no human can control.

1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Hard Seasons Disqualify Us From God’s Promises

Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines relationship as “the quality or state of being related, a continuing attachment or association between persons.”

But what makes for a genuine, long-lasting friendship? If you’re fortunate, it is a mix of shared interests, shared values, commitment, loyalty, and kindred spirits. Would you consider a friend, indeed a friend, if they disappeared every time you found yourself in a bind? Would you abandon your friends in their time of need?

Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Hard seasons are the very aspect of life that God most wants to share with you. The hard times are God’s forte. Therefore, we need to condition ourselves that when we feel insufficient, unworthy, or out of control, that is the best time to chat with God. He will surprise you with what He knows.

Jeremiah 9:24, “but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.”

Always remember this:

1 John 3:1-3, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure?”

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Performance-Based Faith

I have just returned from a trip to Honduras, where we were vetting a potential future project to help locals create micro-businesses.  These trips present a cadre of potential conflicts.  First, we have the friction created by my obedience to God’s call.  It conflicts because I am responding to what I believe to be God’s vision for my life, but I am also judging my effectiveness; how much good am I doing.  The second has to do with what we are teaching.  We are teaching people to use Godly principles to create for-profit businesses.  Most of us see the potential conflict in that.  We must balance living in a performance-based world with grace-based salvation.  It is tough to keep the two separate.

Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Christ modeled our relationships here on earth after our relationship with Himself.  He wants us to learn from Him and grow closer to Him through involvement with Him. But, we are to honor the originator of all things in the process.

Ephesians 2:19, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.  “

TRANSACTIONAL FAITH

In a performance-based world, we become obsessed with goal orientation.  We, through constant reinforcement, fixate on achievement.  Our parents remind us that results do matter.  So when we take on a task, we want to know why.  Is it the best use of our time?  Is it within our calling, aptitude, and gifts?  We somehow can’t take our hands off the wheel; if we can’t drive, we want to navigate; even when we don’t know the destination.   

Colossians 3: 23-24, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

The key to this statement is “as working for the Lord.” God was very clear from the beginning that we needed to be active while living the life He has created for us.  That activity must have a purpose, and with it comes achievement.  Our part is to be obedient in doing the task before us, not the outcome.  The outcome is the exclusive domain of God, not us.  Whatever God puts before us is part of His plan for our lives.  We must do it with peace and joy.  God does not get His highest pleasure from our achievements; He gets it from our obedience.

Ephesians 3: 12-13, “I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.  That each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.”

In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren writes, “Work becomes worship when you dedicate it to God and perform it with an awareness of his presence.”

The implication here is not that we get satisfaction from what we accumulate or accomplish but from the tasks that God puts before us because it is a gift from God.  Being the person God has made you be isn’t about creating something; it is about discovering something.  The pursuit is progressed not by the honors that we accumulate but by our obedience to God’s plan for us.

BUT PERFORMANCE COUNTS

Work is one of the ways we demonstrate God to non-believers.  But, if non-believers cannot trust us with the worldly endeavors one can see, how can we be trusted with spiritual works that require faith?

1 Peter 2:12, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

So, we endeavor to meet a high level of performance not to please God but to glorify God to non-believers.  We are held responsible for our results; we need to take that seriously.  God created us to work; setting and meeting goals is part of the responsibility.  From a worldly perspective, this responsibility produces the most anxiety in our lives.  It not only affects the way we perceive the nature of our work, but it also affects other aspects of our worldly existence.  It affects our self-perception and self-image and our drive to have better material goods and living standards.  One of our obligations as Christians is to be a good team member, employer, parent, child, and spouse.

2 Thessalonians 3:12 “such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.”

BUT NOT TO GOD

Ephesians 2: 8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

For most of us, it is hard to turn that switch off.  Somehow, we still try to do good works as if they are the keys to salvation; they aren’t.  That is not to say that we should not strive to do good works; it is just that those good works will not get us to heaven.

Matthew 7:16-20, ” By their fruit, you will recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them.”

It is when we start to believe we can be good enough, fruitful enough, holy enough that we lose sight of the beautiful gift of God; eternal life with Him in heaven through grace.  The balance we need to strike is to understand that while the world requires performance as a means of measuring worth, God does not.  Spiritual performance is a by-product of grace, not a goal.

Philippians 4:19, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

We need to get back to helping our Father with His business.  We are to be obedient to His will.  We cannot control the outcome or the timing; we can only enjoy working in His presence.

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