Anywhere, Everywhere

This morning I prayed, “Dear Lord, I pray for Your success today.”

Then I asked myself, why?  “It’s because that’s what my heart wants.”

Then I asked myself, well what does that mean? 

So, now you know that I am crazy and am talking to and answering myself.  I’m not sure what that means with regard to my sanity, but I’m sure it means that I am not.  Everyone tells me that I’m “special” so I am sure this ability to have a conversation with myself is a part of that specialness.

However, the question still exists.  What does it mean to want God’s success today?  What is God’s success?  How is that defined? 

It has to start with any person anywhere deciding to believe that the Lord is real and that Jesus came as a substitution for their sins.  I mean if God thought it was so important that He sent a part of Himself to walk with us and then to die with no cause except as a propitiation for our sins, then the acceptance of people to believe in Jesus as His Son has to be really high on the success goals.  And the more people who decide today to repent the more successful the day.

“In the same way (as a women who has lost a treasure and searches the whole house until she finds it), there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.” – Luke 15:10

I think that people who know God but have drifted away, backsliders as the Baptist refer, or have gotten so confused in some sin, no matter what it is, that they can’t see through the fog to even know that they are worshiping idols or which direction to go, but decide to follow God solely on the basis of His Word would be a close second.  They are confused and lost.  They are trying to decide whether to take the path they think they want or have justified as being the right one, or to take the one that the Lord says is the right one.  And the more people who decide to take the path just because God says it and repents, the more successful the day.

³ So Jesus told them this story: ⁴ “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. ⁶ When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! – Luke 15:3-7

Following this, as if anything can, would be the exclamation in the lives of the saints of the glory of God.  This can be verbally to anyone who will listen.  It can be demonstrated through the obvious blessings in their life of joy and peace.  It is evident on their face and in their inner being.  This is towards anyone who will look.  It can be shown in compassion.  An obvious caring and concern for the well-being of others where the world shuns them or turns them away.  This is not just to the poor, but to the poor in spirit: the depressed, the one who is about to crumble under the weight of responsibility, the one who has a close relative die, the one who’s spouse leaves them.  This is towards anyone who will be loved. 

God’s success is when He is shared to anyone anywhere so that they might be moved to be nearer to His presence.  And I pray for that success today: anywhere - everywhere, to anyone - everyone.

What is your Possession?

Reed was wanting to go fishing last night on the kayak.  As I helped him load up, I asked if he minded if I went and he didn’t.  It was a perfect night.  It wasn’t too hot, there was a slight breeze, it was quiet except for the lapping of the small waves at the sea walls and the occasional splash of small mullet hit the top to get away from bigger fish.  There were fireworks over Destin as we were setting out and then the moon rose over the lights of Destin in a giant orange ball that turned to white as it rose.  We fished for about two hours and I caught a 22 inch trout.

Truth is, I didn’t even care if I caught a fish.  In fact, I would have preferred that Reed caught it.  Just leaning back in the kayak stretched out, listening to the sounds, looking up at the stars, and feeling the breeze were enough for me.  Why we don’t do that more is a question that we always ask ourselves when we are out in Creation and settled in it.

This is the way we are when we are close to the presence of God also.  We ask ourselves why we aren’t closer to His presence more. 

A rich man came to Jesus asking what he must do to have eternal life.  Jesus responded to keep the commandments (the law).  The man said he had done that.  The man declaring he had done that was then given an additional requirement.  Matthew 19:21-22 finishes the story. “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”  But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Is there a “possession” in our life that keeps us out of God’s Creation or out of the presence of God?  Is it TV, money, laziness, pride, anger, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, envy, self-pity, etc.?  Do we have too many possessions to be able to follow Jesus?

He said to another person, “Come, follow Me.”

The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead!  Your duty is to go and preach the Kingdom of God.”

Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say goodbye to my family.”

But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” – Luke 9:59-62

Jesus was very direct with respect to the comparison of anything in this world to Him.  If we are to follow God, to be in His presence, that is more valuable than anything else that we know or are aware.  We will sell all we have for it.  Do we remember Jesus descriptions of the Kingdom of Heaven?  He says it’s like a lost coin and we won’t rest until we find it or a treasure in a field and we will sell all we own to possess the field where it is.

What is the “possession” that keeps you from desiring God?  What has a higher place in your life?  Are you ready to “leave it all behind” as the gospel song sings?

Holiness

So, after I posted my thoughts this morning on Pastoring, I refer to a writing by a Pastor and this is what he has written.  Matt Ayers does a great job, as usual, describing holiness.  The original writing is HERE.

HOLINESS: NOT A BURDEN, BUT AN OPPORTUNITY

Not long ago I wrote about guarding our minds and hearts by being careful about what we allow ourselves to be exposed to in the world. I said that the same way that we have to be very careful about eating clean food, we likewise have to be very careful about what we put into our minds because what we consume, like food, can either nourish us or harm us.

This message directly relates the the Christian doctrine of holiness. The subject of holiness is a tricky one and can often times make people a bit uncomfortable, both Christians and non-Christians alike. For believers, when we hear the word “holy”, it can conjure up all sorts of negative feelings, namely guilt and anxiety. The word “holy” has a tendency to remind us of our many faults, as it is often times synonymous with “moral perfection”. It reminds us of a seemingly impossible standard that in our heart of hearts we know that we will never live up to.

But what is holiness? What does it mean to be holy? What does it mean when the Bible says, “Be holy as your father in heaven is holy” (1 Pet 1:15)? The Oxford English Dictionary defines “holy” as, “morally and spiritually excellent”. This is true, but holiness is more nuanced than this. The Bible defines “holy” as, “set apart”. This means that to be holy is to be different; to subscribe to a code of ethics that does not collude with the code of ethics of a broken world. Christians are to frame their lives, their thoughts, and their behavior by the example of Jesus. So, when Jesus say, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” he’s saying that we are to subscribe to every strand of DNA in the Christian ethical code.

Most of the time, when we think of that code of ethics, we think of the “Thou shall nots…”. This is perfectly appropriate, but I want to propose another way of thinking about it. Rather than being a list of “do nots”, being holy is also a list of “dos”. Namely, loving and serving people. Rather than thinking about obeying the command to holiness in terms of all of the things Christians can’t do, we should think of it in terms of taking on the challenge of loving, I mean properly and truly _loving_ , each individual we encounter. What would the world look like if the church responded to the call to holiness this way?

The call to holiness is not a burden, but an opportunity. It’s a chance for the church to be a place in the world where the love, care, grace, and mercy of God can be dispensed into a hurting world. With this in mind, Jesus’ words, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” seem reasonable. God loves each of us perfectly and selflessly. Can we respond to the challenge? Be holy as Jesus is holy. Love people as Jesus loved people.

Pastoring

I can honestly say that I don’t know how Pastors do it.  How do they interact with people all day who want to talk about their problems, but not accept the responsibility to do what must be done?  I used to get bewildered by the seemingly uncaring response of some Pastors to other people who I saw as needing a comforting hand and shoulder to cry on.  Experience has taught me, however, that what I didn’t see was probably someone the Pastor had met with four or more times and who refused to follow God or to take an action that reflected their professed Christianity.  After a while, you just have to move on from someone’s problems when they refuse to do what has to be done.  It’s not that you don’t care or love them, but there are other people who need love and care and they are willing to take action.

My own recent experience in this is that the person who will not take responsibility and respond to God with repentance and a new direction will instead get angry at you.  And I know Pastors who have also confirmed this tendency of people to get angry at them for referring them to what the Scripture says.  I find it confusing, although I am sure I do the exact same thing.  No one gets mad at a road sign for telling them to stop or to go a specific speed limit.  But people sure get mad when you refer them to the Bible text.  The Bible is not even my words or the words of any other man, but when you refer someone to them in reference to their problem, they sure get angry. 

I’ve decided that no one truly wants to see the reality of who they are.  No one really wants to know what they really look like in the mirror of the perfection of God.  It is simply too overwhelming to know just how filthy we are and how corrupt all of our thoughts are.  It is too paralyzing.  Yet the Bible says that all of it will be shown to us in the end.  We can choose to do our best to see it now, realize our need for a Deliverer, and put all our hope in Him, or we can wait it out and see what happens. 

True Pastors have to be called by God, led by God, informed by God, and have complete faith in God for everything.  Otherwise, how in the world can they possibly stand with the truth of life in this fallen world and attempt to guide others who will only refuse that instruction, get angry at them, and then tell them they are not Godly because they don’t try to help them the way they want to be helped, not how God leads them.  Pastors also have to have the guts to stand on the Scripture as the Word of God as it is written, not how society wishes it to be interpreted or rewritten.  The world is truly against them, but God has overcome it.  

In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.  – John 16:33

Prayers for Protection

It is not uncommon when Julie and I pray that we pray for God’s protection.  We often pray that God would put a “hedge” of protection around our family.  This comes from Job 1:10 where Satan comments to God that He has put a “hedge around him [Job] and his household and everything he has?  You [God] have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.”  If Satan so easily recognized God’s protection and admits openly that he has no authority or ability to interfere into the life that God protects, then we are fools not to ask God to put a “hedge” around our family.  I don’t believe there is anything special about saying the word hedge, except as a reference to God and God alone providing a barrier that keeps evil from us.  I prefer to imagine that this barrier is God’s unseen hand.  (I’ve also always like the song, The Unseen Hand.)

But You, Lord, are a shield around me,
    my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
I call out to the Lord,
    and He answers me from His holy mountain. – Psalms 3:3-4

I can only imagine that Satan knew God’s protective hand was upon Job because he had run into it many times until he would no longer look at Job, but at whether God’s protection was upon him or not.  This brings me to the second prayer request we often make regarding God’s protection.  We ask that God would stand over our home and family so that evil would not even approach us.  That evil would not even see us, but would see God standing over us and so, turn away. 

No one will be able to stand against you.  The Lord your God, as He promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go. – Deuteronomy 11:25

One of our last calls in prayer for protection is for God to strengthen our faith.  I do not know if God, who exercises complete restraint regarding our free will, allows Himself to strengthen a person’s faith.  I tend to think He does not, but let’s every person determine to believe to the extent they are willing to surrender their heart and will.  But that doesn’t deter us from praying that God would so order our days, challenges, and victories into baby steps so that we would be more subject to a faith that is ever strengthening and growing.  We want our belief to be stronger, more determined, and unwavering every day. 

This last element is absolutely crucial to being positioned in the safe arms of God and being under His wings.  There is no safer place to be than to be securely nestled in the complete and absolute trust of God.  We must have such a faith that we know that there is no place we can be, no evil that exists, no circumstance that can be presented, no other power, and certainly no person alive or dead who can at any time for any reason affect God’s intentional plans and blessings for us.  There is no safer place than to be secure in our faith knowing that God’s plan for us and all His Words for us are what is best for us and they always will be. 

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. – Romans 8:38-39

The Least of These

In my devotional reading this morning, Billy Graham shares this story from his son Franklin.

“Years ago our son Franklin spent some days on a boat in the South China Sea searching for boats of people fleeing the oppressive regime in Vietnam.  On board, Ha Jimmy, the first mate, told him that only a week before they had rescued such a boat.  It had been boarded by pirates, the passengers robbed, women raped, others wounded.  The pirate ship was ramming the smaller boat to destroy all evidence when the rescue ship appeared and they fled.

“First the wounded had to be tended to.  Then the rescued needed to be fed, bathed, and allowed to rest.  Later they were told of Jesus and His love.

“One mother on board with several small children saw her baby die.  There was nothing to do but put the tiny body overboard and watch it float away.  A few days later the next child died.  Once more the mother had to watch the little body floating away into the sea.

“Ha Jimmy looked at Franklin, his eyes dark with fatigue, and asked, “Franklin, after all she had been through, if I hadn’t given her Jesus, what had I really done for her?”

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. - Matthew 25:40

The greatest gift that can be given away is God Himself.  Only He, the Creator of us all, can heal us properly, comfort us completely, and guide us to peace, joy, and love.  Jesus was misunderstood by those who purportedly knew God the best, scorned by everyone, ignored, and then betrayed by a close disciple.  Yet He offered Himself to them all knowing that He alone is their only answer to being complete within themselves and to have life.

Billy Graham considers in another writing entitled The Healer of Our Broken Hearts that the “least of these” might be the person who is the problem in our life.  While certainly the least applies to the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked and sick, and imprisoned, it might also apply with even more intensity to the person who purposefully opposes us as they need to see unconditional love. 

I find that thought intriguing, but I find the application of it difficult.  While I believe unconditional love is always our aspiration and can only be obtained when God lives through us, I am also conscious that doing so must be done within boundaries.  I do not believe God intends for us to put ourselves into relationships where we can become corrupted.  For example, my neighbor rescued a small dog named Gabby.  Every time almost anyone went to pet Gabby she would lower her head and butt and pee wherever she was.  If you were holding her and someone came up to pet her she would pee on you.  It was obvious she had been mistreated.  Therefore, we didn’t hold her or pet her unless we were outside as we didn’t want to get peed on or have to clean it up.  After a while, she learned to trust people and now rarely does this.  Our boundary was that we couldn’t hold her or pet her unless we wanted to be corrupted by pee. 

The same is true with people.  Until they have learned to trust the love of God and repented, that is, turned in a new direction, it is very important to be careful in how you love them and remain uncorrupted.  It is simply too easy to be pulled down into the gutter. 

All we can offer anyone is Jesus.  Whether they have witnessed horrendous losses as the mother who had to endure the deaths of her children or they are simply incomplete inside and have a need to lift themselves up with no regard for who they hurt, we get the chance to offer Jesus.  And He is more than capable of doing all that must be done for each one.

The Greatest Gift

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. – Psalms 90:2

The Lord was God before anything that we know or have ever been aware existed.  And He will be after all that we know or are aware remains.  God is the creator of time, along with everything else.  He is God and there is no other.  In Him alone exist the power to create all that is and to destroy all that is, yet He creates, breathes life, and loves. 

Whether we choose to believe or not to believe, to do evil or to simply refuse to follow, He creates, breathes life, and loves because He is the one true living God.  He is and always shall be.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? – Romans 8:31-32

What is the greatest gift that God, who created all things and knows all things, could give to you?  If you could ask for anything at all, as Solomon was allowed to do, what would be the one thing that you would ask?  Money, peace, long life … successful children and their children, power … what would it be? 

The greatest gift that God, the Creator of all things who exists from “everlasting to everlasting”, could give to you would be Himself.  Since He created everything, He more than any of us, knows that all that other stuff is irrelevant and temporary by comparison.  The only thing of any eternal value is He Himself.  So why would He bother with anything else?  And this is exactly what God gave to us, Himself, in the physical presence of Jesus and in the spiritual presence of His Spirit.

The real question is why would we want anything else?  If we could ask for anything, why would we not ask for God Himself?  The reality of life is that there isn’t anything else.  I should ask that God would so mold my mind, my thoughts, my emotions, and my heart so that it can accept and hold as much of Him as can be held. 

God is so for us that He gave us the greatest gift we could possibly receive.  He did it without asking us because He knew we’d mess it up.  He knew we wouldn’t have the wisdom to ask for Him.  If He is willing and able to provide the greatest gift for us even when we don’t know we need to ask for it, then how much more is He willing to provide for us!  And what is there that exists as opposition to us that can possibly equal the power of the only living God!

God is for you and me today and His power to deliver Himself into our life is ever present.  Surrender all of yourself today and accept the greatest gift that exists, then follow Him wherever He leads.

Power in His Love

¹⁴ For this reason [in Christ Jesus our Lord and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence (vs 12)] I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:14-19

This is an awesome prayer by Paul to the Ephesians. 

First, he clarifies that he is able in complete freedom and confidence to approach the Father God because of the Christ Jesus.  We also who have faith that Jesus was the Son of the one true living God and sacrificed his physical life as a substitutionary death for our natural sinfulness of which we are unable to escape, have the freedom and should have the confidence to approach our heavenly Father God. 

Second, he prays for power to strengthen the Ephesians from the “glorious riches” of God’s Spirit to their spirit.  The single purpose of that power is “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”.  He expounds upon that request for power to pray that they, “may have power … to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”.  In this, I think we get a revelation of what the power of God actually is.  The power of God is knowing Who God is – the totality of all of Him.  It is knowing that the only real power is the reality that He exists, that He lives, and He is the embodiment of love.  The only power we can ever obtain is to accept that He is God, that Jesus is the Christ, and to ask for His Spirit to commune with ours forever. 

We should never stop accepting the fullness of the dimensions of God’s love towards us.  This is only done in Jesus.  God’s love is able to complete our every flaw, our every scar, our every wound, and all the “holes” in our hearts.  We should not wake up in the mornings feeling defeated or unable, but completed and stable.  I also pray for myself and everyone who knows Him to continually grasp this same prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians.  

Personally, I believe this is a key element to overcoming the world through Christ.  We have to live every moment knowing of the completeness of our heart only through Jesus and everyone's need for the same.