God's Partnership

10.01.11

Zechariah 11.8 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds. NIV

In reading this today, I assume Zechariah was speaking in the First Person for the Lord; the heartbreak of God is evident. I was also curious as to who the three shepherds were so I consulted the commentary to see what it had to say…it shrugged. What I do know is this: whether real or figurative, God got rid of them all in one month. I assume they were real people locked up in some kind of unbreakable leadership that needed removed, and nobody thought they would be...

What is happening in your life right now that you need God’s to get rid of? God’s people in Zechariah needed their leadership to change. Many nations are in that boat these days. From what I can see in the narrative, things were bad on the leadership level and the people needed God to intervene. God had a lot at stake with His people and they were forsaking Him at an unbelievable pace. So, again I ask, what is happening in your life right now that you need God to remove? Keep hoping, keep seeking, keep looking, He did it for ancient Israel in one month.

Sometimes what we really, really need is to go through what we're currently going through to sharpen and shape our spiritual senses. So, sometimes God sends us through a season that to awaken what may be sleeping or put to sleep what may be awake. Faith always needs to be awakened and fear needs to be put to sleep... literally.

God is aware of everyone. God knows the hearts of all of His people. The difficulty for us is often we fail to see what is happening around us; and in His love and mercy God does for us what we are impotent to do. It is in the midst of that unknowing that we need to trust Him to get us to where we need to be. That calls for patience, trust, and partnership with God. 

In what we’re going through currently, have we asked God to partner with us? Is God more than just a Friend or a Presence? Is God invited to take control of our business, our relationships, or even our prayers? Partnership with God requires me to do everything I know to do, but asking and waiting for Him to put all the right pieces into place at exactly the moment they’re needed. God can change things very, very quickly. Three shepherds in one month I think is way more than anyone expected.

So what needs to be removed in your life right now that seems unbreakably impossible to get rid of? Friends, trust God in the moment, and look to Him for the right timing of its release or removal. That we can take to the bank. That we can count on. The bottom line is to do what we know to do and then keep on hoping, seeking and looking for God to work. Our expectation needs to be that He will and He does. Three shepherds, or whatever it is, is no big deal for God.

The Seedling of Fear

09.29.11

Luke 12.22 22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about y our life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear..."NIV

Ah, the worrying! What will happen to me? How will I live? Will I be able to make the rent? Like a constant dripping wearing a hole in solid stone is worrying that wears a hole in my joy and erodes my faith. Worrying is the act of doubting God. Worrying is that destructive force that creeps in quietly and unseats the foundation of faith.

I worry all the time. I play home movies in my head about all the things I think I will be faced with. It’s funny when the worrying starts, my belief in God grows very small; I have to grab ahold of it or it will grow so small that you might wonder if I have faith at all. Worrying is futile.

Jesus told them not to worry because He knew they did and He knows we do too.

Worrying, like any mental exercise, has to be dealt with quickly and firmly or it will grow pretty big, pretty fast. To my knowledge, Jesus never worried; He never asked the Father, “How am I going to pull this off?” What He did say was, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26.39 NASB) If He didn’t worry, I shouldn’t. That’s why the Bible is so full of so many affirmations of God’s love, presence, and provision.

The affirmations in the Bible however, are not there as merely optional thoughts: well I can think this if things get too bad… Or, I’ll think this to make that stress less stressful. No, we’re to immediately deal with the stress, and before God confess it, and get rid of it, by claiming God’s truth against it. We’re to get used to claiming God’s truth when the worrying starts to drip…or bursts forth in a flood! God’s word is our Shield and Defense against those nagging little lies that tell us God is somehow going to let us down; let us fail. Those affirmations are also not for mild anesthesia – they are the very real weapons of our warfare in bringing every thought captive to God.

Worry is the seedling of fear and fear is the opposite of faith. Fear is a crippling cruel monster and must be killed with the truth. When our kids were young, we had some cassette tapes that had on them Scripture verses set to music. Each tape told a story and had these verses written into the story and set to music to help the listener memorize them. I will never forget Psalm 56.3: When I am afraid, I will trust in You. I can still hear the music in my head.

The truth is: I will get afraid at times. The question is: what will I do with the fear, how will I handle it? When I am afraid, I will trust in You. A friend of mine texted me this verse last week: O Lord of Hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You! (Psalm 84.12) These are powerful affirmations but also eternal truths. These are statements of who we are at the very core of our being. If the core is solid, worry won’t find fertile ground. If the core is weak, then all kinds of things will spring up and grow.

Yes, Jesus knows what worry does to us and His counsel is: do not worry. Today, I am to give over my thoughts to Him and think His. Today, I am to go out in the power and presence of the Lord, not my own. So that’s what I’m gonna do…

Lose the Life

09.26.11

Luke 9.24  24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. NIV

One of the things I ask my prospects is, What is the biggest thing affecting your business today? In other words, if it (whatever) was removed, what impact would that have on your business? Most people name something because they know what is affecting them and what will make the difference between where they are and where they want to be. As Christians, we should be asking the same question.

Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” It was His way of saying, lose the life. Trying to save one’s life is like trying to save peanut shells. Trying to save one’s life is clinging to all of those things that get in the way of God bringing out the finest things in us (that He’s placed within us). Clinging to one’s life is the very real act of hanging onto every objection to Christ and salvation. Really Paul? Really.

A mentor is good at teaching us what to bring along in life or on the job. Every now and then a mentor will say, “Lose the … (attitude, perspective, nervousness). They know that these things hold us back. Jesus was saying, “Lose the life; it’s holding you back.” And in Kingdom thinking, it’s also holding us out.

Losing the life is risky because it is losing control. It is becoming vulnerable to the point of being very uncomfortable. But discomfort isn’t always bad – more often than not it causes us to do something about it. The higher the level of discomfort, the more we’re motivated to relieve it. Jesus is telling us to lose the life no matter how it feels. Jesus is telling us to trust God because ultimately there is great reward when we do (Cf. Hebrews 11.6).

Losing one’s life is counter-intuitive, strange, and discomforting but it brings with it a way that God can and will use us that without the losing we’ll never get. The choice is ours: do we throw all caution to the wind and trust God? What will people say when we do? And do we care what they say? Once, Peter said to Jesus after Jesus told them He was going to be mistreated by the Jewish leadership, Never Lord! This shall never happen to You! Jesus rebuked him – Peter was trying to hang onto life.

Today, the choice is ours. Today the great wrestling match begins all over again. Jesus says to us, Lose the life! Will we do it?

Determining Mission

09.25.11

Luke 8.38-39 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. NIV

Recently, many people have urged Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, to run for president – Ryan has declined saying he can serve this nation better where he is rather than as president. Ryan, for now, has determined his mission.

The restored man in Luke 8 wanted to go with Jesus; he begged Jesus for that privilege. Jesus sent him away with a different mission: “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” It was more important for the man to return to his family and friends than go with Jesus as a side-show.

For years my mission was to be a pastor and a public speaker. I wanted to lead a congregation and preach God’s truth to people. In ministry, to be vocational makes ministry into a different creature. I wasn’t used to the lack of money, the need to be bi-vocational, and the difficulties of pastoring a flock who seemed willing to listen but unwilling to act. Now please, that is not an indictment of some very good people, it’s just the way it is in American Christianity: be present, be faithful in giving, but no need to participate (at least on a level that’s too deep or time-consuming.)

Jesus knew the man who’d been restored would be far more believable among those who knew him than among those who didn’t. The ones who knew him would be more impacted by his life change than those who had no point of reference. That’s why we’re to live out our faith actively and faithfully in front of those in our immediate sphere of influence; if anyone can readily see the difference in us, they can.

And faith is really not about the showing, it’s about the knowing. The one who knows God and trusts in Him will stand out from those who don’t. The ones who determine to let God dictate the identity of their lives will shine in ways that those who don’t, won’t. The man in Luke needed God to determine his identity (and be found in Him) rather than let his time of demon-possession take center-stage. Yes, his healing was radical and tremendous, but his relationship with the Living God was infinitely beyond that. Circumstances are what they are but responding to God and steadfastly remaining with Him in the midst of them is what makes the difference.

In this stage of life what is important to me is my relationship with Jesus and letting others see that in me. I am not all about preaching and teaching (although, if you invite me to speak at your church, I’d probably take you on it…). What I am about is living out my faith and trying to influence the people around me to see my faith and look for God for themselves. The wisest and kindest thing Jesus did for the man in Luke 8 was to send him home to reconnect to the lives of people he’d probably chased off in his time of incarceration in darkness. Had he gone off on the preaching circuit, they probably all would’ve thought he’d just traded one craziness for another anyway…

Preferential Treatment

09.21.11

Luke 4.25-27 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” NIV

What they knew, and what they thought they knew, were two different things. They knew they were God’s chosen people; they knew they were His holy possession; they knew they were set apart from all the other peoples of the earth, but they thought because of their status they were guaranteed preferential treatment. A Sidonian widow and a Syrian warrior just didn’t add up in their theology. Jesus, are you saying God dealt better with them than He did with us!!??

We must be careful that what we know adds up with what we think we know. Otherwise we can get into some pretty stinky thinking if we’re not careful. Thinking like this causes marriages to fail, leads to oppressive government regulations, and is a breeding ground for pride and arrogance. There is an ancient persistent misunderstanding on the part of the Jews of what God really called them to, and what His intentions for them really were. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s just that they never seemed to have completely understood God’s love for them and His sovereign treatment of others. That’s why the ministry of the Holy Spirit is so vital to the life and spiritual health of the believer enabling them to ask, “God, what do You really want from me?”

I think what God really wants is unquestioning love because of His tangible demonstrations of His love. Like any good parent, I think God wants His kids to love Him, accept Him, and obey Him with trusting, willing hearts. I don’t think the formula is all that complicated. Sin complicates, love simplifies.

For me it seems I must accept life as I have it and not as I want it. I have it the way I have it because of God and therefore must continually conclude that what I am and where I am is what God has willed for me. That doesn’t mean I can’t ask Him to take away what I think is too difficult, but I mustn’t gripe and moan when He doesn’t. I must after asking, remember that I prayed about it and leave the results to Him. Trying to strong-arm God is futile. Wouldn’t unquestioning love be better than always suspecting that He gives bigger pieces of cake to others?

It all boils down to the condition of the heart and life, under God’s care, is conditioning. Life is designed by God to knock our rough edges off and to bring us to that place of unconditionally trusting God. So today, I must accept from God all that He brings and be careful not to expect preferential treatment according to my terms. I do, in Christ, get preferential treatment – it is according to His terms. Accepted in the Beloved…

Numbered Weighed and Wanting

09.20.11

Daniel 5.25 25 “This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN

Numbered, numbered, weighed and wanting – the Persians are coming; their presence is daunting. That in a nutshell is the message Belshazzar the king of Babylon got that night – the same night the Medes invaded the city and killed him. What really killed him was pride; he was so arrogant that he forgot all the great things God had done for his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar.

Pride and arrogance are evil things. They occlude vision (perspective, outlook, etc.) and judgment in ways that defy reason. They drive us to make decisions that are wrong and to wander down strange paths. Pride kills and is a killer – just ask king Belshazzar. That doesn’t justify him or give him an excuse; it’s just the truth… he was killed for his pride.

Belshazzar had an advantage, as a descendant of King Nebuchadnezzar, of knowing what that did (or really, what was done) to him. Nebuchadnezzar met God in a special way because own pride broke him. Unfortunately, Belshazzar’s pride goaded him to ridicule God and misuse what God’s people knew to be holy and precious things. But that wasn’t the worst part – the worst part was Belshazzar totally ignored what God ultimately did in King Nebuchadnezzar’s life: God humbled then exalted Nebuchadnezzar more than he did for himself. .

So God told Belshazzar what He thought of him. It went something like this: Dude, you are worthless. God Himself judged Belshazzar and it wasn’t pretty. When God exalts it’s because He is pleased. When God condemns it’s because He isn’t pleased. But the funny part is that God always gives everyone a chance to be pleasing. God is pleased with people who are pleasing. God wants nothing more than for fallen, broken, evil, selfish creatures to succeed (according to His terms, not theirs). God loves to be pleased with people who please.

And God hates those who flip Him off (figuratively…well, actually even literally…). Giving God the cold shoulder because you don’t know Him is one thing. But to ridicule Him openly when you know of Him or what He has done good in someone’s life is quite another. God is a Big Boy and He can handle it, but He won’t let slights against Him slide forever; as they say, God doesn’t settle all His accounts in the month of October… but He does settle all of His accounts.

I think it’s time we realize that God is serious about our getting it. We need to get it – all of eternity hangs in the balance as to whether or not we get it: God is God and He is good. The sooner we get that the better. The last thing we want to hear from God is: you’ve been measured and found wanting. That’s the last thing I want to hear.

I know I am accepted by God. I know that. I know that God has blessed me beyond measure. I know that I have done nothing to deserve anything He’s done for me. But I also need to remember that I am responsible to respond to His goodness and abundant love. And the worst thing I (or anyone) could ever do is to snub Him for His goodness. Belshazzar was guilty of that. I suspect Belshazzar was a spoiled rich kid. But that notwithstanding, he should’ve learned his lessons better and never treated God the way he did. God didn’t kill him but his pride sure did.

Biblical No-Names

09.19.11

Luke 2.25; 36-37
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.

Simeon and Anna – what a pair! Simeon was righteous and devout. That meant he was God-centered and Heaven-bent. The winds of life bent him toward Heaven and he always thought about God. The righteous always have that quirky trait: their thoughts are incessantly about God; day and night they think about God; work and play they think about God. Little in life distracts them from the Majesty of Him.

And Anna! Oh what a precious jewel she was. She too thought about God all the time but she also prayed all the time. The righteous are in constant conversation with God; they have that quirk – always, always in communication with their King. Anna kinda reminds me of Teresa of Calcutta for some reason…just sayin’.

Simeon and Anna were indeed quirky – they weren’t like the rest of their pedestrian fellows who were busy working or parenting, or politicking or whatever. Oh yes, the rest went to church, paid their tithes and offered their offerings, but they lacked that God-centered, gentle quirkiness. Make no mistake, quirky is not synonymous for weak – Anna and Simeon may have been aged but they were certainly NOT weak. And they weren’t harmless either. The devil himself hated them for their faith, and you can bet they paid the full price for their belief. But weak and harmless are not words to describe the faithful who will not budge from their devotion to Christ regardless of the swarms of satanic flies that pester them. God is King! And they both knew it very well.

I’ve taken inventory of my thoughts today and sadly, I have not been righteous in that regard. It’s not that I’m not righteous in Him, because He is my righteousness! It’s just that the winds of life have blown me in a direction other than toward heaven. It’s just that my thoughts have been self-centered, and weak, and fearful. And my prayers? Gosh, for the most part there wasn’t much praying either; just more self-centeredness, weakness, and sadly, faithlessly, fear.

Anna and Simeon weren’t sinless; they were just beheld by the Beholder as His own and thereby righteous, devout, and accepted. Yes, there was maturity and some life-experience with both – but those things only led them both closer to God in their living; and remarkably when God’s Son entered the Temple that day (via His earthly caretakers), Simeon and Anna both had front-row seats! Not bad for a couple of otherwise Biblical no-names…

To be truly a saint doesn’t mean you get the posthumous title. Teresa of Calcutta at this moment probably snickers at the thought – her life was all about Jesus and walking every step of the way right next to Him – that’s what sets a saint apart from the rest of the pedestrian crowd. Jesus probably snickers too!