Freedom In Surrender - Matthew 19

I find, in the paradoxical teachings and actions of Christ, a sort of intellectual hook. Teachings like the first shall be last, losing your life to save it and so forth hit me much like the edgy questions brilliant professors will often pose in order to challenge students to think beyond their current understanding. So it makes sense that Jesus would use some of this seemingly self contradictory rhetoric in answering this rich young ruler with his moral swagger and rabbinical intellect. He'd lived well by the law, a ruler of religion and was extremely wealthy to boot, yet he himself sensed there was still something missing if he was to obtain eternal life. Jesus gave him a quick look in the mirror by suggesting the impossible. Keep all the commandments. Jesus acknowledged in the same breath that only He is good enough to do that. Still the young man couldn't or wouldn't look deep enough within to see his own folly so Jesus, welling up with love for the young man and the sincerity of his quest, give's it to him as an action step. Surrender your possessions. That's clear enough but turns out to be the one thing the young man could not bring himself to do. While it's great to own many things, it's to your destruction if those many things own you. And so it was with this rich young ruler who had wealth of possessions and so much going for him, yet would not fully surrender. He could have walked away that day richer than ever, full of joy, free and heaven bound but instead he left destitute, with a dark sadness, captive to his countless possessions and still not possessing eternal life.  Let that be a lesson to us, that in Christ, the answer to all of life's problems, the discovery of the missing pieces, the power to overcome the most daunting obstacles and the freedom to live the life we were created to live will always be found in surrender. Remember always that when we surrender our will, we discover how infinitely better His will is and how perfect His plans and his timing. When we surrender our pride and our superficial shortcomings, we experience His power and ultimately the assurance of who we are in Him, so far superior to our meager ideals. And when we surrender whatever dominates our time, our attention and treasures, we find true freedom to live!

Diet & Exercise - Psalm 119

Drilling down on Psalm 119:11, I have to ask the question, “How can ‘hiding God’s word in our heart’ keep us from sinning?” I threw this one out for discussion last night at the dinner table and my 9 year old quickly guided the conversation through the three temptations of Christ in the wilderness and his scriptural response to each. First was the temptation, in his immense hunger, to turn a stone into bread, to which he quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 “…man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” Then, [mis]quoting scripture himself, Satan  tempted Jesus to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and command His angels to rescue Him. Jesus retorted, again from Deuteronomy, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” The final of the recorded temptation here was to fall down and worship Satan with the promise that all the kingdoms of the world would be His. “They already were His!” my kid points out. Again, responding with God breathed words straight out the Deuteronomy, “Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.” And Satan took his worthless toys and went home crying. Now we have the same arsenal of scripture and same powerful Spirit within us to battle just the same. John 14:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper will remind us of what we’ve been taught. If we’re faithful to a diet of God’s word, which He promises will never return void but will always do what He meant for it to do, then right when we need it, and every time we need it, the Spirit of God within us will reference what we’ve hidden in our hearts and use it to keep us from sinning, to rebuke, teach and edify. And like exercise, the more we listen to these spiritual nudges of scripture from within, the more readily available they’ll become and the better we’ll hear them.

Consider His Love - Psalm 107

Just take a second today to consider His love. No matter how far we've gone or for how long, God's steadfast love transcends our capacity for sin and suffering. Whether we're wandering through wastelands, sitting in darkness or, just because of pure foolishness, have found ourselves staggering at wits end, we ARE the redeemed! And His redemptive power in our lives knows no bounds! We just need to speak up: "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so..." And sure enough, He's faithful to hear our cry, lead us who are wandering,  deliver us from darkness and heal us from the affliction of sin. Let's choose to be wiser than wicked and consider His love so resolute.

Who are we to stand in God's way? - Acts 10 & 11

It's found in the Hutu and Tutsi peoples of Rwanda divided over the shape of their noses, the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam in India with their varying religious heritage and the light vs dark skinned people of the island nation of Haiti. Whether, rich or poor, educated or uneducated and despite your political parties or religious views no-one is exempt from the dire impact of prejudice. As I consider the existence, both historically and presently, of racism and discrimination in every region of the world, I'm drawn back to the reality that Christianity itself was once thought to be for only one people. I love this passage that describes the passionate Simon Peter caught completely unaware as God made forgiveness of sin and new life in Christ available for Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) alike. In Chapter 10, the usually over-zealous Peter took great caution in responding to God's prompt to take the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection to the home of a prominent Gentile. And although the message could certainly have fallen on deaf ears in this context, here comes the Holy Spirit and the whole lot believes, are saved and even baptized on the scene. It's comical that this came as such a surprise to Peter, who had had the exact same thing happen on multiple occasions with predominately Jewish gatherings, where thousands upon thousands had believed and repented on the spot. It's even more fun, in chapter 11, watching the dumbfounded Peter reporting back to the church in defense of this unbefitting social encounter and presenting the new realization that Jesus' sacrifice is THE sacrifice for the sins of the WHOLE world. A refreshing reality in this world full of bigotry and hate. We must do our part to see every person as one of the very individuals that Jesus gave His life for because they are! And we must affirm with our thoughts, words and actions that every person, with their vast array of distinct differences, are created in the image of God because they are! After all, God has a unique plan for each of us and, like Peter, "Who are we to stand in God's way?"

Real Good Fruit - Luke 6

We can all agree that the power struggle of a bully is most always rooted in their own weakness. So it is that criticism and judgment of others is typically a byproduct of personal faults and an overwhelming fear of being judged. Luke 6 speaks to this fear with definitive reason. "Judge not, and you will not be judged." Have you ever felt the heaviness that comes with passing judgment. If judging others truly took the focus off of your own faults and built you up, why does it feel like an additional weight to carry? While having personal faults is bad enough, calling out the shortcomings of others, the Bible promises, will seal our fate to be judge. So the enemy's once empty threat becomes fear of the certain and you're behind the eight ball. You've been sharked! So stop the criticism, right? But this passage shines light on the source. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." So from an abundance of dark cynicism, selfishness, greed, jealousy and pride come negative thoughts that destroy us from the inside and words, that spoken, plant seeds of bitterness in others. "Bad fruit." But from a heart inclined toward "the true, honorable, just, pure, lovely commendable, excellent and praise-worthy" [GOD] flow thoughts that build us up and words that strengthen others. "Good fruit." So let's nourish our hearts with such things that produce in us real "good fruit."

Satisfied - Psalm 23:1-2

Have you ever noticed how easily we can be convinced that we’re lacking? Even when we’re far more resourced than at least 99% of the world, we somehow decide that even that’s good enough. It’s par for the course for mankind. The Israelites, the chosen people of God, were freed from slavery, which took numerous signs and miracles, and they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, just to look back and watch the pursuing army destroyed by it’s vicious waters. But even after seeing the mighty hand of God go to bat for them over and over again, would stand on the safe side of that sea grumbling and complaining about “I’m hungry! Where’s my snack?” and such. How easily we, just the same, are convinced that we’re lacking. Their perspective was off and my perspective often suffers from a bipolar condition as well. I have to lean into Psalm 23:1-2 on a regular basis to remind myself to be satisfied, and to practice being content. “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.” Why? Because I’m so satisfied, lacking nothing, that when he leads me into lush green pastures where most flocks would desperately graze, I lie down and take a nap in the cool grass. Get that picture in your head for a minute. Adjust your perspective and rediscover how satisfied you really can be in Him! 

Love was the reason - Genesis 3

So it took me a while to understand why God needed to separate sinful man from the tree of life. I mean, there's this tree that, as long as we eat fruit from it, we'll live, like forever. Then there's this man and woman who have found themselves cursed and in excruciating misery. They ate from the bad tree and now they're more than sick about the whole thing. My first though might have been, "Quick! Eat from the good tree! Surely it will fix everything!" Wrong! It's the Tree of Life not the Healing Tree. It wouldn't have made things better. It would only have made them last. Bad combination! Love was the reason God separated these two from the Tree of Life. He loved them too much to allow them to live never-ending lives in this miserable state. Instead they would be given an opportunity to have their wrongs righted, to redeem their purity and to once again live forever with him on the other side of the curses climax, death. The effects of sin and it's curse, the path back to God and ultimately God's overwhelming love for humanity haven't changed and, in fact, apply to every area of our lives today. Just the same way that God desired and planned a way to redeem the lives that Adam and Eve threw away that day in the garden, He sees our lives today, our careers, our finances, our kids and our marriages and his heart is moved. He loves us so much that the last thing He wants to do is stand aside and let us go on living with it all the way that it is. That would be the epitome of hopelessness. But he has a hope and a plan for our future and we can rest assured that it's good, perfect and better than we could possible dream! The truth is that without Him, like Adam and Eve, we would simply look to whatever would sustain things even if things are completely pathetic. But instead we must turn to Him and allow His spirit to permeate all of these areas of our lives, working redemption in them in ways only He can. Then we overcome the curse, defeat the things that are killing our hope and truly receive new and abundant life in Him!