Activated - Hebrews 4:12

Last week I had a touch of food poisoning. A quick search for what to do to lessen the effects and shorten the length of my misery lead to a substance referred to as activated charcoal. The promise on the label said that it would remove toxins and poisons. Now I’m not one to believe a claim until it’s proven. I naturally come out of the gate with the "Why?" and/or "How?" angle and start digging. I discovered that activated charcoal is basically carbon that has been processed with gas and/or high heat to have small, low-volume pores which increases the surface area available for absorption. A single gram of activated charcoal has a combined surface area of over 32,000 square feet! I could live in that. Our intestines work similarly to absorb nutrients from our food in the digestive process. Tiny hair-like microvilli on small finger-like projections protrude form the mucosal lining to increase the surface area of our intestines for optimal absorption. Bottom line: Absorption can be life or death on either end of this spectrum. It’s vitally important. 

The same is true for the absorption of the Word of God, the Bible, into the hearts and minds of anyone who considers themselves a follower of Jesus. Have you ever attended a church service and felt as though the message was literally just for you, like the pastor had been reading your mail? Do you chalk this up like this “Living Word” deal is just for pastors? Like this divine revelation that appears to happens when a ordained minister reads the Bible is essentially the polar opposite of your own experiences with scripture? Let me tell you that this was certainly not meant to be this way! God’s Word is alive and it is for EVERYONE! The problem is that we often approach the Bible with hearts that aren’t activated to absorb it… In order to activate our hearts for optimal absorption of the Word of God, we must fully accept that it’s true, that it’s alive today, and that it will do what God intended it to do in our lives. That’s the practical side. When we address this deficiency and humbly ask the Spirit of God, living within us, to interpret the scriptures to us as He did the common, uneducated apostles of the early church, we’ll experience a breakthrough like many of us have never thought possible. God love’s you. He desires to speak to you. And He will activate your heart to receive His Word! 

Over & Under 2 Kings 4

I’m coming to the realization that I tend to maintain two rather unhealthy tensions. I torture myself with the constant battle of what I think God’s asking of me vs what I think I’m capable of.  And then, on the flip side, I’m torn between the vast reality of what God’s capable of and even wills and the puny portion I’m willing to ask Him for. A family member of mine was recently sitting in the lobby of the hospital where her husband was in the throws of battling stage-four brain cancer. On this much-needed break, she was nervously approached by an apologetic young stranger who politely suggested that God had prompted her to stop and offer encouragement. The young lady’s demeanor was evidence enough that she wasn’t oblivious to how peculiar this encounter would appear. With only a general nudge, no context to go on, and certainly lacking the specific words of encouragement she would speak, the young lady conceded and made her fearful approach. She was completely dumbfounded to discover that this sorrowful soul was one of His own. No words were needed and in fact, her obedience alone was enough to remind this dearly treasured child of The King that her heavenly Father would carry her through this valley of darkest shadows. Mission complete. And to think: God could use this girl without a thorough understanding of the circumstances, no past experience with the terminally ill, and overflowing with apprehension and timidity… Who are we to decide what He requires, right? But while I over overestimate His prerequisites I often underestimate His aptitude. Aptitude being: One’s natural ability to do something. But He’s not confined to the natural. He’s supernatural. Take the widow woman and the bottomless jar of oil. She was told by the prophet Elisha to borrow empty jars for the miracle God was about to do with her last bit of oil. Elisha said and “not too few.” In other words, no matter how many jars you borrow, when you see this, you’re gonna wish you’d borrowed more. Because, as she was pouring and God was multiplying her oil, it never ran out until she ran out of empty jars. Yet with thousands of years worth of accounts like this one available to inform my faith, I’m all, “Could I trouble you for half a jar please, if it’s not too much trouble..?” And He’s all, “I don’t do crumbs. I do feasts!” The bottom line is that the omniscient Creator God of the universe who calls us sons and daughters isn’t going commission us beyond our capability. His prerequisite is our obedience. And these sons and daughters of His can’t even begin to conceive of anything beyond His ability. So let’s stop letting our deficient assessment of His aptitude diminish our hopes, dreams, vision and goals. If you can imagine it, and even [if not especially] when you can’t, He’s more than capable, and He longs to see the faith in your asks. 

Romans 8 - YOU ARE HIS!

I’m sometimes critical of the fact that I, so often in my teachings and writing, use my kids to convey truths about God. Like maybe I’m not creative enough to employ as wide of variety of illustrations as many of the modern teachers and master story tellers of the faith do so well. But then I remember that God Himself chose to use His own Son to reveal to humanity virtually all we know about the character of God. So with that said… A few weeks back I decided to give my eight year old his first try at mowing the lawn. That day it took all the strength he could muster and half the day  to push that massive machine over [most of] our yard. Tall patches of grass stood as a testament that an able-bodied eight year old had mowed here. As proud as I was, there was a nagging temptation to go back over it all and make it look like it always looks when I do it myself. I managed to leave it be and even came to appreciate it’s imperfection over the next couple of days, being drawn to the reality that my son, who was once a tiny little peanut, is now cutting our grass. So proud! Now when the time came to cut it again, he and I grabbed some sidewalk chalk and sketched out a map of our yard on the driveway. I showed my boy how to carefully follow a pattern to fill the whole area with chalk and made the application with our yard and my desire to see it manicured completely. Over the next few cuts, I’ve seen four things in particular that have brought me true joy. 1.) I’ve seen my son’s heart to please me and likewise his drive to get better at what I’m teaching him. 2.) I’ve seen my lawn looking so much better than when he first cut it. His ability improves every time he get’s out there with the mower. 3.) I’ve seen a neighbor take a picture of him to hopefully inspire her eight year old to do the same. 4.) I still see minor imperfections/evidences that my grass has been cut by my young son which still makes me so proud! And this is God’s heart toward us today. He takes great joy as our desire to serve Him grows, as we work to improve our lives and our fruitfulness and as what He’s doing in us flow’s over to impact the lives of those around us. While we’re all our own worst critics, just remember that your Heavenly Father knows your heart, sees your effort and, despite your shortcomings, takes great pride in the real you because, above all, YOU ARE HIS! 

Proverbs 4 - Heart Keeper

There have been a number of relatives, friends and acquaintances of mine who have recently had heart attacks. One was quite unexpected and probably the result of a seemingly harmless recreational accident. Another came out of nowhere but was massive, requiring extensive surgery. The last I’ll mention could have been easily avoidable, with plenty of warning signs but with no preventative action taken. It has always been interesting to me that we use the word heart to describe this muscular organ behind our rib cage that pumps blood through our circulatory system as well as the equally inaccessible core of all things emotional, intellectual, and moral within each of us, often considered the figurative. It does, however flesh out to be the most incredibly accurate way to describe this nearly indescribable piece of man from which life itself flows and without which one is dead. So no wonder the Bible instructs us, as a father to a son, to “keep our hearts with all vigilance.” Having a family history laced heavily with heart conditions and life’s cut short by the like, I decided several years ago to engage in preventative screenings. If something could harm my heart, I wanted to know about it far on this side of the widow-maker, bound and determined anything preventable would be prevented. I want to guard my heart, my inner-man, with that same fervor. I want soul wounds to heal long before they mar my heart. I want a spiritual diet and exercise plan that strengthens my heart and I want to be in tune with the condition of my heart as well as conditions in my life that could harm it. So how is your heart and what could you be doing to be a better heart keeper?

1 Peter 3:8-17 - Bless

Occasionally, on a heavy errand day, my attention is drawn to the stark contrast [that should exist] between those living according to this world of greed and those living according to the Word of God. So how do you behave in traffic? Not just in traffic of course… I notice all around me [and on a bad day or in the wrong moment, it’s me] folks who would appear to decided straight away, any given morning, that today will be a bad day and everyone’s against them. Like they’ve taken one of those lists of affirmations to say to yourself in the mirror and spoken the polar opposite every morning for the past few years:  

• Today is going to be a terrible day.  
• It will be filled with sorrow and misery. 
• I’ll do my part to ensure that everyone around me is as miserable as I am. 
• I believe all of my fears and doubts about mankind will be confirmed today. 
• I will attack every moment with unmerited anger and bouts of rage. 

I can’t help but consider the effects this sort of disposition must have on ones physical health, relationships, career success, self-esteem and so forth. It’s self destructive, socially toxic and viral at that. One person with this harmful condition can infect a whole staff, ball team, waiting room, family unit or even a church. Before you know it, we’re all in the shadow of this dark nasty cloud spreading it’s gloom just the same. And so the contrast… 1 Peter 3:8-17 urges us to do just the opposite, in-fact verse 9 states simply that we have been called to bless. It’s written as a command, meaning we are to bless, but there is no direct object. It’s left open ended. So the guy that cut me off in traffic? The family with loud kids in the theater? The less than efficient wait staff? My scheming co-worker? My overly haughty friend? All of them, and I think even more than that, this appears to zoom out of focus and address a general disposition, that is to bless. We are to wake up every day and prepare to bless. If we need to give ourselves a pep talk in the morning, a spiritual shot in arm mid day or a swift kick in the tail in the late afternoon drive home, I think this calls for a whatever-it-takes mentality. We must be set and ready to bless no matter what, viewing every circumstance as an opportunity. And there will be a vast array of “opportunities.” This verse goes on to say it’s a win win. When we bless, we will “obtain a blessing.” It’s blatantly obvious that the opposite effect is produced when we choose anger, resentment, revenge or rage. So blessing for blessing… I’ll choose that, and it is choice.  So choose to bless.

I can’t help but consider the effects this sort of disposition might have on ones physical health, relationships, career success, self-esteem and so forth. It’s self constructive, socially invigorating and viral at that. One person with this edifying condition can uplift a whole staff, ball team, waiting room, family unit or even a church. Before you know it, we’re all in the glorious light of His love, joy and peace and spreading it everywhere we go. All it takes is a little patience, kindness, gentleness, and self control.