Be Persistent

My dad, the earthly one, is always offering his opinion about my life. Sometimes I find it annoying but usually it is just amusing. Occasionally, I find it helpful. I know he means well but... I've learned not to ask his opinion unless I'm ready for the flood. It's funny though how he often begins with... "What you need to do is...." Whenever I hear those words, I brace myself for what is to come. When my wife hears those words, her eyes roll up in her head and she resigns herself to listen. What a good wife! And hey, love you Dad!

Anyway, I'm using this little tidbit from my life to illustrate a point. We all get suggestions or opinions from others whether we solicit them or not. Sometimes we get good information, sometimes we get bad information and we have to have the wisdom and discernment to sort it all out... when it comes from the mouths of men.

But each day, I crack open my Bible (okay, okay, I click it open) and ask for God's advice, instruction, teaching, correcting, rebuking and training. I know that no matter what I read, I don't have to 'sort it all out' and I don't have to worry about whether it is good information. That's not to say that I am always happy to hear what he has to say because sometimes it is painful but that's a topic for a different post.

Today, when I submitted myself to God for his tutelage, he led me to;

Hebrews 10:36
"You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."

Now, this is some GREAT advice and something that I need to be reminded of often. Like you, I get tired or lazy or distracted or deceived and my focus turns to me (clearly a violation of commandment #1 ;)). I get all whiny and stuff and I want to give up or stop trying. And it is in those moments that I have to turn to God and ask for his strength to keep on keeping on. So this passage is like the 'real deal' to me.

This passage is something I can sink my teeth into because it clearly articulates the contract or covenant between God and me. Simply stated, IF I do my part, he WILL do his part. Now with God being all faithful and stuff, I know that I don't have to worry about him 'welshing' on his promises so that's just a given. All I have to focus on is my part.

By my part, I mean the dying to myself daily, picking up my cross and following Jesus, minute by minute, step by step. I have to persevere, be committed to finishing what I started, be determined, BE PERSISTENT.

But it's not enough to be persistent unless I am persistent in what matters. I could be persistent and persevere in my sin. That would be a grave mistake and would not meet the criteria in this passage. What I have to persist or persevere in is in the doing of God's will. That's the condition, that's all that matters. That's all that Jesus did, not trying to minimize what he did but if you read what he said you'll see that he was 100% about doing God's will. He persevered and persisted in ways that I cannot even comprehend!

Nevertheless, if I meet the condition (persevere and do God's will) then there are rewards, God promised it! The truth is that I'm not really concerned what those rewards might be because I trust God. Man, what I would do for just a clap on the back or a high-five from God! Talk about motivation!

Anyway, when you're feeling challenged, when you're tired and stressed out because you're doing what's right in a world that rewards what's wrong, persevere, BE PERSISTENT. God promises that it will be worth it.

So, in the paraphrased words of my father(s)... "what you need to do is to be persistent." :)

Peace Out,
Carl

Buffet Living

Last week, my wife and I had the fortunate opportunity to spend six days together in Mexico at an all-inclusive resort. It was a wonderful time of reconnecting, recreation and recharging. Each day, several times a day, we would avail ourselves of the seemingly endless supply of food and call it breakfast, lunch 1, lunch 2, dinner 1, dinner 2, you get the point. We wore a little wristband that identified us as guests and entitled us to all we could eat. Each meal was different, some much better than others and they all uniquely satisfied our hunger. Yet several hours later, there we were again, hungry and ready for more. For that time, we indulged ourselves in buffet living and truth be told, there was more of us when we left than when we arrived. :)

While that was a unique experience for us, to experience buffet living at the physical level, each day of our lives we indulge ourselves in a spiritual buffet. Consider the passage I was led to this morning;

Jeremiah 15:16
"When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty."

Each day as I present myself to the Lord, he lays before me a great feast in the form of his holy word. And each day, I help myself to his literally endless supply of wisdom, mercy, grace, compassion, love and insight. Each morsel that I consume brings joy to my heart, knowledge to my mind; they are quite literally my joy and my heart's delight. God's word causes me to take flight from the pain, suffering and disappointment of this world and to rise above indulgent, earthly, physical buffet living. And I am so happy for that!

What grants me access to the spiritual buffet of God's Holy Word is not a wristband and it's not the name of Christian. It is instead the presence of the Holy Spirit living inside me responding to God's Word. Where I myself cannot find joy, The Spirit can. Where I myself cannot find wisdom, The Spirit can. Where I myself cannot find delight, The Spirit can. AND DOES.

The way I read this passage, I do not 'bear his name' as my own but rather, I bear His name on my lips as I prasie and exalt him. You may call me Christian because I follow Christ but I cannot speak the name of the Lord God Almighty. But The Spirit can and does on my behalf.

While that last little paragraph may represent an opportunity for theological debate, my point is this... each of us has a buffet before us, prepared by the Lord God Almighty and we have been invited to feast with The King. We are escorted by The Spirit and through our study we eat of the buffet of the word. By our praise and worship, we bear the name of Lord God Almighty into his presence.

Live the buffet life! Feast and rejoice in his name.

Shalom,
Carl

Because He first loved me...

Last summer, my youngest daughter and two of her friends got lost in the woods behind our house. It was a frightening experience for everyone and filled with lessons. For a time, the children tried to find their way back but ultimately, due to training, they just sat down and waited to be found. Search parties were formed, the children were found and the outcome was good.

For many, they have become lost in this world and they wander in the wilderness seeking their own way out. Like the children in the woods, they cannot find their way no matter how hard they seek. But a search party of three was formed; God, Jesus & The Spirit go looking for the lost.

Truth be told we could never find God on our own were He not seeking us. The psalmist records in;

Psalm 119:176
I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.

A lost sheep wanders about bleating plaintively but is unable to return to the flock without help. It requires the intentional actions of the shepherd to locate the sheep and restore it to fellowship within the flock. So it was with the psalmist, so it is with us.

We seek and we may even say at some point that "I've found God" but the truth is that God found us and rescued us. This is a truth that reaches back to the beginning of time and continues to the present moment.

Each time we sin, we stray. When we realize the error of our ways by remembering God's commands, we call out or bleat through confession and repentence. The faithful shepherd hears our cry, seeks us out, washes us off and cleans us up then carries us back to where we belong.

We all like sheep have gone astray but praise God for His faithfulness to forgive us and to rescue us.

Baaaaaaa,
Carl

Set Your Sights High

In my accountability group meeting last night, one of my dear friends and brothers in Christ challenged me to discard a measuring tool that we use. The tool 'How Was Your Week' details all the myriad questions that are represented by the seemingly innocuous question 'how was your week.' He asserted that the standards represented by those questions were so high as to be unattainable and that answering them truthfully led only to guilt and frustration.

As a group we discussed the relevance of the questions, the difference between guilt and conviction and the scriptural basis for each of the included questions. We all agreed that it was a high standard, in fact, the highest standard. One that was set by Jesus Christ and that as his disciples we were to strive for his standard. In our own inept way, we referenced the admonitions in scripture that; we be holy, not love the world, not conform to the patterns of the world, conduct ourselves so that there is not even a hint of immorality, not continue in patterns of sin and that we offer ourselves as living sacrifices. But what I could not do as leader of the group, was to clearly articulate the challenge set forth in scripture in response to my brothers objections.

But God, the faithful One had prepared for me, in advance, the answer that I needed. This morning, I was led to...

2 Corinthians 13:11 (NIV)

Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

There, right there, is what I needed to say. That is that when it is all said and done, we are to 'aim for perfection' and 'be of one mind, live in peace.' That is not to say that we will ever, in this lifetime, achieve the goal of perfection. But as we discussed last night, though we will always fall short of perfection, our goal is to AIM for perfection. Our intent is to be more like Christ today than yesterday.

If, in our own frail and faltering way, we are more like Christ today than yesterday, then we have victory and we have achieved what we are able. Of course, we must freely admit that it is not of ourselves that this is accomplished save for our willingness to yield to the sanctifying work of God's Holy Spirit. It is no strength of ourselves that enables such a change (to be more like Christ) except for our act of will to lay aside our selfish ambitions, to pour out our selves as a drink offering, that we may be filled to capacity by the Spirit. In this, we pick up our own cross daily and follow Christ.

We know too that when we pick up our cross, it leads but to one place and that is the hill on which we may be crucified in Christ, die to ourselves and be reborn into a life of service to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

To try to BE Christ is folly but to strive to be MORE LIKE Christ is wisdom. To be frustrated by our own shortcomings and inability to hit the mark is fruitless but to AIM FOR PERFECTION is glorious.

So my friends, set your sights high, AIM FOR PERFECTION and when your arrow falls short of the mark, shoot again, and again, and again.

Shalom,
Carl

Moving on up

Okay, for many of you, the title evoked memories of a certain television program from 25 years ago and admittedly that's intentional because that song is bouncing around in my head right now. Scary right?

Here's why... this morning I was led to read from Isaiah and immediately, that song just popped into my head. Read it yourself...

Isaiah 57:15 (NIV)

For this is what the high and lofty One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.

My God, the hight and lofty One, he who lives forever, whose name is HOLY says that he lives in a high and holy place. Now that doesn't really surprise me because he is God and he should live in a high and holy place. No other place would really be suitable for Him. So in my mind, I see Him sitting on his throne surrounded by angels and saints and of course Jesus is right there, literally right. The place where he dwells is spectacular and defies description. The most elegant palace on earth is but a hovel next to God's throneroom. But! Rather than being an exclusive place, God says that he lives "also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit."

The God of the Universe, of all that was, is or shall be, opens his house to ANY who are contrite and not full of themselves! And by his own words he says that he does this, opens his home, to "revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."

This fills me with such joy that it is difficult for me to sit still long enough to type this out! Though I'll never, ever sleep in the Lincoln bedroom of the White House, though I'll never, ever be granted an audience before the queen, I WILL BE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD! HE HAS A PLACE FOR ME IN HIS HOUSE. Joyful, joyful, I adore thee God of mercy, Lord of love!

There is a price of admission though and that has been fully paid by my brother, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Messiah, Immanuel! All I have to do, all you have to do, all anyone has to do, is to pour out themselves, empty themselves of their foolish pride, admit their sinfulness, admit their need for the atoning blood of Christ Jesus and ask forgiveness. Be contrite and be lowly in spirit.

So for me, and I pray for you too, I'll keep pouring myself out daily doing my utmost to remain contrite before God and man, never allowing myself to be prideful or boastful except of what God has done. You see, I'm moving on up.... to a deluxe mansion in the sky.

In His Loving Grip,
Carl

Take it off, take it all off

A provocative title for certain and likely not one you would expect to be associated with a devotional entry. Nevertheless, there it is.

In my ministry, I often confront men who go to the cross regularly to unburden themselves. They kneel, set down their burdens (sins) and pray. Then they get up, pick up their stuff (yes, the stuff they just set down) and walk away. Their burden has not been lightened, the yoke still chafes and they wonder why God doesn't relieve them of the crushing weight of their sin.

I myself have set in church and heard hundreds of voices singing "I surrender all..." when in fact, they have surrendered nothing; neither greed nor avarice, resentfulness, wagging tongues, selfishness, pridefulness, arrogance. gluttony, lust, covetousness, licentiousness, hard heartedness... the list goes on like the telephone directory. Like those men who keep picking up their habits after 'leaving them at the cross' what is being 'surrendered' is little more than lip service. And they too wonder why their walk with God is stymied. Why the blessings they read about in the Bible aren't raining down on them. Those that sing and the men who kneel are all expecting someone (God) to show up, pry their fingers off their sin behaviors and wrestle it from their grip leaving them bug-eyed and slack-jawed.

But that's not how God works. God does not forceably snatch sin from your grip, he requires that you 'lay it down' as a sacrifice. It requies an act of volition on your part, on my part. I was reminded of this fact this very morning by this verse;

Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

In looking at this verse, I see six important concepts. The first concept that is important for me to remember is that there are many who have gone before and having been counted as righteous they are now witnesses to God's power and glory as well as watching me in my own struggles.

Secondly, is the concept that we are to 'throw off' everything that hinders. Not lay aside gently but to literally cast away anything that hinders us. This might include any matter of your heart that separates you from God or from being a compassionate human being. Not only that but (#3) we are to also 'cast away' any sin behaviors that can trip us up. This includes thoughts, foul language, addictions and millions of other behaviors that we so love to cuddle up to.

The fourth point is that we are to run! We are to engage with all our efforts and with joy in our hearts. Once we have laid aside the weights of sinfulness, our steps are to be light and fleet of foot. We are not to live as those who have begrudgingly given up something and are reluctant to leave it behind. No, we are to not only 'flee' from the things we have cast aside (run away) but we are to also run towards our new destination. We are to run right to the open arms of our Savior.

Fifth, is the concept of perseverance. We know it isn't going to be easy, there will be tough times and hardship. Trials, temptations, tribulations and tests are the stock and trade of the Christian. But when confronted, when tempted, we are to pesevere. For God has not given us a spirit of weakness but rather His spirit of power and truth. He has equipped us to be successful as we persevere.

Lastly, there's 'the race marked out for us.' Proverbs says that we make our plans but God determines our steps. God has laid out a course through life and eternity for us. It is up to us, our responsibility, to run that race. If we try to run a race that we aren't in, we are destined for failure. On the other hand, if we run the race that God has put us in (marked out for us) then we are assured of victory.

I know what I am going to do. What are you going to do?

Shalom,
Carl

Been there, done that

I'm a father of two lovely daughters and it is my privilege to guide and teach them on a daily basis. Sometimes, we undertake projects together where they don't have the skills necessary for success. In these instances, I have to take them step-by-step through the process, providing support and encouragement along the way. Many times, they become frustrated by their inability and want to give up. Occasionally I too become frustrated at their willingness to give up and it is in those moments that I have something to learn.

You see, I have a father too who guides and teaches me on a daily basis. He gives me projects that exceed my confidence and he puts me in situations that really test my abilities. He's always there though coaching, encouraging and gently pushing me along. There are times where I fell like I am unable to do what is required and I become frustrated at my own inability, sometimes I think about giving up. But unlike my weakness as a father in becoming frustrated with my children, my father does not get frustrated. He simply points to the example he has set for me and reminds me that by following that example, I can expect success.

Truthfully, with my daughters I'm talking mostly about yard work, using tools and ingenuity. But the task my father has charged me with is life itself; walking through the minefield of the world and navigating my way among many dangers, distractions and deceits. And in the same way I tell my children "well done" God longs to see me at the end of the project and to tell me "well done!"

But between here and there are a great many obstacles and opportunities. Sometimes when I'm faced with an obstacle my own weakness frustrates me and works against me. It is in those times that I take great comfort in something my father said. Here it is;

Hebrews 4:15 (NIV)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

And there it is, Jesus, God's Son, my brother, Lord and Savior, knows my pain and my weaknesses. He has experienced life in it's myriad forms, faced trials, tests, temptations and tribulations and successfully navigated the course of life on earth in a manner that brings glory and honor to God. All I have to do is follow his example, walk in his footsteps, repeat what he has already done and I too will finish the project in a way that honors and glorifies God.

Just follow. Just follow. Just follow.

Peace,
Carl