Authority—Before the Fall

Genesis 1:27 NIV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

What Is Your Place In This World?

If you were asked the question, “What is your place in this world”, how would you respond?  Most of us would probably consider our careers.  Have I done well?  Am I successful?  Is my job a good fit for me?  Am I leaving my mark?  Has my life mattered?  Many would think also of their families and how they have impacted those close to them.  Am I respected?  Do others love me?  Does it matter to anyone if I have lived or not?   I have worked with plenty of people who hated their jobs.  They concentrate more on their cell phones than they do on their work.  I was recently in a class room and I looked about and saw all the other children’s workers checking their phones rather than interacting with the kids.  How many of us wonder if what we do counts for anything and have quit trying to do our best because it does not seem to matter if we work hard or not.

Life was much different before Sin entered the universe.  One area of great change was the way the first people fit into the world they were given.  Authority shifted dramatically in the post sin world.  Let us look at how it was at first and we could gain valuable insight into the way it once more may be.  When the Lord declared His mission statement for the people He created, it was to be in effect ruler over the earth.  Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Genesis 1:26 NIV)  The Hebrew word for “image” here means something made to look like something else.  “Likeness” translates another Hebrew word that means, “of a similar appearance, something that something else.

God made people like He did so that they would be a good fit for taking charge over the earth.  It is like hiring someone who has all the qualities needed to be a successful sales rep.  Only God did the work of creating the ideal ruler of His new world.  Some have contended that the Lord made the earth so that people would have a great place to live.  It actually is more accurate to say that God made people in a perfect way to take authority over the world He created.  The first command we have recorded in Scripture is the Lord’s order to Adam and Eve to populate the earth and rule over the creatures of the world.  God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."  (Genesis 1:28 NIV)

The Hebrew term translated “subdue” is similar in idea to the command to rule.  It means to take charge, be the one that makes the rules.  Consider carefully what a unique situation this was, one completely foreign to any of us.  It was a sinless world ruled by a sinless people.  The creatures had nothing to fear of their sovereign kings and queens.  Adam and Eve had no reason to hurt any of them.  The two were vegetarians and did not need nor want to kill the animals for food.  They also were naked and were not looking for clothing either.  Not even the sheep had to concern themselves with being “fleeced”.  There would be no fishing and hunters would not be hiding up in tree stands.  Adam and Eve were to be the perfect caretakers of a world they ruled.

A lovely picture of just how profound the relationship was between Adam and the creatures of the earth is the brief comment made in Genesis 2 about how the Lord made it clear that His first human was taking charge.  God gave Adam the opportunity to pick out names for each of the terrestrial creatures.  Few have noted the beauty of the moment.  Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.  So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. (Genesis 2:19-20 NIV)  Consider the serenity as individually the birds and creatures of the land peacefully paraded past Adam and the Lord, giving Adam time to carefully consider what to name each one.  Like a father or a mother who thoughtfully comes up with a name for a newborn, Adam was a loving parent to the creatures of the world.  With great affection in his heart for each one, Adam picked out what seemed to be the perfect name for the gentle and trusting beasts God brought him.

Genesis 2:15 is often listed as the mandate for work found in Scripture but it is much more than that.  It is the holy calling of the people of the world to care for God’s creation and cherish it as a gift of immeasurable worth.  In a land unscarred by Sin, it must have been a place of exquisite beauty.  More than work to Adam and Eve, caring for the world before them was a joyful daily existence, much like the park ranger assigned to Yosemite when it first opened or the curator of the Louvre who is appointed to keeping pristine the magnificent works of art found there.  The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15 NIV)  What “working it” entailed in a perfect world cannot be said for certain but we must believe it was a joyous responsibility.  The Hebrew term translated “work it” is built on the root of the word for servant.  Adam and Eve were to be servant kings of the land where they lived, caring for it and adding value to it.  “Take care of it” is the translation of the Hebrew verb “shamar” which means to keep, preserve, watch and protect.

The perfect analogy for the work of Adam and Eve in the land God gave them is the description of the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23.  The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.  He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4 NIV)  As protector and guardian of the sheep, the shepherd, at least the good one, is always looking for ways to make life better for the sheep.  The shepherd lightens the load for the sheep, does everything possible to enable the sheep to prosper and have good lives.  The good shepherd does not see the sheep as dumb beasts but as jewels in her crown.  Work in a perfect world such as the one the Lord gave Adam and Eve was a joy and a cherished responsibility.

Jesus gave the calling of work its highest affirmation when He spoke of Himself as a mere shepherd.  The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.  The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."   Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them…"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.  "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep.  (John 10:2-6, 11-14 NIV)

Work is not a chore for such a person as this.  It is an act of love and selflessness.  Some people work to earn a paycheck and make names for themselves.  Others, like Adam as he went about the tasks God gave him, made his world a better place. Jesus did the same.  If you live as a future resident of God’s perfect world, you have a choice each day.  Will you build up others and improve their lot in life or will you take advantage of others and use them to get your way?  Wherever you go, and whatever you do, you have the opportunity to make the world a better place because you were a part of it.

Sleep

Psalm 127:2 NIV

In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Are You A Hard Worker?

The other day I was sitting in the sanctuary praying and I realized I was dreaming…literally REM dreaming.  I shook my head, closed my eyes again to pray and fell asleep once more with vivid dreaming.  A third time I started praying and tried a different tact, trying to pray for each person who came to my mind.  This worked for a while until I got distracted and started thinking about what I had to do.  I did not have what you might call a very spiritual experience.  For a while, the “power nap” was a popular concept.  Who doesn’t like the idea of in the middle of a work-day taking a break to snooze?  Doctors have recommended the practice but how many managers and supervisors want their workers sleeping on the job. The Bible doesn’t seem to be an enthusiastic supporter of naps!  How long will you lie there, you sluggard?  When will you get up from your sleep?  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. (Proverbs 6:9-11 NIV)  The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth! (Proverbs 19:24 NIV)  That sounds like a power nap in the cafeteria.  I wonder how well that would go over at most work places!

Probably you are a hard worker and would never consider yourself a sluggard.  You get up early and start your day off with a cup of coffee or a shower to charge your batteries and then off you go.  Maybe you don’t like getting up and “getting off” but you do it because it is right and necessary.  There are plenty in the world who consider work the most noble of ventures and success the goal in life.  The Bible isn’t exactly against hard work and in fact it is celebrated in many places.  Yet there is a passage in the Psalms that provides critical insight into our work habits and God’s view of how we use our time.

Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. (Psalm 127:1 NIV)  The thought that all one’s effort could be a waste of time is rather disconcerting!  Who hasn’t felt though at one point or another like that?  What good is it to try so hard at something when it is bound to fail anyway or it won’t be appreciated or it won’t matter in the long run?  This verse creates an immense line of demarcation between two categories of work.  The first is work that is contained completely within the realm of human effort.  Whether it is the building of a great housing complex or the stacking of vegetables on the kitchen counter, it either is done in God or it isn’t.  If it isn’t, then it is work done in vain.  The term translated “vain” does not imply that it was done out of a desire to puff up oneself but rather that it was empty of purpose, without value.  Jesus expressed this idea in vivid fashion when He warned against storing up for yourself treasures on earth that moths and rust can wreck and thieves just take.  Stored up earthly treasures are vain in this sense, they are without reason or purpose.  They are “empty” possessions.  The same can be true of work.  If God is not behind it and not in agreement with it, the work, whatever it might be gets gobbled up and becomes worthless.  This of course is not logical and perhaps not even reasonable to most.  Why does every work have to go through God?  Were computers developed by those holding prayer meetings?  Did the ones who put together the internet have their Bibles open as they worked?  Plenty of great things have been done by those who did not care one bit what God thought of their efforts.

Yet we do know that the marvelous invention of the phonograph became obsolete when eight tracks were developed.  Cell phones make landlines a dinosaur and whoever thought of rotary dialing is not celebrated today.  Those who worked so hard on their movies find that they are eventually forgotten and ignored.  Does anyone care who invented the wheel or started the first fire by rubbing sticks together?  All work, regardless of how great we might think it is today will be buried in time and no one will give it a funeral.  Only God can keep alive the memory of work that is done and make it as meaningful and important today as it was ten thousand years ago.  However, we see work started and completed without any thought given whatsoever to how God views its value or thinks of the effort.  Solomon used the term “vanity of vanities” to describe so much of how we spend our time.  At the top of his list of vanity of vanities would be our attempt to get done what is not inspired or empowered by God.

If it seems from these comments that God is not in favor of hard work or creative thought, but that is not the case.  Our Lord wants us to work.  It must though be done in the right way and for the right reasons.  Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24 NIV)  We see work assigned by God all through the Bible.  Whether it was Bezalel designing and putting together the Ark of the Covenant or Paul sewing tents, work is honored by God.  Of course you can make a good living doing all sorts of work and even be celebrated by your supervisors or the public at large for what you have done but it will in the end be forgotten and fall apart if God is not in it.  Our Lord promises you an inheritance that will last as long as He does if you work for Him.  Everything else you do will be devoured by time and lost.

There is a more practical reason for doing your work through God.  It comes from the next verse in the Psalm we quoted earlier.  In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves. (Psalm 127:2 NIV)  This verse has a wealth of insight to it that some translations do not make clear.  It is worthless, the verse insists, for us to get up early and stay up late trying to get things done that God has no interest in us doing.  The Hebrew, which is translated by some English versions as staying up late toiling for food to eat more literally describes staying up late and putting off eating the bread your hard and wearisome work has produced.  This is work generated by worldly cares, by concerns that are produced in those who are disconnected from God.  The more we work without Christ empowering and inspiring it, the less pleasure it brings and the more burdensome it becomes.

More than that though is the promise this verse provides us.  The NIV translation has a footnote in this verse that brings clarity to it.  The promise is not that our Lord rewards those who live in Him with sleep.  It is that He gives to His beloved ones in sleep.  The New American Standard Version translates this phrase, “For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.”   The Grammar in this little phrase is tricky but certain.  Sleep is a powerful mechanism by which the Lord pours Himself Into you.  There are instances in Scripture documenting the way God has spoken to His people while they were sleeping including Jacob in the Old Testament when he was running from his brother in fear of his life and in the New Testament Joseph who was engaged to Mary the mother of Jesus providing for him comfort and reassurance that Mary had done no wrong in becoming pregnant. And then there is the example of Daniel who as he slept was shown by the Lord the content of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and how to interpret it.  God wants His people to sleep because of what He can do in them when they sleep.  It is not just that we physically need to rest.  In sleep God can get at the places where sin has done its most damage, in the deep parts of the heart or mind if you will, and comfort us and encourage us and strengthen us.  Just some sleep and the pain we felt before over a loss, a tragic event, an insult or a failure can be healed and we feel it when we awaken.

Do not just go to sleep.  Prepare yourself for God to work in you when you sleep.  Pray and get ready.  Tell God what you think you need before you fall asleep.  Talk to Him about what is bothering you.  Pray with someone else, if you have that person, just before bed.  Who knows what God might do for you and in you through the praying of someone who loves you?  Sleep is when God blesses us with some of His greatest comfort and insight.  What you could not grasp before you slept, with Christ working in you as you sleep, it can come to you as easily as holding a feather in your hand.  The world and all the pressures it can bring to bear upon you can wait a while as you meet with God in the depths of your heart.  Did you know that you can pray even while you are sleeping?  You can but you must quiet your heart in tender worship beforehand to make it ready to meet with Him there.  Try an experiment this week.  Just before you go to sleep, read a little bit of scripture or quote some to yourself and then pray quietly.  See what the Holy Spirit does in you as you rest in Christ.

In You, Not From You

Have you stopped to wonder what God might be doing with you?  It is much different, wondering what you might do for God.  They seem to be interchangeable...the one is the other but they aren't.  We fuss greatly over whether or not we have been of use, whether we have made enough of our opportunities; utilized our talents and resources well.  God owns the cattle of the thousand hills and is the architect of all we see in life; at what point does He fret over the part we play in His plans?  It is an absurdity to think that God wrings His hands at the waste of time and energy He has put into us.  If the Cross means anything, it is that God has thoroughly saved us and He did it Himself without our help.  He can raise the dead, build an army and put together a congregation at any moment He wishes.  We are not needed at all to do a single thing to make sure His work is done.  Salvation is God developed in you, stripping you of Sin and the damage it has done and recreating your life in its entirety so that you can be in union with Him.  At every point, whether you are praying or preaching or helping someone in need, that work is being carried out in you and if you join in the rebellion of Adam by rejecting Christ here or there, you simply make it a miserable process for you and those about you.   When Abraham up and left his home and made his way west and south, he did not know what would come of his trip...he just was certain God would take him where He wanted him.  This life in God is like that.  We cannot know just what Christ is doing with us and how it really is going at any given moment.  All we can do and all we are to do is simply obey the Lord at every turn.  As we do so, we can have confidence that we will arrive at the destination of God's choice and be who He wants us to be.  In the end, the work will be done whatever it was supposed to be.

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."   James 4:13-15 NIV

Not All Believing Is The Same

Have you made a decision to believe in Jesus?  Are you ready to commit yourself to Him?  This is very different than believing in a good outcome, a certain view you hold about Him or the way He should deal with your circumstances.  Jesus Christ is not a doctrine or a weaver of fairy tales put together in our minds.  He is the real Son of God and Son of Man and He is completely free to be precisely who He is and not who we think He should be.  Our disappointments come when we believe in something about Christ rather than Christ.  We get discombobulated spiritually if we try to make a pet thought about Christ and how we think He should do things what we believe.    Even great men and women of God waste much time trying to prove some doctrine they hold rather than build the bond with Christ and let Him "show the doctrines" to us.  Leaders throughout the ages have broken with God to pursue a "work of God".  Rather than operating out of Christ and His life coming through them, they live with the strength and wisdom of the flesh, not realizing how far they have strayed from the Lord.  Christ is never less than what we have revealed of Him to us in Scripture and what He shows us of Himself for all time will never contradict what has been said of Him in the Bible.  We may misunderstand what we find in Scripture and believe something we shouldn't about Christ but we are never wrong in believing in Christ.  He is forever our Savior and the keeper of our souls and that very love of Christ we see in Him dying for us on the Cross will never be less than that and later we will discover  in fits and starts just how much grander His love for us is than we have realized.  You may need to give up your beliefs about Christ but do not give up an ounce of your belief in Christ.   Believe in Him during the bleak and dreary nights and as the sun rises at the break of day, continue to believe in Him.

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.   John 17:20-21 NIV

Obedience—The Great Uncovering Step 3

Romans 3:20 NIV

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

Do You Recognize The Source Of Your Longings?

When you get married, most just assume that someday they will have children.  You may want to give yourselves some time to enjoy being newlyweds but most plan on eventually having kids.  We were like most couples in that way.  In fact before we got married, we had already picked out our first daughter’s name.  So when after eight years of being married and six years trying our best to become parents, we were flabbergasted.  In fact we became a bit desperate in our praying when it seemed we might not be able to have children.  I used to watch other people my age holding hands with their kids, pushing their babies along in baby strollers, playing catch at the park, buying their children toys at Christmas and envying them.  Sometimes I could hardly stand to watch young families because I so badly wanted what they had.  It was painful getting family Christmas cards from others with the happy smiles and blissful joy they seemed to have.  Now of course I know how rough it is to get families to all smile together and how difficult parenting is.  But back then, all I could see was the upside of having children and it didn’t seem fair that all these people could have kids and my wife and I couldn’t.  I was like the Grinch…I hated birth announcements and did not want to hear about the accomplishments and milestones of my friends’ kids.  I lusted after their lives…their happy, fun and exciting parent lives.

Nothing rots human personality like envy.  It is perhaps the most destructive force we face.  Envy has led to world wars, murders, suicides and ruined homes.  Nearly every conflict has its root in some form of envy.  Many times longstanding friendships, family relationships and marriages come apart due to some form of envy.  Envy has led to insurmountable debts, broken marriages, fractured families, ruined careers and self-loathing.  It led to the first murder and it will be the cause of the last battle on earth.  Envy led to Satan’s downfall and many billions of downfalls thereafter.  Is it any wonder that the Lord finished His Ten Commandments with a prohibition against practical envy?  "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17 NIV)

If there was anyone who seemingly had no reason being envious, it would seem to have been Jacob, the founder of the nation Israel. There is not a much greater honor than having an entire nation named after you.  That is what happened with Israel, better known as Jacob.  How many of us have ever had a city or a street named for us?  Israel, better known as Jacob had the great privilege of being spoken of by God before he was born.  When his mother feared that something terrible was happening in her womb, the Lord reassured her that all was well; she simply had twins, fighting twins albeit.  The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." (Genesis 25:23 NIV)  The younger was Jacob and his mother was told by God what would come of his life.  As the brothers grew to adulthood, each parent chose one of them as the favorite son.  Jacob’s mother Rebekah loved him the most; his father Isaac loved the older twin Esau best.  The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents.  Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. (Genesis 25:27-28 NIV)  What this parental favoritism did to the personality of each of the twins we cannot say with certainty but we do know that Jacob envied his brother Esau’s place in the family; coveted in fact what belonged to him, specifically his birthright.

One day Jacob’s older brother Esau came back to camp famished after an unsuccessful hunting trip.  Jacob famously had a pot of stew on the fire and Esau craved some.  Jacob, who clearly had been thinking often of his desire to change places with Esau struck a deal with his brother.  He (Esau) said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.)  Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright."  "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?"  But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. (Genesis 25:30-33 NIV)  This was indeed a strange transaction yet both sides were apparently quite happy with the trade.  Much is made of Esau’s disregard for his birthright as oldest son but rarely is the biting desire of Jacob to have his brother’s birthright explored.  As we learned earlier of David’s father issues, we see a similar situation here.  Jacob was the lesser son to his father also.  Jacob in his deep seated feelings of rejection and disconnect from his dad, perhaps hoped he could by getting his brother’s birthright erase some of the longstanding pain he felt about his place in the family.

One of the more misunderstood commands of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is the famous directive on sexual purity.  "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-29 NIV)  This mandate turns on the word “adultery”.  It specifically is a command on marriage vows.  Adultery is the sexual relationship of a married person with someone with whom he or she is not married.  The reverse is also adultery; a single person having a sexual relationship with a married person is also committing adultery.  Adultery is not “sexual immorality” which is any sexual relationship outside of marriage; adultery is a subset of sexual immorality, it is the sin of sexually breaking marriage vows.

What we have here in the Sermon on the Mount is a stern command to not desire sexually someone who by God’s law cannot be yours.  If you are married, or someone else you notice is married, sexual looking is equivalent to adultery.  Jesus has marvelously woven together the seventh command to not commit adultery with the tenth command to not covet what belongs to another person into one very practical order.  Now this is strange perhaps to suggest and may seem even blasphemous but this part of the Sermon on the Mount is not a prohibition against single people sexually looking at other single people.  You may argue that any form of sexual looking is wrong and cite other parts of the Bible to make your point that it is wrong but sexual looking among single people is not the concern of Jesus here.  He is crushing in this stunning connection of lust and adultery the universal practice of wanting something someone else has.

It is typical of children to crave another child’s toy, even to the point of ripping it from her hand. We all have done it; most of us have watched it happen.  Our dog wants our cat’s food and the cat takes the dog’s food.  When adults and teens let their minds feast on another man’s food, it becomes a banquet from hell.  Jacob made his trade with Esau and got his brother’s right as first-born but he still had to have more.  That is the problem with craving.  It can only be stopped by the strong hand of God.  Jacob did not get what he hoped to have in his trade.  His father didn’t like him any more than before; he was still the lesser son.  When Isaac died and Jacob finally got his father’s inheritance, it no longer mattered to him because he was already rich.  The worst part of the trade though was that it fed an insatiable desire to completely usurp his brother’s place in the family and it was Jacob’s mother who found a way to try and gain that lust desire.  When his father Isaac wanted to pass along a special blessing to Esau, Jacob’s mother worked out a plan where Jacob was able to trick his father into giving it to him.  Both his father and his brother Esau were devastated by the deception.  His father shook with rage when he discovered what Jacob had done; Esau’s fury at his brother’s actions turned to thoughts of murder. He said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob." (Genesis 27:41 NIV) Jacob fled his home to escape his brother’s wrath and perhaps even his father’s disgust with him and wound up more than a hundred miles away at the home of his mother’s brother, never to see his beloved mother ever again.

Here is the consequence of Jacob’s coveting.   Jacob wound up essentially being a slave to his uncle for twenty years.  If he had let God work everything out instead of taking matters into his own hands, he could have gone to his uncle with his father’s blessing and with the help of his father’s riches, gained his wife Rachel instantly.  Instead, since Jacob was a fugitive and thus powerless, Laban his uncle took advantage of Jacob and forced him not only to work seven years to gain Laban’s daughter Rachel as a bride but forced him to marry also his other daughter Leah whom he did not want.  This cost him another seven years of forced labor.  He spent fourteen years paying for his covetous desires!  What is worse is that his wives, because of their jealousy of each other pushed Jacob to take on each of their servants as wives too.  Rather than build his family upon the foundation of love and loyalty, it began as a civil war and never stopped being a civil war.  His wives fought the rest of their lives for supremacy in the home not just for themselves but also for their children.  Coveting is passed along to the next generation.  It is a ravenous beast that cannot be satiated without divine intervention.  Covet once what isn’t yours and you will find yourself consumed by poisonous desires unless you let God work His way through you and free your mind of satanic longings.

Remember the first and most destructive temptation is the one to grab for what belongs to someone else.  We can follow our lust like Adam and Eve and just take it like they did the forbidden fruit or because we are afraid of acting upon our impulses, crave it until we are poisoned by the unmet desire.  Jacob lusted for his brother’s blessing because he didn’t think he could ever have his father’s love.  Could it be the same for us?  Is there something we want too much because we still bear a wound that has never healed?  Have we let Satan get in our head and think God is too small to make things right for us?  Are we afraid God is unable to fix what is wrong in us so we look for something else other than God to fix our brokenness?

There is a seldom discussed way God heals the broken parts of our unconscious world.  He does it by thanksgiving.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:15-16 NIV) These are not two disconnected thoughts.  The word translated “And” puts them together and makes them one linked whole.  You gain the peace of Christ when you are thankful.  Be thankful and the deep places of pain and hurt and broken dreams and lost hopes are healed by Christ peace.  Where no one can touch the wounds…not a psychologist nor a master teacher…Christ can touch it and he can heal it.  His peace passes into us when we are thankful for what He gives us.  When we look about and think “thank you Lord” for each part of our day, for every experience we encounter, the peace of Christ has more freedom to move about in our unconscious self and take out the poison that kills our happiness.  A thankful mind does not have room to lust after others or crave the things others have.  A thankful mind is a joyful mind.  Satan cannot jump the wall of a mind that is thankful to Christ for what He has done. 

Urgent Care

Can we bear a bit of honesty?  The Church has as a whole forgotten to pray.  We organize meals, put together events, talk extensively about the Bible, argue over by-laws and form endless numbers of committees but give prayer the once over and then we’re off to something else.  We pray and then try to get something accomplished as if the accomplishing is not occurring in the praying.  The Disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray.  We know how to pray.  We don’t know how to start praying with determination and abandonment to the work of prayer.  Would Peter have been led out of prison by the angel if the band of believers quartered in the home of John Mark’s mother had not been praying?  We cannot say for sure one way or another but they certainly were juxtaposed with each other in the Scripture.  Would Lot have escaped Sodom if his uncle were not praying?  Would Job’s friends have escaped judgment if Job had not prayed?  Would Jericho have ever been taken if for seven days straight the Israelites had not prayed?  Given the stakes, why do we do so little praying?  The Lord insists that He will do the heavy lifting if we would just put the shovel down for a while and pray.  The seeds need rain and sun and good soil to bring about the harvest.  All of these required necessities come from God.  Only the seed distribution is our responsibility.  If three-fourths of the work is God’s and we must go to Him in prayer to gain His help in them, why do we give most of our time to seed casting?  It is the praying that is the most critical part of the harvest because to be brutally honest, we can chuck our seeds anywhere and God can make them sprout right where they land. We have so little confidence God actually exists and carries those who go to Him in prayer that we make prayer perfunctory and everything else a necessity.  Our Lord is not scanning the horizon for better workers to bless; He is searching for more faith-full workers who have come to rely upon prayer above all else to make it through their days.  Would the world collapse in a heap if you gave an entire day to praying and reading the Scriptures?   Would your family be crushed by the weight of your devotion to praying?  Or might it just be that more can be done in ten hours of prayer than a lifetime of plowing?

                                                                            

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.   2 Chronicles 7: 13-15 NIV  

Religious Tinkering

What constitutes spirituality?  Is it an interest in religious matters?  Is it  the capacity to tease out the main idea in a Biblical text?  Is it a way of speaking or a propensity for charitable deeds?  For Jesus, spirituality was grounded in a determination to do whatever He saw the Father doing.  His mind's eye was fixed and never moved from that one focal point.  At every place where He went, He was given over to the will of the Father and in following Him step by step.  Spirituality is nothing more than puffed up personalized morality if it is not squared with the mind of Christ.  We have the gift of the Holy Spirit  not that we might do great deeds of godliness but that we might be at one with Jesus Christ every step.  The blood of Christ is in the washing of personality a mightier work than we grasp.  It is holiness personified...not considered, not examined.  With the cleansing Christ provides we can live a holy life because Christ is holy.    We should not take this lightly.  Holiness is the personal end game for us.  The Lord will never put up with a single bit of sinful waywardness.  He will shred us and consume us with His blazing fire until every bit of rebellion is gone.  This happens now and we should thank God He does not leave all this work until we come face to face with Him.  The trials we face today and the hardships we encounter now are all a gracious work of God to strip us clean and the more we give ourselves freely to Him, the more joyfully we will walk tomorrow.  If the "well done good and faithful servant" were left to us alone, we would simply be disgraced in the end.  But the "well done good servant" is being shaped by God in our momentary troubles and light trials.  As we turn to Christ in faith, we find the old pernicious acrimony toward the Father and what we see Him doing drained from us and replaced with the sweet, happy stream of Christ Himself welling up within.  The great days of our lives are when we are surprised to find Christ seeping out of us as we go about the normal business we have.  At those grand moments, we will grin and laugh happily that we really have been made new!

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

John 7:38-39 NIV

Christian Service

To enter into Christian service you must decide if there is a stitch of the old loyalties in you.  We strut and fuss over the minister who does his work "for the money" but say nothing of the minister who serves to do a good job, to fix wrongs or set things straight.  No Christian is called to a task or a work; she is only beckoned to a person...Jesus Christ.  As soon as you lose sight of your calling, you foil the One who called you.  Jesus Christ is the beam of light that leads your way and the point at which the beam lands.  Adam thought the good was in seeing rightly when all along the good was the Lord alone.  Christians lose their minds over which strategy is best, what goal is noblest, whose vision is brightest.  What are we doing?  We have not come into this Kingdom to make something of ourselves; we come into it to gain Christ crucified.  Jesus redeems our life from all the nonsensical strivings of the world.  Why do we return to that world so doggedly.  Live in Christ and through Christ and with Christ.  The rest is hubris.  If what is seen is your work and striving, your good sense, noble ambition and successful ministry, then you are no better than the servant who buried his coin in the ground.  But if the world sees Christ when you do your work, if those joined somehow to your work become lovers of God when your day is spent and they turn to Him for life and purpose because the fires of God that burn in you now consume them, then regardless of whether you are seen or not, you have found your Way and your Way is straight and sure.  Christ doesn't come upon you to inspire your effort; He comes to be all you see and do in all you see and do.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:   2 Corinthians  5:18 NIV

Are You A Horn Blower?

Does it confound you when you are treated badly, when you are ignored and your effort discredited or discounted?  Are you stunned by the rude behavior around you, by the lack of effort you see, by the selfishness and undependability everywhere you go?  It is never those you just see every once in a while who give you the most trouble, it is the ones closest to you: your spouse, children, parents, co-workers, fellow church members, clients, relatives, teammates.    We are too absorbed by our coming and going, what we want to get done, our expectations and fantasies to see how life really is.   The impact of sin is universal and ubiquitous but we have a frivolous demand that it not be here or there, not be where we want a break from it.  Sin is in your sister just as solidly as your supervisor and your political leaders and public personalities.  Sin has gotten ahold of your husband as well as your daughter and it is shut up in your babysitter and kindly uncle.  The sin you see in yourself is everywhere you look and you cannot get away from it here.  Your father acts badly because of sin just as your favorite sports hero and the girl you have had your eye on for months.  Sin is pervasive and swelling in influence and effect.  Rather than growing cynical and bitter about it, face the sin head on.  Know it is there just as surely as it is within you.  Only the fool sees no sin in herself and the spiritually naïve are shocked by its appearance when they make a friendship.  You are a sinner living among sinners so give everyone a break and relax.  Jesus Christ was not rattled by the sin all about Him...He could just as easily forgive the woman caught in adultery as call out the Pharisees who dreamed at night of the woman they wanted to smash with stones because she wasn't with them.  Jesus Christ does not fret over sin taking hold of the friends he "trusts"; He redeems them.  The same work happening with you is going on in those about you.  It is absurd  to fuss and stew over your son's undone homework and your husband's lack of regard for your needs.  They are sinners and Christ is redeeming them just as surely as He is you and your unseemliness.  It is easy to realize how everyone must be patient with you because of the sin you struggle to master; what about those who you find unattractive and unreasonable; can you see how patience is required for them too?  God is not finished with them too.  The work in progress of Christ redeeming mankind is too cumbersome and tedious for many of us to endure and we get exasperated by its snail pace...but the work will be done in you as well as those about you so why not relax a bit and give the Lord room to crucify each of us that we might all live in Christ fully and completely.   So just take your hand off the horn, give up your right to blow up on your wife and don't make it worse for God as He does the redeeming and you in turn grow in your faith that Jesus Christ is Lord of ALL.

In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.  In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.   Exodus 15:13 NIV

A Stitch in Time

How badly do you really need God?  If the day passed and you hadn't prayed or read your Bible or sought the Lord in any  way, would it be troublesome to you?  Would you be aware of the power of the Holy Spirit slipping from you; are you distracted enough to be content with a day outside of God?  You can do all sorts of "God things" and never have any conscious sense that the Lord is there with you.  We are so entranced by the machinations of day-to-day living and yet do we have the sense to want more of God than we possess at the moment?  Have we grown sensible and realistic and hardly in any way supernatural?  The commonplace Bible reading that is habitual is of greater use to God than all the outstanding accomplishments of the most skilled trader on Wall Street.  You will gain more out of five minutes alone with God in a quiet moment than all the frantic activity you have planned for your day.  As you engage God, God engages you.  He enters your planning, your decision making and your reactions.  You can work without God and many, many do!  But what good is that?  A pause to readmit the Lord Jesus into your specific moment will work a miracle in your moving forward.  The Lord will show you things as you branch out into the tasks you have, show you your heart, show you the hearts of others, give you wisdom about how you go about even the simplest and most trivial of chores you face.  The Lord will hone your attention, stir up your passion for the proper things, grant you courage and peace as you encounter obstacles.  What may seem like chance encounters will be divine appointments as you stir  around your devotion to Christ.  It is unlikely everything will be easy simply because you give God your time; it may in fact be more challenging.  But you will have the assurance that what comes to you today will be for your good and your life will spill out into the lives of others who need your hands and feet and head and mouth to be completely given over to the crucified life of Christ embedded in you.  Others may not be able to tell how much of your Lord is coming out of you at any given moment but you will know and the more of Him you see in your actions, the greater your joy will be in what work you have today.

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  John 4:10 NIV

A Great Passage For My Quiet Time Today

Well now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don't put it off; don't frustrate God's work by showing up late; throwing a question mark over everything we're doing. Our work as God's servants gets validated--or not--in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly...in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed, working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand, in gentleness, holiness and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right, when we're praised, and when we're blamed, slandered, and honored, true to our word, though distrusted, ignored by the world, but recognized by God, terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead, beaten within an inch of our lives but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy, living on handouts, yet enriching many, having nothing, having it all...2 Corinthians 6 The Message