Humility

“Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Luke 17:9-10

Worthlessness and unworthiness are not the same thing. We are unworthy, but we are not worthless. Our value is derived from the love of our Creator. Humility is simply the profound awareness of our unworthiness of His grace. So much of the time I can find myself obeying as if I am doing God some kind of favor. But God’s grace is so deep. His grace is in the cross, but his grace extends beyond this. It’s grace that He has not separated Himself from humanity because of our betrayal. I understand its a hard pill for some people to swallow that God allows people to go to hell, but I think it’s amazing that despite our betrayal God doesn’t want to be separated from us and it’s amazing that not all of humanity is being sent to hell. It’s amazing that even some will be saved. It’s amazing that He experienced pain on our behalf so we could spend eternity with Him. It’s amazing that we have heat in the winter. It’s amazing that we have cars. It’s amazing we can go places. It’s amazing we have trendy clothes. It’s all grace. Who do we have to thank that we even have jobs for our income or the resources to go to school? So is anything we do for Him really a favor to Him? Or isn’t it the other way around? We are truly unworthy.

The Two Sides of Christmas

”He has also set eternity in the human heart.” Ecc 3:11

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. It is focused on close relationships, hearth, and generosity. Why do so many of us love Christmas? I have come to believe it is because Christmas is centered on a theme that I think is very near and dear to our hearts: Hope. And if you don’t believe me, suicide rates drop around Christmas. Seems contrary to nature, but I googled it (Yep, this is what I do in my spare time). Yes, Christmas awakens Hope. And without Hope the heart aches in pain, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Prov 13:12). If you deprive yourself of hope, you will deprive yourself of life. Hope enables you to live and endure the present circumstances of life because for you to have hope there is something you must be looking forward to and holding on to that gives you the strength to move forward.

Which leads me to my next observation. Christmas has another side to it, a side that is less than enjoyable. This side of Christmas can inspire a love-hate relationship to the holiday. Christmas has a strange way of awakening longings in each of us. We start to pine away for the things we don’t have. And if you are still unsure, just think about how we begin the holidays with the biggest shopping day of the year - Black Friday.

We all have our own version of Christmas, the way we wish Christmas was and the things we long for - we long for our own version of the perfect family, one in which our family was closer and more loving. A family that is like the kinds you see on Lifetime TV around Christmastime. Or you may long for the perfect husband or children. You may long for a victorian mansion and white picket fence. We each have our own version of the perfect Christmas, the way we think life should be. And it is around Christmas that we are reminded that it is not that way at all. Yes, Christmas awaken longings for a better life.

Restoration

“But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: ‘I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?’ Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.” Neh 6:2-4

Faulty foundations in life are painful to have torn down. Christ is the foundation upon which we are to build our lives. But if we do not build our lives on Christ and His words, we are setting ourselves up for disaster. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matt 7:24-27

Wrestling with God

I love the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk’s name itself means “embrace.” It’s three chapters of awesomeness. The subheadings are even better, chronicling which complaint Habakkuk is on, followed by the Lord’s response. Here’s proof that we ‘need to put on a face for God when we talk to Him; we can come as we are and God is perfectly patient and not easily offended.

“How long, O Lord, must I call for help, and you do not listen? I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ Yet you do not save. Why do you make me look upon injustice, and cause me to look on wickedness?” (Hab 1:1-3). Two questions: how long and why? Habakkuk has been crying to God for help and, apparently, for a long time. Now, he’s fed up. He looks at the injustice around him and asks God, “Where are you?”

Thankful

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 2 Sam 12:7-9

I know, I know. I could have picked a happier verse to drive home the point of gratefulness. I could have picked something more warm and fuzzy like “Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” Eph 5:19-20. We could all hold hands and sing Kumbaya. Does anyone even know how to spell that word? Did I even spell that word right? Probably not. Well, you get the point.

Cast Down

“‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.’” Ecc 1:2

I wish I could lay before you the entire book of Ecclesiastes, but I can’t. All I can say is its absolutely beautiful. To most of us the above verse is like a rain cloud on a sunny day. Why does the author of Ecclesiastes have to be such a downer? But perhaps our little emo author is on to something. I mean, life isnt all fun and games, is it? “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecc 3:1).

Inevitably in this life you will go through seasons or times where you feel depressed. And in those times Ecclesiastes is just the kind of book you want to read. It gives voice to the sense of apathy and hopelessness that accompanies depression. Have you ever gone to a party when you feel depressed? Everyone else seems so happy, how can they possibly understand how you feel? It’s like they’re in a different world. Its the most isolated feeling in the world; while you are down and dejected, the rest of the world is having a party. And it’s in this moment that you ask yourself, “What’s the point? What’s the point to all of this? We have fun and laugh, and for what?” The author of Ecclesiastes answers that very question. He puts life in perspective and looks at life in light of eternity.

Fear No More

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

Fear is a paralyzing emotion. One of the most frequent commands in the Bible is do not fear. Why? Because fear holds us back. It holds us back from loving God and abandoning ourselves to Him and it holds us back from loving others. It holds us back from doing what God calls us to do. It is the opposite of trust, the essence of faith. How do you overcome fear in your life? There is only one weapon that fear cannot stand against: love. Love drives out fear. If you want to overcome your fear, you must take up love. There is no other way. Why? Because God himself is love and He will cast out fear, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” 1 John 4:8. Abide in Him who is love. If you give yourself over to love, you will drive out fear from your life and break its hold over you.

Identity Theft

“After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’” Matt 3:16-17

“Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God…” Matt 4:5-6

It’s strange, isn’t it? God affirms Jesus’ identity and immediately after Satan tries to get Jesus to doubt his identity in the wilderness. It’s such a contrast of realities. You have a word, a promise. Then the wilderness. God made his love for Jesus known. Then Satan tries to twist it, “you’re the Son? God loves you? Prove it to me.”

In scripture there is a pattern: revelation before tribulation. A person often receives a crazy revelation or promise and then experiences a strange wilderness. This wilderness seems to fly in the face of all that was previously promised or revealed. Abraham and his barren wife go twenty years waiting for a son. The Israelites experienced freedom from slavery and miraculous demonstrations of God’s power before entering into the wilderness. David starts off with intense military victories and living in the palace then suddenly he is on the run for his life, living just to survive. Joseph has dreams and a promise from God of a bright future before he is sent into slavery and prison.

But these circumstances did not change the reality that was to come. God repeats the above verse (Matt 3:17) to Jesus at the transfiguration right before he endures the cross. “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him” (Matt 27:39-41).

Love Must Be Sincere

“Love must be sincere…” Rom 12:8-10

Love must be sincere. Sincere is literally from a word that means “pure, unmixed, untainted.” In other words, in order for love to be love it must be unfeigned and pure in its motives. Love based on duty and obligation isnt love. It just isnt. And I dont just mean romantic love, I mean all love.

How do you know when love is sincere? When love is really love? I think the test of sincerity lies in looking at the small stuff. Love does not just love in big, spectacular ways. What if someone just loved you in big, spectacular ways - buying you extravagant gifts, taking you to exotic places, etc.? What if they didnt love you in small ways - asking you how you are doing, giving a hug when you need to be comforted, listening to you? Could you call that love?

Loving in the small ways proves its sincerity. Why? Because when you only love in spectacular ways who gets the glory? You do. You come out looking great. Im not saying you shouldnt love in spectacular ways or that its wrong when others praise you. It’s just that love of that kind is about being showy, it doesnt mean its sound. But when you love in ways that arent showy, when you dont necessarily get glory, isnt that when you know you are doing something truly selfless? When you dont get the glory, isnt that when you know that your love is real and sincere? When you do something that doesnt have to be seen by others, thats love. We dont have to receive recognition. Our actions can be unseen, showing that its sincere.

Waiting Room

“And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” Heb 6:15

Waiting…that word has a negative stigma attached to it. I think many times we can fall into the mindset that something is wrong with us because we are waiting. We all have something we yearn for that we do not have – be it a spiritual gift, a spouse, or even a family. We yearn for these things, and when we don’t have them we start to wander what’s wrong with us. But just because you are waiting for something does not automatically mean you don’t have it because you are guilty of sin or because you need to be perfect. I don’t know if I have met a person yet who loves waiting for something. The word waiting often evokes in me an inner-resistance, a refusal to submit. We say, “Patience is a virtue,” yet being patient implies a level of suffering. The word itself comes from a word that literally means “to suffer, to bear.”

But that’s the way we often look at it isn’t it? We think ‘Because I am waiting something is wrong with me. God is not giving me what I want because something is wrong with me. There’s some sin God is punishing me for or He is at the very least displeased with me and wants me to get my act together.’ For example, singles (and I used to think this way too) seem to think there is some secret test you have to pass before God brings along the One. We think that’s why God brought that other person a spouse and not us, they must have passed the test. And until we pass this secret test under God’s supervision we won’t get married. We see God as distant, uncaring, and demanding perfection. God does not demand we have all our ducks in a row before He gives good gifts. I do, however, believe He uses time to prepare us to be good stewards of the gifts we will be given.

Sometimes it just isn’t the right time to have what we want. It’s not good for us. If it was good God would not withhold it. God’s timing is different from our own.
Waiting doesn’t have to be a bad thing. God may be pulling you away like a tide for one season of your life to release you later into another season where you have what you have longed for. And if that’s not what God wants for you then He will conform your desires to His own as you delight in Him – “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps 37:4). And contrary to popular opinion waiting does not make you weak, it actually makes you stronger.

Watchman of the Heart

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Phil 4:6-9

I love this verse for so many reasons. Actually, I love Philippians in general. Philippians corresponds to so much in my life. Lately I have been wandering how to better guard my heart. I thought I knew how to guard my heart but the past few years have proved me wrong. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” Prov 4:23. We have a tendency to let the wrong things into our heart or give it to the wrong people. As a result, we get our hearts broken.

Guarding your heart means you protect your source of life from being polluted and from giving it to the wrong people. What is so cool about the verse in Philippians is that it says the peace of God will guard your heart. The greek word specifically means “to be a watcher in advance.” The peace of God guards us from impending danger. If I pray to God about everything with a heart of thanksgiving His peace will guard my heart. Guarding my heart is not something I can do in my own power or discernment; God’s peace guards my heart.

Love: A Weapon the Enemy Can't Stand Against

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Pet 4:8

Some things just speak for themselves:

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

Distraction

Neh 6:2-4 But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

Where your focus is determines the direction in which you will go. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:17-18). The greek word for “fix” literally means “to aim.” Again, aim determines direction.

Hebrews 12:2 “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. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…” Jesus is the place of our focus. Without that, our direction wavers.

The Beauty of Emotions

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Matt 26:36-38

It has come to my attention that there is a popular idea among churches in regards to feelings and faith. The theology is this: the facts are what matter, believe in the facts regardless of how you feel. The facts are first, feelings should be last. The logic behind it goes something like this: passions and emotions cannot be trusted, they are always getting you into trouble, and they must be conquered. Become calm, unaffected. One must become a clear and unbiased thinker and remove emotions and passions. Passion and desire are part of our flesh.
Also, love is not a feeling, but an action, a commitment to the well-being of another person. Joy is not happiness, but a confidence that everything will be alright. While I agree with these statements to a certain extent, they unsettle me. These statements provide an incomplete solution in my mind. In fact, I think they are taking the heart out of faith. The underlying thought is that your mind (intellect) is superior to your heart (feelings).

Like a Lion Roaming for Prey

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD
Ps 40: 1-3

It has occurred to me how unaware many of us are of the enemy’s schemes. We fall for his schemes and end up in a miry Pit. Of course we don’t start off in the Pit. We take a slippery slope down into the Pit. Or perhaps life just throws us down there. And as if being there isn’t bad enough, getting out is more difficult than falling in. Having been in the Pit, I can accurately describe what it’s like. Not only do you feel weak and confused and don’t know how to get out of the Pit, in that place you lose hope and motivation to get out and walk in freedom. Eventually, you feel a sense of hopelessness as the result of failed attempts to get out. Perhaps as a result of that hopelessness, you also feel apathetic towards God. Though in your head you may know God is the answer, the reality is that you lack the desire to seek and pursue Him.

I want to address something thats really troubling me. I am seeing in my own life and in lives of others around me how many of us have ended up in the Pit as the result of a process that has started long before we fall into the Pit. This, I believe, is where the scheming of the enemy starts. Satan starts the set up for the fall long before it happens. Before the temptation, the Enemy makes us ripe for the picking. He lulls us to sleep so we are unalert, we dont even see whats coming. We neglect intimacy with God out of our prosperity. Then many of us drift away from community. This isolation from God and from God-loving people is a deadly combination. When a weak animal is separated from its pack, the lion is ready to stalk and attack.

Things are not particularly awful, so we think we do not need God. Sadly, when the storm does hit, we are completely unprepared. I think we can all see how this is true in the case of an addiction. The process that makes an individual vulnerable to addiction begins before the action. It’s as if the individual is teetering on the edge of a cliff. All it takes is one incident to push them over the edge. All it takes is a painful life experience and roots of addiction start sinking their teeth into that individual. In this instance, the individual is using sin to self-medicate. They need something to counter the pain.

In-Dependence

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

As a child in life you are dependent on your parents for everything. As you grow up, your parents prepare you for a life of independence. Maturity equals being able to take care of yourself and make your own decisions. For most of your life your parents prepare you for this, with the end goal being your self-sufficiency. But lately I am realizing how the Christian life is opposite of this in every way. Though you are maturing in your faith and growing spiritually, your dependency on your Heavenly Father is meant to be ever-increasing. You must rely on Him for everything. The end goal of the christian life is not self-sufficiency rooted in a confidence in your own abilities. It’s God-confidence, rooted in His abilities.

Where there is pride, we lose sight of our need for God and then begin to act apart from Him; we lose sight of our need for His love and grace. Often this is a very subtle mindset. You dont wake up one morning and think “I dont need God.” Instead, it’s subconscious. For me it started when I became too busy for God or when I started to look to something/someone else to meet the needs of my heart. What happened was my appetite for God became dull.

Then I reached a place of apathy, especially because for the most part things in my life were going good. Naturally, as a result of my prosperity I didnt feel a desperate need for God. In that place of prosperity I started to feel a lack of drive to really seek God because of the mindset that I didnt need Him. Then subconsciously I succumbed to the mindset that I needed God when things were hard, but not when it was good. Prosperity certainly does not lend itself easily to desperation.

Unfailing Love

What a person desires is unfailing love Prov 19:22

What does God want the most? What is His greatest desire? ” ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31) With these words God makes known what He wants most: love. And even more clearly, a love that does not hold back but gives all.

I find the human search for love fascinating. It is man’s greatest obsession. The things we do for love go against reason. People will suffer physical, emotional, and verbal abuse just to have love. Is it any surprise that at the end of the day what we want most is love? It says God made man in His image (Gen 1:26). And if that is what God wanted the most, it makes sense that we desire it the most. It is the theme of almost every song and countless movies.