C = L

On May 21, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Corinthians 13: 1 – 3

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

This passage reminds me a bit of Jesus’ brother, James, who said his faith was demonstrated in his works (James 2: 18). Paul essentially says, “I will show you my Christianity by my love.”

There is one true sign of Christianity. That is love. The world is waiting for a sign from Christians and this is it. When love is shown, God is glorified. Everywhere love is shared, God is shared. This is the true test of our faith.

Someone commented recently about how a mutual acquaintance always seems grumpy and in a bad temper. Yet, I know this individual to be camped at the church. He is very involved in church activities and service yet when he leaves the church, he seems to leave his faith behind. He would never be characterized as a gentle, kind, loving person. One wouldn’t say, “There goes the love of Christ.” He is not alone though. We can all think of folks who profess their Christianity but seem to have no love or kindness for others. They will spout theology all day and try to impress you with their Bible knowledge but to borrow from the book of Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1: 2). No one is listening. If they don’t see your love, they will not listen to your speech.

Christianity (C) equals love (L). If not love, then not Christianity. Christianity is the dedication to following Christ. Love required Christ to sacrifice his life. This is how we came to know love (1 John 3: 16). It is, likewise, how the world will come to know Christ and see that we are his followers. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another,” (John 13: 35). You see, love is the evidence that something has happened within you. Without love, there is only philosophy. We can espouse our religious philosophy but without the evidence of Christ-like love, it is all vanity. Though we loudly, and even eloquently, pronounce our theology, I imagine Paul saying, “Show me your theology and I will show you my love,” knowing that his love trumps our philosophical, theological banter.”

If the truth were to be told, you could have weak theology but win thousands of people to Christ if you have love. So many people think they have to learn the Bible in order to witness to others but that is all wrong. We don’t learn scripture for them. We learn it for ourselves. All other people need is love. They will figure out the spiritual part if we show them the path and that trail is paved with love. Grace, mercy and love are the gifts God gives us for others. A kind, caring heart and gentle words are the tools of evangelism. Your words are not your witness; your life is. If we are always grouchy and ill tempered; if we are harsh with others, who is going to want to follow us? Who is going to be attracted to our God? This passage from Paul is some of the most important language he wrote. He wants us to acknowledge that love is the key. If we don’t have love, we are that clanging symbol that no one wants to be around. It doesn’t win anyone to God. In fact, they will probably run in the opposite direction. Our great spiritual deeds and faith do them no good. What’s equally alarming is that Paul says that even though you have mountain moving faith, it will do you no good if you don’t have love.

Our today and our future are bound to love because God is love. Love is the essence of our faith. If you don’t have love, then you don’t have the essential part of Christianity. It really is that simple. We may have scars and injuries that effect the way we relate to others, but we also have Jesus who has born our injuries. We must take those things to Christ and receive his mercy, grace and healing so that we can venture forth in the courage of love. Without demonstrative love, our Christianity fails. Christianity equals love. Without love, there is not Christian faith. Take your heart to the Father, to the master healer, and ask Him to conduct a physical. Receive His love so that you have love to give away. Let His love penetrate the deep places of your heart.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” As followers of Christ we are ordered to love one another. If we profess to be his disciples, then we must live out his directive in word and deed. This is not elective; it is the prime directive. Let love become your theology.

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Brutish

On May 20, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 53: 1 – 4                 CJB

A brutish fool tells himself, “There isn’t any God.” Such people are depraved, all their deeds are vile, not one of them does what is good. God looks out from heaven upon the human race to see if even one is wise, if even one seeks God. Every one of them is unclean, altogether corrupt; not one of them does what is good, not a single one.

This is the state of humans without God. Of course humans are brutish without the grace of God but I see the word “brutish” differently than some may. We treat this word as a synonym for evil or malevolent, but the vileness or wickedness is more a result than a definition. Brutish means without human sensibilities, animal like. We treat animals like they have human emotions, but they don’t. Although our pets can be great companions and sometimes seem much more kind than people, still they are not made as humans. This becomes clearer when we reach beyond domesticated animals to wild animals. That is what brutish alludes to.

Animals in the wild don’t think and reason as humans do, nor are they meant to. Their behaviors are meant to preserve their lives. Sometimes we may see their actions as brutal, but survival is their directive. Not so humans. We are supposed to serve others, preserve the earth, build a kingdom, care for all of God’s creatures and glorify our king. So, what is considered brutish is perfectly normal and appropriate for a wild animal but not for humans. We are supposed to live beyond the basic biological drives and set our sights beyond primitive motives. We are, however, unable to do that apart from God.

The Passion Translation sheds additional light on this passage, “Only the withering soul would say to himself, “There’s no God for me!” Anyone who thinks like that is corrupt and callous; depraved and detestable, they are devoid of what is good. The Lord looks down in love, bending over heaven’s balcony. God looks over all of Adam’s sons and daughters, looking to see if there are any who are wise with insight – any who search for him, wanting to please him. But no, all have wandered astray, walking stubbornly toward evil. Not one is good; he can’t even find one!” I think this shows a different interpretation on what David was saying in this psalm. It’s not just that humans are evil. It’s beyond that. The point seems to be that without God, we can only act as animals. It is ultimately God who gives us our humanity. It is our damaged souls which cause depravity. Without God in our lives we are not whole. We don’t know good even when we seek it.

God looks lovingly from heaven at us and grieves. He wants to help us, to impart a piece of Himself to each one of us. We were designed with that in mind. However, we are damaged and broken and can’t find our way. As a whole, we do not even search for Him. Don’t mishear me, people who aren’t Christians seek an ethic. In truth, some can be more kind than us. However, without our Father we just cannot find truth or real good. We can only find our version and I am sure to Yahweh, we look like so many lost souls searching for meaning and finding none. Additionally, there are those of us who seek only to serve ourselves. We must appear, to the Kind and Gentle One, like voracious beasts intent only upon feeding our hunger. O God, that we might have you in abundance and satisfy the savage beast within us!

We need not be brutish. We can serve a higher purpose, and so we were intended. Fools cannot know God because they are withered in their souls. They seek not the truth, but rather a variation of truth which satisfies their injured souls. We are not unclean because we do evil. We are unclean because we have not been washed with the love of God. Therefore, we do evil, we can do nothing but evil because we act with wrong motives. No walk without the Divine One is clean and pure because He is the source of light. This is not a criticism against non-Christians. It is an exposition of vanity. We are only empowered in Him. He is the source and we need that part of Him that makes us whole.

Understand the micro version of this truth as well as the macro. In the large, this is about humanity. The micro view is about you and it is a reflection of me. In small ways perhaps, or even in complete areas of our lives, we fail to incorporate Yahweh. Is He a part of your work life? Is He integrated into your approach to your family? Are we allowing Him to aid us in how we engage Him in every aspect of life? Do we carry Him through our workday only to abandon Him when we go out in the evening with our friends? Have we learned to shunt Him to the corner or perhaps are there rooms of our hearts which we have never allowed Him entrance? We cannot be our true selves without the Father. Is goodness in us? Goodness is Godness so we only have goodness in those areas we have allowed the dear Father to enter. Search your own life but also, let’s pray for our whole species, that we may find our way to fullness of truth and fulfillment in the Father.

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Hang On

On May 17, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Exodus 5: 22-23              (NIV)

Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”

Reading this makes me uneasy. My heart responds, “Moses, you better watch it talking to God that way.” Then as quick as a thought, my perspective changes because I know the rest of the story and I think, “Just wait Moses. God is coming and He is gonna show up big.”

I am willing to wager that there are few Christians who have not approached God with the same confusion. You know the promise of God. You are standing on that promise. You have quoted it, written it and you honestly believe God. Yet you look at the circumstances and think, “Hey God, wake up will ya? We’re dyin’ down here.”

Well, it is easy to have faith in God’s deliverance when you have read the rest of the book and know what happens. It is so joyful and you want to cheer when God moves. It is not so much fun, however, being in Moses’ shoes and we’ve all been there. You try to figure out what is going on since you are following God’s direction but it looks like the bad guys are winning.

Hang on! God bless you just hang on! Keep believing God and keep confessing His word. Just as was the case in Egypt with Moses, God is going to show up on the scene and lead you to the Promised Land. He is moving resources into place now. He will give Pharaoh one more chance not to doom himself but He, God, is going to rescue you. The only question is will he have to crush Pharaoh to do it. God would rather save you both but listen, He is going to bring you out of Egypt one way or the other and if He has to move a kingdom and a king to do it, well then, so be it. Don’t give up. Remember what happens at the end of the story. Your own story is not so different as Moses’. Believe me. And you are every bit as important to God. I know the end of your story too. You win! Now just hang in there and see your deliverance. Don’t give up and decide you will just stay in Egypt. Keep believing. Keep confessing God’s promises to you. You are going to win if you don’t quit.

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Killer God

On May 16, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Kings 17: 18

So she said to Elijah, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!”

What is that expression, the more things change, the more they stay the same? This might well have been said yesterday rather than long ago. There are two implications in the verse. The first one is that God punishes us for our iniquity by making bad things happen to us. The second is that it is God who takes life from people.

God answered this widow’s prayer when she was at the end of her rope with nothing to feed herself or her child. Elijah showed up, sent by God, and blessed her flour bowl and jar of oil such that neither ever ran empty. She received supernatural provision from God through Elijah. However, when her son died she immediately turned on Elijah and God blaming them for her son’s sickness and subsequent death.

Isn’t that about how we are today? When someone dies we say, “Well, God took them home.” Other people are even worse. When something bad happens they not only blame God, but they say He is punishing them for their sins. Hello!! That is a person who understands nothing about the message of the cross. Jesus took your sin and God said He doesn’t even remember it anymore. So, how is God going to punish you for something He doesn’t remember and that Jesus already paid for?

Elijah took the woman’s son to the upper room and prayed to God for the boy’s life to return to him and the boy was restored. Now, unless God is schizophrenic, it makes no sense to suggest he killed the boy. If He wanted the boy dead, He wouldn’t have brought him back to life. Or is God just a puppet master who sits in heaven playing games with us. “Hey, watch what happens when I kill this widow’s son!” You can’t know God and believe something like that. He is love and further, He doesn’t play silly games with people’s lives.

We forget, I guess, that there is a devil in the world. John 10: 10 teaches that Satan’s aim is to steal, kill and destroy. The verse does not say that God comes to kill. In fact, Jesus was speaking and said that he came to bring us abundant life. That is kind of the opposite of kill, steal and destroy.

It is amazing how twisted around we get but that is why it is called deception. God is a life giver. Blessing comes from the Father. He doesn’t even need to bring you trials. There is already plenty of that in the world. Is there anyone you love? I mean really love. Is there someone you love more than you love yourself? Do you wish to be a blessing to them or do you want to make their life a hardship? What does love do? Trust your Father to be the source of blessing. He is goodness and mercy. He will restore what the devil steals from you just like he did for the widow of Zarephath.

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Baal-perazim

On May 15, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Samuel 5: 20            NLV

So David went to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. “The Lord did it!” David exclaimed. “He burst through my enemies like a raging flood!” So he named that place Baal-perazim (which means “the Lord who bursts through”).

There is a common expression among Christians. We talk about receiving a breakthrough. When you have persisted against a problem or like David, an enemy, and the victory finally comes, we often characterize that as the breakthrough. This expression comes from David’s exclamation on God’s goodness.  You can see the breakthrough language more clearly from the New American Standard Bible which reads, “So David came to Baal-perazim and defeated them there; and he said, “The Lord has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters.” Therefore he named that place Baal-perazim.” I chose the New Living Version for today because of it’s compelling visual imagery. God breaks through like a raging flood! He comes all of a sudden and with great might.

Do you need a breakthrough? What have you been standing for, believing for? Declare, like David, that this is your Baal-perazim, your place of the bursting forth of God’s power. God is our victory, not our own might and that was one of the secrets of David’s breakthrough as you can see in his language. He said, “The Lord did it!” What you don’t see is that before he even went out to battle, he prayed. He prayed until he heard God’s answer. Once he was assured of God’s word and presence, he went out against the enemy and Yahweh delivered the enemy into David’s hands.

The theme of the previous paragraph is more than a sermon, it is an entire book. We need to pray and meditate, spend time with the Lord and listen to His voice. We must wait and be steadfast in our time with the Lord until we are certain of the instructions he has for us. Then, we can go forth in strength and power. We should never labor in our strength, never. God said, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” (Zechariah 4: 6). We are commissioned to move by God’s Spirit only. This is the partnership of which I frequently write. Before we engage in the war or even tomorrow’s to do list, we are commanded to first inquire of the Lord. That is what David did. He asked God what he should do, and he didn’t move until he had the Lord’s answer. Then with the Lord’s answer in our pocket, we move forward with the power of the Spirit. The Spirit then delivers the enemy into our hands or accomplishes the task or goal for us. Then we proclaim, “The Lord did it.”

There you go, the paradigm for success. Pray, wait if need be, hear God’s voice and then release His power into the situation. Then you, too, can declare God’s goodness and proclaim the day of the breakthrough for God will burst forth for you just like he did for David as you follow David’s success plan. Get God’s word, hearken to His voice. Perhaps then you will name your house Baal-perazim.

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Convinced

On May 14, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 52: 8 – 9              TPT

But I am like a flourishing olive tree, anointed in the house of God. I trust in the unending love of God; his passion toward me is forever and ever. Because it is finished I will be praising you forever and giving you thanks. Before all your godly lovers I will proclaim your beautiful name!

Yesterday I sent you the first seven verses of Psalm 52. I thought you needed to see how David finished this song. Not only is it beautiful but in the face of adversarial persecution, he stands in the love and the grace of his heavenly father.

The first seven verses have more to do with the wicked people and how God will deal with them. This second part is about us, those of us who put our faith, not in the work of our hands, our wealth or our righteousness, but only in the “unending love of God.” When David turns to thinking of himself his thoughts are filled with God’s love and his love for God. Praise and thanksgiving come immediately to his awareness. His trust is in that love, knowing that God’s love is not only unending, but also passionate. David had a real, palpable awareness of God’s love for him and it altered his life. I so look forward to hearing him sing his praises to our beloved Father and I am going to go stand beside him and join in. I imagine I will never experience any greater joy than I will in that moment. My God is so worthy, and it is an honor to get to praise him.

In this earth, we too can trust in God’s love the way David did and it will protect us. It will keep us calm in the midst of the storm. Even when your Saul or Doeg threatens, God will keep your peace. He will guard your heart and soon you too will be singing your praises to the Beloved One.

I wish we understood how much Yahweh loves us. I wish we understood how real the force of his love is. I wish we all understood how to stand in trust, leaning on our faith in that love. David was hounded and persecuted relentlessly yet a song was never far from his lips, praise in his wake. He says with confidence and conviction that though persecuted, “I am like a flourishing olive tree, anointed in the house of God.” Can you picture what image must have been in David’s mind when he wrote those words? Doeg did evil and of course it pained David. That is why he sought the Spirit and poured out this psalm. However, at the end of the day, David saw himself flourishing under God’s blessed anointing. He saw himself planted in the house of God where his roots went down deep and drew nourishment.

I am very grateful David gave us this psalm. I hope you will find comfort in it. Let all our enemies be on notice. God will rip them up by their roots, but we will be firmly planted in the garden of the Lord, enjoying his anointing.

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Vindicated

On May 13, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 52: 1 – 7         TPT

 

For the Pure and Shining One
A song of instruction by King David composed when Doeg, the Edomite, betrayed
David to Saul, saying, “David has come to the house of Ahimilech!”

 

You call yourself a mighty man, a big shot? Why do you boast in the evil you have done? Yet God’s loyal love will protect me and carry the day!

2 Listen, O deceiver, trickster of others: Your words are wicked, harming and hurting all who hear them.

3 You love evil and hate what is good and right. You would rather lie than tell the truth.

Pause in his presence

4 You love to distort, devour, and deceive, using your sly tongue to spin the truth.

5 But the Almighty will strike you down forever! He will pull you up by your roots
and drag you away to the darkness of death.

Pause in his presence

6 The godly will see all this and will be awestruck. Then they will laugh at the wicked, saying,

7 “See what happens to those great in their own eyes who don’t trust in the Most High to save them! Look how they trusted only in their wealth and made their living from wickedness.”

The word “Selah” means to pause and consider what you’ve read. Here is it rendered “Pause in his presence.” I felt compelled to stop and think about this when I read it. David used strong language and I could feel the conviction of his experience and emotion. Though pursued relentlessly, though treated unfairly, though spoken about untruthfully and harshly, David persisted in the grace of the Lord.

In verse seven I also hear, those “who brag in their wealth.” It is unseemly to begin with, but the greater sin is that they give no credit to God who causes them to prosper. They strut about like a peacock trying to gather praise, but their boasting is repugnant and odoriferous. In other words, it stinks. It is putrid in the nostrils of God and it doesn’t smell like roses to us either.

The Geneva Bible calls these people arrogant. Verse one in the God’s Word translation reads, “Why do you brag about the evil you have done?” None of us has anything to brag about except Christ Jesus and him crucified for us. We are nothing, absolutely nothing, apart from him. However, in him, we can shout, “glory” because Christ has redeemed us from ourselves. David endured all the hateful things said about him. He had to put up with Saul, and others, whose words were, “wicked, harming and hurting all who hear them” but David said, “Yet God’s loyal love will protect me and carry the day!”

Do you have one of these people in your life? Someone who lies and distorts, who uses their words to hurt others? Someone boastful and arrogant? Well, take heart for, quite literally, you will have the last laugh. Verse six and the first part of seven says, “The godly will see all this and will be awestruck. Then they will laugh at the wicked, saying, “See what happens to those great in their own eyes.” In verse one David wrote some very powerful words that I want you to absorb into your heart. He wrote, “Yet God’s loyal love will protect me and carry the day!” It’s so true. Believe me. God’s love will buoy you up and protect your heart in that day. No matter what that arrogant, tyrannical bully says of you or to you, no matter what evil they attempt to plot against you, the love of God will wrap you in a cocoon of protection. God, Himself, will be your forward and rear guard.

If you have a Saul in your life, pray for them. That is what Jesus told us to do and what he demonstrated himself. No one knows exactly what Saul’s damage was. Some say it was a mental disorder, some say he was influenced by evil spirits. Regardless, the damage was very real. His actions against David were ruthless and unjustified. David had more than one opportunity to kill him but passed up all the chances and restrained his men as well. David set a good example for us. If you will pray for them, even though they don’t deserve it, it will honor your Father and I can’t think of a better reason to do it.

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