Lord of the Lunge

On October 4, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Proverb 3: 6

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

I was inspired, yesterday, by a group of athletes at the YMCA. Their enthusiasm for their workout is eclipsed only by their enthusiasm for their God. Recently I wrote a devotional about functional fitness and questioned what functional Christianity looks like. Yesterday I received my answer. Functional Christianity is in acknowledging God in all you do. For many of us, exercising our bodies is a singular task but what I found with this group is that they also exercise their spirits and their fellowship while flexing their muscles. After class, we were invited to pray together. What a blessing that was to me and I think God was honored to be a part of our workout.

When we go to work, to the grocery store or even when we are sweating and grunting with weights or a bicycle, there must still be space in our lives to acknowledge God. There should still be room in our hearts, minds and even our expressions with others to acknowledge and recognize our God. It is easy for us to get wrapped up in everything we do during the course of a day and never involve our Lord but if He is truly the Lord of our lives then He ought to have a place in everything we do. Whatsmore, His lordship ought to leave footprints on the paths of our life. His life leaves marks on our lives and those marks are, hopefully, visible to others. We begin in acknowledging God in all we do and then we start acknowledging God to others. We then find that we begin to leave footprints in other people’s lives. Our inclusiveness of God in all we do eventually envelopes people we encounter along the journey. The goodness of God is then expanded beyond its initial borders until eventually it reaches every person on earth.

It all begins with involving the Lord in all the activities of life. Take Him to work, take Him to the mall and definitely take Him to the Gym. Life is better when God is present. You may not be fond of lunges but they go much better when God is the Lord of the lunge.

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Hot Yoga

On October 3, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   2 Comments

Psalm 46: 10                          KJV

Be still, and know that I am God.

Today’s Word of the Day is dedicated to my friend, Marco Gravino. This past weekend I attended my high school class reunion. Marco and I attended school together from middle school until high school graduation. I am happy to know and happy to say that Marco is a man of faith. What a joy it is to discover after so many years that people you knew and cared about all those years ago have grown up to have strong faith in God. It is nourishment for the soul.

Marco was, and still is, an athlete. As we talked, we realized that we both have participated in hot yoga. The revelation we gained in yoga is that power is not the answer. In many western societies, the adage, “If you can’t fix it, get a bigger hammer,” is symbolic of our response to problems. We tend to apply power to fix a problem and if that doesn’t resolve it, we apply more power. In yoga, the typical athletic approach of using more force, more muscle simply does not work. When I could not get into a pose, I would muster more strength out of my muscles and try to force my body into the correct position. As all of you who practice yoga know, that is completely counter-productive. Learning to relax into a pose challenged everything in my athletic mindset.

The use of breath is completely different as well. As we muster strength out of our muscles we tend to hold our breath for a big exhalation at the end of an exertion. Yoga, which comes from eastern thought, would have you breathe smoothly and freely. When a pose challenges, you concentrate on relaxing breaths rather than focusing on muscle strength. It is completely counter-intuitive and yet it works.

Marco and I talked about how this is a metaphor for life and Marco said it would make a good Word of the Day to which I heartily agreed. I have found that my life has been punctuated by this tendency to try harder, strive more, push harder. As I am learning to be still and let God be known, I find the secret is very much like yoga. I needed to learn to breathe and relax. This has been the single biggest revelation in my Christian life in the last fifteen years. It has been especially critical in my ability to hear God speak. The New American Standard Version of this verse reads, “Cease striving and know that I am God.” Well, “strive” was my middle name. My characteristic response to a challenge was to work more hours, work faster, work harder. In other words, apply more strength and more power. In my attempts to hear God’s voice, this straining and striving actually made it more difficult. I had to learn to be still. I cannot express what a challenge that was for me. First I would get my body still only to have my mind run rampant. Then I would try to quiet my mind. Before five minutes passed I was usually bouncing my leg or off thinking about all the things I needed to do.

The secret for me was in learning to breathe and even learning how to breathe. I found that in my striving mode, I tended to breath shallowly and from my chest. I learned, though, to breathe from my diaphragm and to breathe deeply and slowly. Now, with one deep breath and a full exhalation, I can instantly calm down my physiology and my mind. Sure, it took practice but I have finally discovered that when I am still and quiet, God can be God. There is room for Him in my mind and heart when I pause long enough to breathe. He is waiting to impart wisdom to me but I must be still so I can hear. When I calm my physicality, when I cease striving, then I give Him the space to act for me. He gets to be God instead of me.

Life is happening all around us every day. Life lessons are in the next breath. From learning how to relax into a yoga pose rather than trying to muscle into it, I learned a valuable spiritual principle and life skill. Relax, be still and let God show Himself. Thanks Marco for pointing out how God is teaching and leading us, giving us valuable life lessons in our everyday walk with Him. Be still, cease striving and let God ease you into your yoga pose and your new revelation with Him.

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Hideaway

On October 2, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 18: 2

The Lord is my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

This is not an unfamiliar scripture to you nor is the concept foreign. What we may not have considered, though, is the practical application involved and implied in this verse. One of the things I am doing these days which is bringing enlightenment to my thinking is that I am reading verses from a very pragmatic perspective. Beyond the poetic verse, and the almost ethereal ideals, there must be a practical application in order for these verses to have gravity in my very present life. “Thanks, David, for showing us your relationship and interaction with the Father but how do I apply that to my here and now?” That is the continual question I endeavor to answer on a daily basis.

I like to think that the Lord is our refuge and fortress as well but when David wrote, “in whom I take refuge” what do you suppose he actually did? Was this just a figure of speech or was there something affirmative he did? I think for us to run into the refuge of our hiding place we must actually engage in some kind of intentional act. Perhaps that act is prayer or meditation. I do not think that accepting the concept of God as our rock, shield and stronghold is the same as taking refuge in Him. I perceive from David’s words that when the pressure was on, he stopped looking to himself as the source of strength and instead went to the Lord in his spirit, in his mind and in his prayers. I think his retreat into the Lord was so real that it was all but a physical sequestration.

There is a level of surrender and release in this escape into the fortress of the Lord. It calls on God to be the strong savior while we rest in the shadow of His presence. We can, quite literally, I believe, hide ourselves away in who God is.

This taking these verses literally instead of figuratively is where the revelation begins to pour out like a summer rain and we begin to see real world application for what otherwise might be mere poetry to others. In all these high ideals there is the real world and God is one for real effects. What seems like a purely spiritual idea is really a God idea that is effectuated through the Spirit but with real impact on real lives. We, therefore, can read the Bible with that in mind and thus find the means for it to change our lives forever.

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Seed Supplier

On September 29, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Corinthians 9: 10

Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

The first thing any of us needs to understand about God is that He is love and that everything He does is out of love. One of the next things to understand is that He operates by the principle of sowing and reaping. Your life and your understanding will be so much easier once you grasp that truth. So now, let’s apply this simple truth.

As you see, God is the one who provides seed to the sower. Who is the sower? You better hope it is you. He sows into our lives so that we can sow into other lives. If we are not sowers, why would God give us seed? When your harvest comes in, you give Him 10% of it, the first 10%. That is called the tithe.

Your own finances, you will find, work in much the same way. You are given your seed. You sow into the kingdom, return ten percent back to He who provided the initial seed and you get ninety percent to work with. However, you, like your father, are a giver so you continue to sow seed into the kingdom. That seed comes back to you. In the same way that we give ten percent of our harvest back to God, your harvest comes back on every wave. From the Father’s initial seed, the harvest is multiplying.

The seed that you sowed into your church or other ministry is invested into the Kingdom where another crop is produced. That ministry returns ten percent to the Father and sows more seed into the Kingdom. This is the sheer beauty and force of multiplied seed. It can cover the earth in a short time but what happens when someone clogs up the works?

Did you know that the Garden of Eden was a seed garden? Adam and Eve’s job was to take the seed from the garden and multiply it across the entire earth. It was a big job but a simple one really. When they didn’t perform their part of the equation, they broke the whole machine. Actually, the whole fight between Cain and Abel was over the tithe. Cain didn’t want to tithe. He was rebellious. Abel was joyous in his tithe and we know that God loves a cheerful giver, so Cain was jealous and committed the first murder.

God gave the first family all the seed they needed to populate the entire earth with plants and vegetables. The entire earth would have been an Eden, a utopia. Instead, they lusted after the one thing that was God’s. That tree, I believe, represented their tithe. They, like so many of us, ate their tithe. In that meal was death and estrangement. It is the very same for us today. We commit the same crime of Adam. We don’t give what we should and we consume what we should not. In so doing, we break the system that was meant to prosper us. The machine works if you work it or we can be like Adam, Eve and Cain. We clog up the flow of God’s provision and then we wonder why we are not more blessed. The only one in the family that joyfully blessed the Lord was killed so there was no good example left in the earth, only selfish, greedy people. Surely we can learn from their example and not make the same mistakes again, and again, and . . ..

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Aromatic Imitation

On September 28, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ephesians 5: 1

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ love us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

We have been told that the Christian life is one of imitating Christ. The Apostle Paul told us to imitate him as he imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 11: 1). Did you ever consider being an imitator of God? Can you even wrap your head around that idea. In truth, though, to imitate Christ is to imitate God but somehow it seems easier to think about since he was a man and walked the earth. Imitating Paul puts it one step closer to us but then he tells us to imitate God, doing the things He does, thinking the way He thinks.

Children naturally mimic their parents and that is what Paul is getting at here. The first leg of the stool is that we are children of God. Paul takes that very seriously and very literally. The rest of his thoughts lean upon this premise. If we are truly the children of God, then we have His DNA and we have His heart. We are in every way tied to Him and are of Him so that we can replicate His actions and thoughts. That is a pretty huge concept.

The leading expression of being a child of God is to walk in love for God is love. Jesus, God’s first child, demonstrated the DNA of God in his love for us. He gave. John 3: 16 tells us that because God so loved the world, He gave. So, when Jesus gave all, he was imitating his father. Neither was selfish. Jesus did as he saw his father do. He put all of us before his comfort, needs or desires. Our need trumped his. That is what love does. It puts others first.

Do you see also that Jesus’ offering was fragrant? How often have you thought of the passion of Christ as fragrant? God, however, sees, smells and tastes the beautiful aroma of love. Wherever love is expressed, the scent wafts up to heaven as a fragrant aroma. When you praise God and worship Him, He not only hears your words but He tastes the delicate flavor of your love. Our praise rises to His throne room to flood His senses with joy and pleasure.

In this you see that it really isn’t that difficult to bless the Lord or to minister to Him. The expression of love fills His throne room with pleasant aromas and tickles His palate with divine flavors. As we love others the way Yahweh and Jesus love us, we color the environment with beauty and luscious aroma. It was love that created the earth and love that saved us from hell. As we imitate the Father in love, we create beauty too and when you get to heaven you will be able to fully appreciate your creation.

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Angel Up

On September 27, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 4: 11

Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

In yesterday’s Word of the Day, I referred to temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness after the Spirit impelled him to sojourn in the wilderness. As you well know, no temptation ever overcame Jesus’ resilience and faith. Obviously, though, he was tempted. He vanquished the foe with his absolute reliance on the Word of God and in so doing, paved the way for our victory in every situation.

There is an interesting note, however, after he defeated the devil. The devil fled and in came angels, plural. Angels went to Jesus and ministered to him. Ask yourself how they ministered to him. What were his needs after being alone in the desert in excess of forty days. Surely he was hungry and thirsty. Perhaps his skin was parched and he was probably filthy. So now imagine how the angels met Jesus’ needs.

We so easily and quickly read over these passages, giving them little thoughtful consideration. What does an angel look like? From this text we perceive they are not just cloud like, ethereal images which cross our minds’ eye. They must have real substance if they met Jesus’ physical needs. I don’t think they just hovered over him like a vapor speaking words of encouragement.

Satan understood about angels, afterall, he used to be one. In Matthew 4: 6 we see him quoting Psalm 91: 11 – 12, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You’; and ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’” He knows what the Word says and he understood the angels role and power in this tableau. The word which strikes me in this passage is “hands.” You may have thought about what angels look like. Do they have substance or are they nebulous cloud like figures? In this passage we see they have hands. It was with their hands that they ministered to Jesus’ needs. They didn’t just blow a cool breeze across his face. They carried in their hands the substance of his recovery, probably food and water. Maybe one of the angels washed his face with cool water. Maybe another made a foot bath for him. The point is that they are not inconsequential, tenuous beings. They are not figures of one’s imagination and most importantly, they are not floating around in heaven doing nothing other than singing. They are real beings with real purpose.

Segue to what this means to us. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1: 14). We are comfortable with the idea of guardian angels for children. I am not sure where we get that idea unless it from the aforementioned Psalm 91 or Matthew 18: 10, but then doesn’t it beg the question, “Where does one’s angel go upon adulthood? And at what age does that happen?” It seems a little silly to me if I take the time to think about it. Why would Father ever recall an angel He assigned to one of us? My friend, Dr. Charity Kayembe, would argue strongly and convincingly that our angels are still with us. In fact, she has written a very enlightening piece on angels. Visit her ministry website at www.glorywaves.org and see her article, Everyday Angels www.glorywaves.org/angels-101.

I just read an interesting booklet by Kenneth E. Hagin in which he gave his angels specific tasks. It inspired me even as I realized that mine were probably really bored. Angels are spirits which help us. You can communicate with them. They are not fat little cherubs floating around on clouds. They are effective employees of the Almighty sent here to earth to help us. As we broaden our understanding of all things spiritual, we should include a deep knowledge of the angels and their role in the earth, as well as their role in our lives. We have a major resource at our hands that we have largely ignored. Today is a good day for us to begin to rectify that egregious oversight. Amen.

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I See You

On September 26, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Mark 1: 10 – 12

And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heaves; “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased.” And immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.

You know this story. It is the account of when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. There is a lot to love in these three verses but I want to bring your attention to the Holy Spirit. there is so little we know about him. However, we can glean some insights through these mentions of him.

The first observation we may make is that the Holy Spirit is not invisible. We can see him. In fact, I have. Moreover, as soon as I saw him, I knew who it was. It was not scary in the least. Honestly, seeing him seemed completely normal as if he is supposed to appear in our lives every day.

Many people associate the image of a dove with the Spirit. I don’t really. I hear the “like a dove” describing the descent, the flight rather than the image. From what I saw, the Spirit was powerful and at the same time gentle. There absolutely was a graceful power in his visage, more like a ballet dancer than a football player.

Today’s verse also shows us that the Spirit can “impel” a person. Impel means to drive, force or urge someone to do something. Urge is the closest meaning. Otherwise the author would have used the word compel, which has a stronger meaning. God does not tend to force us into courses of action. He likes to suggest positive tracks but we get to choose. Jesus chose to follow the course the Spirit directed. He went out into the wilderness where he was tempted and tried but he proved himself and he put Satan on notice that there was a new Sheriff in town.

The Holy Spirit is with us as he was with Jesus. He can suggest paths for you as well. In truth, he probably already is. We have to develop our sense of hearing and that is fine. It is okay to walk before you run. Actually, I think it is suggested to learn in that fashion. Some of us like to jump straight into the deep water but it is okay to show wisdom and wade in first. Just pay attention to those little ideas that come to you during the day. If they are impelling you to lie or camouflage the truth, it’s not the Holy Spirit. If the idea sounds like something God would tell you to do, or if it lines up with Biblical principles, then it probably is the Spirit. I can promise you this, it you feel impelled to give something, it ain’t the devil. Listen to your spirit today, you just may hear the voice of The Spirit.

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