Empty Handed

On May 22, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Samuel 9: 6 – 7

And he said to him, “Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and the man is held in honor; all that he says surely comes true. Now let us go there, perhaps he can tell us about our journey on which we have set out.” Then Saul said to his servant, “But behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread is gone from our sack and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?”

This passage arrested me when I read it recently because of the contrast in my own life. Saul, who would become the first king of Israel, and his servant were out searching for lost donkeys. They had exhausted every idea they had having searched widely for the missing livestock. So the servant got a bright idea. “Let us go and ask the man of God,” he suggested.

How many times do we wander around in the desert until finally we have spent all our strength? When we are exhausted and out of ideas we decide to inquire of the Lord. How much time and grief could we save if we would begin by asking God? This week I looked high and low for the straps to my roof top carrier. After I spent a crazy amount of time and was getting quite frustrated I stopped and asked God to help me. Duh! And you know the rest of the story. I went and looked again where I had looked before. They were not there but as I turned and was leaving I glimpsed a bit of black beneath a green bag and the thought immediately occurred to me that there, below that bag were the objects of my frantic search. Wow!  

I should know better but there you are. It seems we want to go to the lengths of our strength and ability before we involve God. That is not what Jesus is teaching us. We are to walk with him and with the Holy Spirit every single step, never on our own.

I love Saul’s response to his servant. He essentially asks, “What gift shall we give to the man of God?” Saul hesitated in going up the God’s servant because he had no offering to give. Reading Saul’s response caused me to think and I realized that never, not once in all of the times that I have gone to a pastor for help or advice have I taken a gift with me. Pastoring and ministering are not that different from the practice of law. In both professions one spends great amounts of time preparing so that when advice is needed the answer is readily available. It is not what the lawyer or pastor does in your presence that is critical. It is that time that she or he has spent before the Lord or in the books before you ever arrived, before, even, your problem ever arose that is of the utmost importance. A lawyer is going to charge us $250 an hour, or more, for advice but we really do expect our pastors to give away their knowledge for free. Interesting, huh?

So, here are two subtle changes that we can make in our lives that I truly believe will help our lives flow more smoothly and with greater blessing. Let us ask for God’s help in the beginning of everything we do and let us endeavor to be a blessing to our pastors, mentors and leaders. In his name, Amen.

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Grace Does Not Discriminate

On May 21, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 4: 9, 27, 40, 41

The Samaritan woman therefore said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He had been speaking with a woman.” So when the Samaritans came to Him, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His word.

Everyone needs a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus. It will change a life forever. This is the story of one Samaritan woman’s encounter with the Lord. Not only did it change her life but many came to believe because of her testimony. This story is recorded in verses 4 – 42. I have selected a few key verses which show the unusual nature of this encounter.

Jesus was sitting at Jacob’s well while his disciples went into town to buy food. A woman of Samaria approached in order to draw water so Jesus requested a drink of water from her. She was astonished. First of all, Jews didn’t speak to Samaritans. Second she was a woman. Strike two. Given the social structure of their times this woman should have been overlooked and she should never have had a personal encounter with the Messiah. Fortunately for all of us, Jesus is not constrained by social mores. He lives in the light and in truth.

The Samaritans and the Jews had a vicious debate over where to worship. That sounds ridiculous today but they were virulent in their disagreement, so much in fact that Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans. But this is not so different from today. There are cultures today that view others to be as low as dogs and wouldn’t even stoop to help them if they were in mortal peril. Even in our own country, the land of the free, we have a history of treating a group of people differently than others. Every ethnic group that has migrated here over the short history of our country has had to fight against racial prejudice. The Irish were treated horribly, the Poles, Japanese, Chinese and so on. And of course, there was the importation of Africans who did not migrate here willingly but were captured and brought here against their will. Each time the disfavored group was eventually accepted but they were replaced by another. Unfortunately, the church is sometimes the slowest group to accept integration of others. Women are still considered as subordinate actors in some congregations today, even in the face of this story and many others in the telling of Jesus’ earthly experience.

What Jesus did at the well that day was unheard of. It was against all church doctrine and wisdom. Had the Pharisees witnessed it they would have come apart at the seams. To engage with a lowly woman was bad enough but a Samaritan as well. That was heretical. Of course some people say we are all going to hell because we allow women to preach in our churches and some of us allow every type of person in our doors.

This Samaritan woman was responsible for the salvation of the men of her town because she ran back to town and preached Jesus. The men came out to him at the well and many believed. The first thing that happens when a person accepts Jesus into their hearts is a softening of the heart and outflowing generosity, so these men invited Jesus to come stay in their town. Incredibly Jesus accepted and he stayed two days. I don’t know if you can appreciate how outlandish this was but it was earth-shattering.

Throughout history there has been layer upon layer of prejudice for one reason or another. No sooner do we rise above one prejudice than we adopt another. It seems that we have a need for a disfavored group upon which we can cast our vitriol, but this is not Jesus’ way. He loved the Samaritans and he loved women. He treated everyone as a child of the Most High. He treated everyone with grace and respect, well, with one obvious exception. He didn’t care for pharisaical church leaders, but then that was only because of their actions. My guess is that he still doesn’t like Pharisees. When we withhold the love of God from any person because of some discriminatory prejudice then we have retreated from grace and when we put others under the judgment of the law we have just judged ourselves. We have condemned ourselves. Jesus gave us one commandment, to love one another as he himself loved us, and he demonstrated his own adherence to the commandment of love in his time on earth.

Grace is meant to be given freely, never to be withheld. The entrance of grace into the earth came at a high cost. To withhold it is to blemish the sacrifice of our dear Lord. Our course is simple; love everyone and let God sort out the sinners from the saints.

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On May 20, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

Matthew 11: 29 – 30

Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.

Here is a bit of familiar scripture but I want you to play a visualization game with me today. Picture two oxen yoked together and pulling a heavy wagon. You can see in your mind’s eye each of them pulling equally against the yoke. Now picture, if you will, Jesus standing with a yoke over his shoulders and no one standing in the other half of the yoke. You can hear him saying, “Come, be yoked with me. I will make your burden light.” Well, of course your burden is light when you are yoked with Jesus. He does all of the pulling and we just walk along beside him. That is how it is meant to be.

Jesus calls us to take our heavy burdens and throw them in the wagon. Then he takes up the yoke and begins to pull the cart. If you observe him, though, you will see that the wagon isn’t even heavy to him. He can pull it with ease. If you take that burden onto your shoulders, though, you find it much too heavy to bear. Jesus is telling us that he wants to be our partner in all things. He wants us to be yoked together so that he can help us carry the load. Take note that you are not sitting in the wagon while Jesus does all of the work. We walk side by side with our Lord. We have our little part to do but he does all of the hard part.

Don’t miss that he says that he is gentle and humble. Why does he say that in the midst of this talk of yokes? He tells us to learn from him. He will teach us. He will lead us into all truth. He will direct our paths always steering us in the right courses and if we begin to go astray he will correct our path. He is the lead ox, if you will allow me that analogy, and we follow where he leads. At all times while he is teaching us, leading us and even correcting he is always gentle and humble. Isn’t that good news?

I really like this imagery because we learn that all we have to do is walk. Jesus’ yoke is light, not really even noticeable as it sits on us. You begin to realize that you can do all things through this tandem pairing. You are never alone. He is with you every single step making sure that you never have a misstep. You come to Jesus with all your baggage, all your concerns and woes, and with all of your responsibilities, goals and dreams. He relieves you of all that weight taking it on to his shoulders and you are free.

Take ahold of this image today. Understand that you never have to walk alone. If you are tired and weary, take all of those burdens to the Lord and slip into the harness with him. You will receive rest and grace.

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Grace is Gentle

On May 19, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

Proverb 15: 1

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

One of the fruits of the Spirit is gentleness (Gal. 5: 22). In all our ways we are called to be gentle, even in our speech and our communication with others. I was reading a book this week wherein the author said that one of the biggest problems we suffer in the church is that we tell people the truth but we do it in a harsh manner. The truth ends up offending. People need to hear the truth because only then can they be free but if we deliver it in a manner that they cannot hear it then what is the point? In telling a person the truth we are usually trying to lead them into growth and self-improvement so that they will experience greater victory in their life. However, when we deliver it in a harsh manner they spend all of their energy defending themselves that they miss the truth. They will fight ‘til the death for a lie because their personalities must defend themselves. So, we have just lost the battle.

How can we reconcile a brother to the way if he cannot hear us? How can we stimulate growth in a person if their personality forces them into rationalization? The answer is that we cannot. I confess that I am most guilty of this error. I have always preferred that a person tell me the plain truth rather than the candy coated version because I didn’t want to miss the message. So I was geared for hearing the hard truth and much preferred that to living a life of ignorance or stagnation. Then I mistakenly assumed that everyone else was the same way so I have tended to shoot from the hip. I tell you the truth because I love you and I want the best for you but it does no good if it causes you offense. When a person has received a perceived punch, even if it is verbal, their nature is to defend themselves. It is an automatic reflex meaning that most of us cannot stop this response even if our mind realizes what is happening. Truthfully, though, at those times the mind tends to disengage except to the degree that is serves the personality as it tries to defend and repair itself.

My theory on leadership and parenting is to catch your employee or your child doing something right and praise them. I can’t say I perform perfectly according to this theory but I have seen how powerful this approach is. Too many times we as ministers see what is wrong and spend our breath and effort trying to correct it and perhaps parents and bosses fall prey to the same dynamic. We must recognize, however, that there are times we must correct others. In that time above all others we should embrace the principle from today’s verse. Speak gently with folks. This even applies to your spouse and children. If you are raising your voice and yelling at your spouse, child or employee you are only doing harm. You are damaging the person, your reputation and your relationship with them. There can still be consequences for people’s actions without demeaning their character by speaking to them harshly. A gentle response will turn away wrath while a harsh response will only provoke anger and their self-preservation mechanism. Once that mechanism is triggered then they will, even unwittingly, spend all of their energy justifying their action. So even if they were wrong in their act and even if in their heart of hearts they know they are wrong, that self-preservation instinct is so strong that they will end up reinforcing their position. This is not going to help people grow as Christians, grow into healthy adults, nor help them become model employees. And the damage you do to your spouse with harsh language is incalculable.

So, let us all try to hear the truth without becoming offended but also let us deliver the truth in the love that Christ has for each of us. We must love people into truth and change and inspire them to be all that God created them to be.

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Bless the Lord

On May 16, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 103: 1

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Let us stop and consider what this really means. What does it mean to you? Is this praise? I don’t think we ever can go wrong in offering praise and I believe that praise always blesses the Lord. However, I hear more in this entreaty than praise alone. The psalmist, David, sounds like he is pulling these lyrics and prayer up from his toes. He commands his own soul to bless the Lord and then He seems to rethink that statement. “Not only,” he might say, “do I demand that my soul bless the Lord but I want to bless Him with everything that is within me.”

This is one of those passages of scripture that is better felt than thought about. I say this because this is an emotional outcry from David and I do not believe we can connect with his sentiments or the words without tapping into something deeper in ourselves. This seems David’s course as well. He wanted His celebration of God to include every fiber of his being. He was reaching into his innermost being to express his great love for God. Have you ever felt that way?

I think when we desire to bless God we will tend to offer him praise and songs but I would wish that we would not overlook the full scope of opportunities to bless God. I wonder if there is any better way to bless Him than to simply say, “I love you Father. Thank you for being my Dad.” We can also bless Him by intentionally choosing courses of action that will please Him. I am thinking of the scenario wherein someone has caused hurt or offense in your life and you say to God, “You know what Father, I am going to choose to forgive that person because you want me to.” Surely He is blessed when His children behave in the ways He has directed us. I believe He is blessed when he watches us write our check to a ministry not because of anything we will get out of it but just because we want to be a blessing.

There are a number of ways we can bless our Lord and what David seems to express in this Psalm is a deep desire to avail himself of every single way he could think of to bless the Lord. His desire to bless the Lord may have even morphed into a deep need to be a blessing. Open that tender part of your heart today and try to connect with David’s heartfelt expression. Let everything within you reach towards the Lord and bless His holy name.

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What to do?

On May 15, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 6: 28 – 29

They said therefore to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

This week’s devotionals have touched on the “works of God.” We have mentioned briefly what they are not but in today’s passage Jesus tells us, succinctly, what the works of God are. The work of God is to believe in Christ whom God sent. It is easy to brush over this statement without giving it a great deal of thought but it is a key element in living a devoted and holy life, a life set apart. This statement should have Selah behind it meaning stop and think on this soberly before you move on.

In our flesh, we are creatures of action. The question we often pose is, “What am I to do?” Within that question is a presumption that the answer will contain an action verb. The answer Jesus gives us is that what we are to “do” is to believe. This is a tough answer for many of us. We are fixers. We want to engage our energy, our personalities and the strength in our bodies to “do” something. Our comfort zone is in reverting to “the work of our hands.” “Let me do something to fix this or to move this project forward.” It is very counter-intuitive that the response is to “do” nothing in the action sense of the word. Instead we are to be still and let God be God. Our part is to believe in the one whom He sent. This requires us to be actors in the realm of the Spirit rather than acting in the physical realm. How very odd and uncomfortable that is.

Let us take this one step further. What if the question posed is, “How do I please God?” Many of us have answered that question for ourselves with, “Do the works of God.” What are the works of God? To believe in His son. We usually rush off doing all sorts of “Good Works” but never please God because we have not done what He requires. He has called us all to become believers. This only happens in the still quiet of your prayer room. It is much more comfortable for us to run out and do something than to sit quietly with our Bibles and our Lord. The result is that we are becoming a body of doers rather than a body of believers. If you really want to please God, if you truly want to do the work of God then take the time to get alone with Him and build on your belief. Few of us are at the stage of believing to which God has called us. Once we develop our believing we will be able to accomplish more in our prayer closets than we ever could in running around “working.”

The Kingdom of God is in the spiritual realm. Therefore, in order to do the work of the kingdom you too will need to operate in the spiritual realm. Fear not though for Jesus is the king of this realm and your own big brother and personal confidant. Let him lead you and instruct you. Listen to him before you move. Inquire of him in all things. Then you will find your right path. Take some time to develop your spirit through prayer, study and meditation. Increase in believing. This is the work of God.

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Entering the Kingdom of Heaven

On May 14, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 7: 21 – 23

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you, DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.”

We are coming to understand that every person that says, “Lord, Lord,” will not necessarily enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is a fruit inspector. He is looking at the fruit we produce in our lives. Today’s passage is a continuation of what Jesus was teaching about good trees producing good fruit and bad fruit coming from bad trees; trees representing people. So, if the fruit is good we can judge the tree as good. If the fruit is bad, steer clear. We can know good fruit by determining if a person’s character traits line up or are consistent with Galatians 5: 22.  

We are also learning that no amount of “good works” is going to impress Jesus. We may say to him that we went to church every Sunday for 50 years, attended every event and have performed all sorts of miracles in his name, even casting out demons but even still if the fruit of the Spirit is not evident in our lives he will say to us, “I knew you not.” This would be a very frightening passage indeed if Jesus had not just taught verses 15 – 21, that he will judge us by our fruit rather than our works. That lets us know that we do not have to perform in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  

If you live in a works mentality you will never believe that you have ever done enough to earn your way into heaven and you will be right because there is nothing you could ever do that is even in the smallest way, even microscopically worthy of all that Jesus has done for you. He did not suffer enormous pain and humiliation so that we could try to impress the world, or him, with our good works. Here is the ridiculous truth. He did it all in exchange for our hearts. Wow! Didn’t he get a bad deal? That is all that he and the Father have ever wanted, our hearts and as small an offering as that may at times seem it is the greatest gift one can give.

Jesus tells us that the secret passkey to the Kingdom of Heaven is doing the will of the Father. The will of the Father is not hidden. He gave us an entire book in order to reveal His will for us. That is not to say that the Bible is a list of thousands of things we must do in order to fulfill God’s will. No, that is a works mentality again. If you read the Bible cover to cover you will see that there has always been just one thing. Over and over and over again Father has said the same thing. His desire, His will is for us is to receive Him as our God and Father and for us to be the people of His hand. He has always wanted a family, a people who will not rebel and leave Him. He is the Father in the story of the prodigal son. He just wants us to come home and love Him and allow Him to love us. This is the will of the Father. If you will open your heart and receive His love and allow Him to set up residence in your heart then He will receive you into the Kingdom of Heaven. And if you really want to see this in its fullness, once He has established His residency within you and you are living in Christ rather than in the flesh He has no way to stop you from entering the Kingdom of Heaven because you are in Christ and He in you, the Father in you, you in the Father and there can be no separation. You will never be separated from Christ or the Father for there is no power that can separate you from the love of the Father so you will have automatic entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, which you will just call home.

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