Friday, December 14, 2012

  

"The Kingdom of God is like . . . .
a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant
in the ground.  Yet when planted, it grows and becomes
the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the
birds of the air can perch in its shade."
Mark 4:30-32

Jesus told a story about a tiny mustard seed growing into a huge tree.  If you were a first century
historian having watched the meteoric rise of the Roman Empire and then having watched this Nazarene named Jesus rounding up a few non militant followers, who would you have bet on as most likely to change the world?

God thought it best to reduce himself to the size of an uncultured peasant in order to redeem the universe.  God must think that "little" matters.  Not only that, He must think that "little" works . . . .

I recall this sentence from the book, The Shack,  "If anything matters, everything matters."  If I, with
only mustard sized faith, do anything, no matter how small, then God may grow it to become far more influential in building God's Kingdom than anything I could ever hope or imagine.  That's how God's Kingdom grows, from the bottom up, from the margins in, from the least to the largest, from small to big, from the acorn to the oak.

"If anything matters, everything matters."

"Lord, help me today and each day to pay attention to the simple details of the needs of those around me so that I don't miss taking the small action that you could use to 'move a mountain'.    Amen."

 

                                                        December 12, 2012

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. . . . .
"This is what the kingdom of God is like.  A man scatters seed on the ground. 
Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though
he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain -- first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.  As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." Mark 4:26-29

Christians Believe that Jesus is the Only Hope that the World Has.
Why is that?

Monday's blog recalled Jesus' teaching that underlying all of the world's problems is the sin which dwells within you and me.  Planet earth houses 7 billion people each of whom views the rest of the world as revolving around him or her.  We are self-centered creatures and that leads to conflict, war, death, divorce, poverty, and environmental destruction.   We are all about ourselves rather than God.  Therefore the one hope for our world lies in the possibility of changed hearts, hearts into which God plants His kind of life so that we are motivated to serve Him rather than ourselves.

It's as if God plants a seed of Himself into each believer and causes that seed of Himself to grow, something like His having planted a seed into Mary and from within her the new life of Jesus grew.  Therein is the hope of the world, the possibility of such a thing taking place in lives all over the planet.

Your part and mine is to allow ourselves to be the fertile soil in which that life can grow.  How?  We can worship, connect regularly with other believers, practice the disciplines of prayer and Bible reading, and choose to live beyond ourselves, as "circle four" believers.

"Lord, it is astonishing that you came to earth to bring us back to you and that you continue to live with us.  Help us Lord to keep our soil fertile so that you may increase and we may decrease.    Amen."

December 10, 2012

As a response to the Pharisee's criticism of the disciples for not following the letter
of the law, Jesus said this,
"It's what comes out of a person that pollutes:  obscenities, lusts, thefts,
murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks,
slander, arrogance, foolishness --  all these are vomit from the heart. 
There is the source of your pollution."
Mark 7:7-23 (Msg)

Why Did God Come to Earth?

C.S. Lewis wrote, "[Jesus] came to this world and became a man to spread the kind of life he has -- by what I call a 'good infection'.  Every Christian is to become a little Christ.  The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else."

Jesus did not come to earth to socialize us into Christian behaviors.  He came to infect us with a new kind of life.  The heart depicted above needs infused with the life of Jesus, which, as it grows within, chokes out the old and permeates the heart with the new.

But you do have a part in this transformation.  I call it "strategic positioning" which means that each of  us must put ourselves in a position where that new life of God can make its way into us.  That will be the subject of Wednesday's blog.

"Lord, it is so hard and disheartening to look into my heart and see the pollution that is still there.  Yet, thanks to You, to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit, that is not all that is there.  May your life within me increase even as my sin dies away.  Amen."

November 21, 2012

"If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him."
Matthew 7:11 (NLT)

I still think that one of the two or three best daily spiritual practices is being thankful.....just    tell God, "thank you" in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  Do it all the time, it never gets old.  Your confidence in God will grow, your joy will increase, you will complain less    
 and you will see the world optimistically more often.                                                               

               
Try this.  At your Thanksgiving table before dinner give everyone a kernel of corn.  Then pass a jar around the table.  Each places their kernel of corn into the jar after verbalizing what they are grateful for.  Then conclude with a prayer of Thanksgiving.  If you want to get really biblical, pray as Jesus taught us to pray, saying (with a Thanksgiving twist). . . .

     "Our Father in heaven,
            may your name always be kept holy.
     May your kingdom come
            and what you want be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.
     (Thank You for giving) us the (abundance of) food (family and friends)
            we need for each day.
     Forgive us for our sins,
            just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.
     And do not cause us to be tempted
            but save us from the 'Evil One'.
     (For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever and ever, Amen)"
                                                                        Matthew 6:9-13 (NCV)

November 20, 2012

 

Would you say that your life is built on the Rock?

"Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds
a house on solid rock.  Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise
and the winds  beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock. 
But anyone who hears  my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds
a house on sand.  When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that
house, it will collapse with a mighty crash."
Matthew 7:24-27 (NLT)

                                              "Salvation is Confidence in God"
                                                                                      Dallas Willard

          I really like this definition of salvation by Dallas Willard.  My sins were dealt with
          on the cross but Jesus kept telling people just like you and me that we must "believe."

          Rob Prestowicz of Urban Promise told me once that he thinks the thing that i
          mpressed Jesus most above all things was the faith that he witnessed in certain
          people.  "Believe", "trust", "faith" . . . . perhaps in day to day living they all boil down
          to confidence. . . . confidence that God knows what He's doing and that He knows
          what He's doing with your life.
      

"Lord, I am asking you to lead me to that new level of faith which is Life on the Rock. 
Take me beyond intellectual belief to a confidence in You that I feel in my chest, gut, and emotions.    Amen"

November 19, 2012

 

"You are the salt of the earth . . . ."
Matthew 5:13

In the first part of Jesus teaching on the hillside, Jesus taught that  God's "Good Life" is available to all, the worst of sinners included ("you are the salt of the earth").

In the second part of His teaching, Jesus illustrated how radically different the Good Life is from the life that we think is good, but never works.  (Salt gives a new taste to the "usual")

In the third part of Jesus teaching, He teaches us the "how-to" of having a vibrant inner life with God (salt must retain its "saltiness").

It is the crucial reminder that you cannot give away what you yourself do not have.

Read Matthew 5:21 through 7:23 and notice how "salt retains its 'saltiness'" through giving to the needy, praying in private, fasting in private, storing treasures in heaven rather than on earth, not fretting about tomorrow, telling God what your needs are, refusing to judge, and making sure your  life is built on what Jesus taught.
      

"Lord, guide me to position myself so that I received from You everything you want to give to me, so that I can give those same things to others."    Amen"

November 16, 2012

"God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat.  In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.  Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous.  And when we take your gifts to those who need them they will thank God.  So two good things will result from this ministry of giving -- the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God."
2 Corinthians 9:10-12(NLT)

God will "produce a great harvest of generosity in you."

       As you prepare to dedicate a portion of your income as "Holy to the Lord"  (Leviticus 2
       7:30), know that God is using this commitment as a means to remake you into the
       image of His Son.  God not only wants to bless you so that you can bless others, He
       wants to grow something in you, a "harvest of generosity", which blesses God, others
       and you, so much so that  . . . ..

"You will be enriched in every way."

       This is simply the way God set up the world to work.  Givers are the receivers.  My
       prayer for you is that, as you decide by what amount you will increase your % of giving
       to the Lord in 2013, you will find yourself "enriched in every way."
       
"The needs of (others) will be met."

       I pray that you will experience the blessing, not of "having to give", but of "getting to
       give."

"They will thank God for you."

       In God's economy, the rewards that last are not monetary, material or economic. 
       God's rewards come from within your obedience to him.  One cannot put a price on the

       reward of receiving the genuine gratitude of another.
      

"Lord, I pray that my act of dedication this Sunday will be received by you "as Holy to the Lord."   Amen"

November 14, 2012

      "The one who plants generously will get a generous crop. . . And God will generously 
       provide all you need.  Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left 
                              over to share with others."     2 Corinthians 9:6-9(NLT)

"The one who plants generously will get a generous crop."

       The first great revolution in human history happened when someone dropped some
       seeds on the ground and thought, uh oh, I just wasted part of my meal for tonight, only
       to discover that something more abundant grew from the seeds.  The result was
       farming and civilization. Before this, to deliberately throw something valuable onto the
       ground looked foolish.  But someone did and life happened.  It has been said that all
       human civilization has been built on this one observation.  It is not a command.  It is just
       how things are.  "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a
       solitary grain of wheat.   But if it dies, it will be a rich harvest"  (John 12:24).  When I
       plant what is for me something sparse into the soil of God's economy, then these two
       things happen. . . . . . . . .


"And God will generously provide all you need"
      
"Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others."
     

"Lord, lead me to lead my family this week to be planters so that, as we do so, You will provide, probably not everything we want, but certainly everything we need.  And as we do, thank you for the gift of having plenty left over to share with others..  Amen"

November 13, 2012

 

"You must each decide in your heart how much to give.  And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure.   For God loves a person who gives cheerfully."
2 Corinthians 9:7 (NLT)

"You must each decide in your heart."
       On Sunday each of us will dedicate a portion of our income to the Lord.  My challenge
       to myself and to you is to determine the % of your income you now give to God and
       then to increase that % for 2013.  It is that % which each of us will dedicate to the Lord. 
       Of course your giving will increase ministry to others through CLC but perhaps the
       biggest thing it will do is grow you spiritually.  Each step you take toward tithing and
       beyond is a holy step.  Those who grow in giving are those who grow in Christ.

"And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure."
       Do your best not to give out of guilt, pressure, or reluctantly.  Seek the "want to". 
       Where the "want to" is, there is the prompting of God.  However, it also works the other
       way around.   The discipline to act against your desire not to give often creates a
       breakthrough to the heart of God.  Thus it is also true that where disciplined obedience
       is practiced, there is the Spirit of God.

"For god loves a person who gives cheerfully."
       Personally the best view of giving that I know of is to make sure my giving hurts at
       least a little bit.  But, after I've done what hurts (and therefore know that actual sacrifice

       is involved), then I'm happy.  I feel God's Spirit saying "well done" and I count that as
       cheerful!


"Lord, guide me this week as my family and I make a commitment to give that honors You.
Thank you, Lord.  Amen"

November 12, 2012 - Learning to Give

Learning to Give

 

Our generosity to God and others not only touches God and other people; it also changes us. As human beings, we were created with the need to be generous. When we are not generous in giving of what we have, we have not only a financial problem but also a spiritual problem.

To use a somewhat graphic yet extremely effective analogy, it is as if we have become financially and spiritually constipated. We keep taking in, but we’re not giving out. After a while, it becomes uncomfortable and causes us pain. Sometimes we may not even realize what is happening. We’re taking in, but it is not satisfying us because we were not made to take in and never give anything back. We were created for generosity. Over time, we become self-absorbed, money-consumed, joyless people. This is what a lifetime of financial and spiritual constipation looks like: joylessness.

The only way to find relief is to learn to give. When we are generous—to God and to our families, friends, neighbors, and others who are in need—our hearts are filled with joy. They are enlarged by the very act of giving. When we give generously, we become more generous. That is how generosity works.

In the beginning, we may be hesitantly generous. We may be reluctant. But something happens to us in the midst of our giving, and we find ourselves becoming more generous. In this respect, generosity is similar to love and gratitude. Sometimes we may not feel love, but when we choose to act in loving ways, loving feelings begin to flow. Sometimes we may not feel like giving thanks, but the best way to cultivate a heart of gratitude is to give thanks in all circumstances. Likewise, the more we give, the more generous our hearts become.

Generosity changes us, filling us with joy and filling our lives with blessings. When we are generous with what we have, we find that unexpected blessings flow back into our lives, catching us by surprise. Somewhere along the way, as we see our acts of generosity helping others and perhaps even changing the world, we say in wonder and amazement, “Wow, look what happened,” and we find ourselves blessed. What’s more, as our generosity blesses others, they are changed, too.

(adapted from Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity)

Four Spiritual Action Steps  

     Determine what % of your gross income you currently give God.
     Find a way to increase that percentage.  Discuss this with your family.
     As you do, note your feelings, thoughts and attitudes.  What do you notice?
     Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, 9:6-15

As you do each of the above, the Lord will be revealing things to you about Himself and yourself!  What are you discovering?

         Comment  

 

You Are What Others Need
November 9, 2012    

       



       

            "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be  
            made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out
            and trampled by men."

           You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people  
            light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light
            to everyone in the house. ¹ In the same way, let your light shine before men, that
            they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."   
                                                                                         Matthew 5:13-16 (NIV)
       This is astonishing.

       Jesus has just offered a list of people which includes lost causes, moral disasters, drug
       lords, grubby people, those who feel inferior, those who feel superior, those who are
       worldy, codependent, rejected and spiritual zeroes.   Yet he says they can have a
       happiness that transcends anything that anyone else on earth experiences.

       THEN Jesus tells us that it is THEY who will make the world work right!  It is they who
       are the preservative and spice and flavor that the world needs.  It is they who are the
       light by which others can navigate to the Good Life which God offers in Jesus Christ.

       Fascinatingly and frighteningly Jesus says that His follows, you and I (who can be found
       on Jesus list!) ARE (not should be, but ARE) the salt and light of the world.

       IMPLICATION:  You, not someone else, carry within you what others in your sphere of
       influence need.    Jesus blessed, yes even you, to be the exact blessing that others
       need.

       In a very real sense YOU ARE WHAT OTHERS NEED.   Take some time today to
       visualize what this could look like  at home, work, church or in the community.   

       “Lord, this humbles me.   Please take this “busy with the wrong things” person . . .
       me . . . and use me as YOU wish in the lives of others.    Amen”

 

 

November 2012
HIS EXHIBITIONS OF SPARKLING VIRTUOSITY

C.S. Lewis understood that in allowing ourselves to fully experience and enjoy the pleasures of the world around us as God intended, we are giving Him both thanksgiving and praise.  Lewis writes in his book, Letters to Malcolm:  Chiefly on Prayer:

I have tried. . . to make every pleasure into a channel of adoration.  I don't mean simply by giving thanks for it.  One must of course give thanks, but I mean something different.  How shall I put it?

We can't - or I can't - hear the song of a bird simply as a sound.  Its meaning or message ('That's a bird') comes with it inevitably - just as one can't see a familiar word in print as a merely visual pattern.  The reading is as involuntary as the seeing.  When the wind roars I don't just hear the roar; I 'hear the wind.'  In the same way it is possible to 'read' as well a to 'have' a pleasure.  Or not even 'as well as.'  The distinction ought to become, and sometimes is, impossible; to receive it and to recognize its divine source are a single experience.  This heavenly fruit is instantly redolent of the orchard where it grew.  This sweet air whispers of the country from whence it blows.  It is a message.  We know we are being touched by a finger of that right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore.  There need be no question of thanks or praise as a separate event, something done afterwards.  To experience the tiny theophany is itself to adore.

Gratitude exclaims, very properly, 'How good of God to give me this.'Adoration says,  'What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!'  One's mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun.

If I could always be what I aim at being, no pleasure would be too ordinary or too usual for such reception; from the first taste of the air when I look out of the window-one's whole cheek becomes a sort of palate-down to one's soft slippers at bed-time.
I don't always achieve it.  One obstacle is inattention.  Another is the wrong kind of attention  One could, if one practiced, hear simply a roar and not the roaring-of-the-wind.  In the same way, only far too easily, one can concentrate on the pleasure as an event in one's own nervous system - subjectify it - and ignore the smell of Deity that hangs about it.  A third obstacle is greed.  Instead of saying, 'This also is Thou,' one may say the fatal word Encore.  There is also conceit:  the dangerous reflection that not everyone can find God in a plain slice of bread and butter, or that others would condemn as simply 'grey' the sky in which I am delightedly observing such delicacies of pearl and dove and silver.

What sparkling flashes of God's wit and brilliance - His coruscations - have caused your mind today to run back up the sunbeam to the sun and given you cause to give thanks and to worship the Lord? 
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.   1 Timothy 6:17 (ESV)

C.S. Lewis, Letter to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (New York: Harcourt, 1992), pp. 89-90
"Reflections" is published monthly by the C.S. Lewis Institute.

"Happy are you when . . . "

November 7, 2012      

       

 

           "Blessed are the pure in heart (perfectionists, picky and legalistic)
                                                                             for they will see God.
            Blessed are those who work for peace ("middle of the road-ers" who are criticized 
            for not taking sides)                                 for they will be comforted.
            Blessed are persecuted for doing right (go off the deep end and take a stand)
                                                                            for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
            Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice (burn with desire to see things
            made right)                                              for they will be satisfied.
            Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds
            of evil against you because of me."            Rejoice and be glad, because great is
                                                                            your reward in heaven, for in the same
                                                                            way they persecuted the prophets who
                                                                            were before you.        Matthew 5:8-12      

The Greek word “makarios” is the word translated as “blessed” or “happy”.   It’s a hard word to render correctly.  It connotes a state of “beatitude”.   It signifies a change of status from “unblessed” to the highest type of blessedness and wellness that can possibly be attained.   And this state of wellness is available to anyone!           

 

I’ve concluded that it is wrong to view the beatitudes as “to do’s”   They are not a list of attitudes to strive for so that you will be blessed by God.    They are not “be – attitudes” (if you “be” this, then good things will come about)   Actually there’s nothing “to do” at all.     Jesus is simply announcing that he has come to offer the “lost causes” and the hopeless of this world the good life.    God helps those who DON’T help themselves!

Once again, take note of the elaborations on the scriptures above and take heart that God has come to bring Good News  . . . . . yes. . . . even to you.  

“Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you!   Help me to live each day out of gratitude rather than out of poverty of spirit, guilt and the need to do, earn, deserve, merit, or perform.    Lord, your mercies are new every day.   Even for me.     Amen”

God's Blessings are Indiscriminate
November 6, 2012 
           

 

             "Blessed are the poor in spirit (spiritually deficient, “zeroes”, spiritually bankrupt) 
                                                                                for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
              Blessed are those who mourn (paralyzed by pain)
                                                                                for they will be comforted.
              Blessed are the meek, (shy, unassertive, intimidated, feel undeserving)
                                                                                for they will inherit the earth. 
              Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice (burn with desire to see things
              made right)                                               for they will be satisfied.
              Blessed are the merciful (those who are despised as unrealistic and taken
              advantage of)                                           for they will be shown mercy”
                                                                                             Matthew 5:3-7

              

Jesus began his teachings on a hillside (probably over several days) in Galilee by radically overturning all preconceptions of who it is that God Blesses.    The wisdom of day in the Greco Roman world and even in Judaism was that the “Good Life” was had by those who had money, power, prestige, comfort and position.

Jesus says that God’s “Good Life” is available to anyone.    Take note of how I expanded the meaning  of the “Blessed’s”/ “Happy are’s” based on Dallas Willard’s commentary on the Beattitudes.

What do you think, feel, like, react against as you read this stunning announcement by Jesus which overturns the “default” presumptions that so many of us have about what it means to live well?  

“Lord, please lead me to an experience of the blessed life as you define it, and if you deem it right, please do so in a way that my experience of it is disconnected from anything the “world” would substitute for what you offer.    Thank you Lord,     Amen”