O' Where O' Where Has My God Gone? (In the mirror or to the heavens?)

God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. - Psalm 53:2

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. – Jeremiah 29:11-14

As a pastor I am a blessed man. I have men in my church that seek after God's heart. As a pastor I am a challenged man. I am challenged not just because of my own shortcomings and inadequacies (the Lord knows) but also because I have men in my church who seek after God and their desire for more of God encourages me on to more of Jesus Christ in my life and less of me.

My men are not my primary motivation for my growth, when I have growth in my Christian walk however. Though these good, godly men keep me on my toes, encourage and exhort one another and bless me with their dissatisfaction with just remaining where they are in their maturity, they are but one tool and not the chief tool God uses to provide my own impetus to be the man God has created me to become.

Late in His three year ministry Jesus explained about an element of His own personal joy and the reason He pressed on through all of life's difficulties. Now, to be sure, Jesus wasn't speaking about a singular joy. Clearly there are kinds of joys that we experience. But each joy is the end-game satisfaction of a more complex series of events and our obedience to God the Father in those events. We see this in John 3:25-28 where John the Baptist, as the forerunner to Jesus, indicates the joy of having been tasked, by God, as the one to announce Jesus' coming. John preached it and saw that it was fulfilled. To that John would say, "Therefore this joy of mine is now complete." John was to receive more eternal joy later.

What I am thinking here is what Jesus expressed in John 15:8-12 when He said, "By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruits and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."

To have the love of Christ permeate my body, soul and spirit and to be privileged to express it to others and share it's healing, peace and personally satisfying provision is what must drive you and I on into more of Jesus and less of me. Jesus, with great love and care, had been given instruction from the Father. The instruction looked past the discomfort and disharmony. It looked beyond heartache and the physical abuse that would follow Jesus in the same way that training is embraced by a great athlete so that they may reach to the goal; realizing that both Father and Son loved and had as their center attention mankind. Jesus, with love in his eyes for His Father, accepted the task at hand. Here in John 15 Jesus is passing on the lesson of eternity to us instructed us to do likewise, Abide in my love If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, just as I have kepty my Father's commandments and abide in His love."

Has God gotten your attention. Have you become one who is a seeker of God? The Lord delights in seeing those children of His who truly understand the meaning of life and why there is only one thing worth seeking and that is God Himself.To follow after Him and pursue living the life you now have in this earthly domain in a way that pleases Him because He instructs it was precisely the message Jesus was attempting to convey to His disciples on that day 2000 years ago.

Life on planet earth has been cruel of late. But that isn't God's main concern. It isn't supposed to be mine as it relates to "me" either. I know when I've not been pursuing my God and Father. The cares of this life, the urgent over the important, and the petty irritations begin to affect me. I become emotional. Guys these are the symptoms of a life that has not been seeking God; praying, reading, meditating, waiting on Him. Can you relate to any of this? Is this sinking in with you? These would be questions, our Savior would pose to us. We need to ask them of ourselves daily.

If we understand that it is only in keeping the only two commandments Jesus gave us, to love God with all of our hearts, mind, body and soul and to love others with that amazing, self-preserving, "give-me-joy at all costs" love we provide to self we will have our wish and desire; pure joy.

If you are toiling and fretting over what will soon be dead and gone where are you getting your spiritual strength? What will you pay to get your joy back? We need to set self-preservation boundaries in our lives. We best preserve and serve self when we seek Him! That means time spent with Him and His tools. This is the great challenge in a world that screams for our attention and threatens us with ruin if we do not oblige them.

Create a schedule of time to be with your God, His Word where you meditate, listen, and hear! Are you committed to developing that intimacy with your Lord that He so desires so that YOUR joy as John 15 says will be complete? If not, ask Him today to help you. This is the longing of His heart. Ask Him to make it the longing of your heart. Then you will demonstrate to Him that you understand, and you will be a seeker of God. I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

 

 

Working On Getting What I May Never Get...

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. - Job 42:3b

I want my bank account bank to normal. I want my bills paid. I want to stop being upset about the way my everyday life is going. I want the progress I seem to be making spiritually to count in the real world where there are responsibilities to handle, expectations to fulfill and creditors to deal with in such a way to keep them off my back (I hear they accept cash!)

And I hate all of that!

But then I have to reflect...(because daily I read the Bible...hmmm...I may have to rethink this Scriptures strategy thing if I am to maintain my high level of dissatisfaction, consternation at my life predicament and quality of grumbling and grousing those who love me have come to expect and appreciate.)

If there was any one man on earth who had reason to question God's love, it was Job. He lost his family, his health, and his wealth-all at the same time.

I've lost a few here in there in the normal course of life but not all at once. Okay Job, you got me there.

His friends came to his side only to question his spirituality and dedication to the one true God. They would poke and prod at his life, probably more because this was going to be a once in a lifetime experience for them. They would never have the "upper hand" on Job again.

But the narrator of the Book of Job already fills us in on the man Job. God had already answered the question of Job's personal integrity. Job was described in the opening verses of the book as "blameless and upright" (see Job 1:1). Perhaps the friends made Job doubt the man he was. Maybe they didn't. But, we, as interlopers in this scene do not need to question it. Job was major God material.

No. Job's worldly calamities were not born from sin. Job acknowledged God's right to do anything in his life until one day he could take it no longer.

He questioned God's motives.

God answered.

God answered this favorite son but not in the way Job wanted to hear. God answered him with a series of questions that represents the most incredible discourse of correction by God to any human being...EVER!

Three chapters later, Job realized that he had questioned the motives of the Author of the universe, the Author of love; the transcendent God. He questioned the one who sits outside of all of this material, spinning, ordered matter and looks in, for, as a master craftsman, God not only formed it, shaped it, designed it, built it and more. He was also the supervisor who approved the building permits for it; indicated who would inhabit it, for how long and what they would accomplish for HIM and what it's value would be into eternity.

Job fell flat before his Creator and realized his total depravity. "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know." This was no mere statement of fact. Job was speaking out of a realization of that old and familiar verse we who have been around church so long can quote so easily,

My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the LORD. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. - Isaiah 55:8 NLT

This was a man who, having lost it all from an earthly perspective had also attempted to squander the one and truly only valuable thing he had ever possessed, his personal relationship with the Great God of All! Despair, anger, confusion, hurt, and constant disappointment, if we choose, can lead us to do devastating things with eternal consequences. Fortunately for you and I, for Job, for his friends and remaining family, he repented.

Have you ever questioned God's activity in your life? Have you questioned His love for you based on circumstances that came your way? The cross at Calvary answers the love question. That He sent His own Son in replacement for your miserable self. If you were the only person on earth, He would have done the same. His ways cannot always be understood or reconciled in our finite minds. That must be left for a future time when all will be understood. For now, entrust your life to Him completely. Embrace Him in the hard times and the good.

You learn trust when you learn that God won’t be formed or fashioned after your image. The outcomes of your life were meant to show you that the value of His relationship to you was to be intimate not just personal, (As in Jesus is my personal Savior).  The stuff of your earthly years is a metaphor for your eternity. You have missed it all if you have just prayed a pray and then begun a life of goodly (note: NOT godly) duty. His work in you, His desire for you to belong to others to stand with you, His word as a guideline to understand as He speaks to you personally (and, I might add emphatically) is all about the moment. And in this moment you need to learn He is waiting until the entire world and all it holds is of no value other than to be the currency of your life as you commune, communicate and walk by His voice and not by our plans.

I remain…

InHISgrip,

~J~

Isn't Faithful Like Loyal & Aren't They Both A Ton of Work?

The Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you." - 2 Chronicles 15:1, 2

I am really struggling here. There is a whole bunch of believers these days that are attempting to embrace a God who flows naturally out of personal paradigms in their life. The emergent movement has spawned groups that, though they do not willingly embrace the overall pseudo-non-theological premise of conversation and dialogue based on a lack of foundations it is having an odd effect. May the outcomes be better than the beginnings.

 

But first what is a personal paradigm? An example might be a friend and you are talking about godly things and you say, "I think that God will let you know when He's ready to let you know." The key words there would be, I think. That is a personal paradigm. You aren't validating your thoughts against anything. You aren't speaking or indicating you are being lead by the Holy Spirit. You are not designating your thoughts as the Bible's position on the issue. You are merely stating an opinion. Now, depending on how valued your advice is to your friend, they may just take it as Gospel. You may in fact be all the Jesus they know. Right or wrong they view you as their spiritual guidepost. You are their moral compass. And that kind of response to them, well, it's sad to me. It's also dangerous for you.

 

In the verse above Asa was the king of Judah for 41 years. That's a long time. He was known as a good king who served the Lord with great zeal. He reformed and restored godliness to Israel as the direction the nation would pursue. He broke down idols in high places that were worshipped. These were foreign gods brought in by the insurgence of other people's into the lands. He did other moral and cool things as well such as doing away with male prostitutes. And check this out, he even removed his own mother from being queen because she worshiped an idol. The Scriptures say that as long as he sought the Lord, the Lord prospered his reign.

 

However, Asa was not totally faithful in his calling. There came a time in his life when he made a decision to no longer trust in the God of Israel. He lost his confidence in God as his deliverer. Later in Chronicles we would find the prophet Hanani come to Asa to inform him that God's blessing was no longer on his life because of an ungodly alliance he had made.

 

Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war - 2 Chronicles 16:8-9

 

We all are susceptible to do the very same things with our spiritual lives. Many of us are so constantly self-observing that we read, and listen and embrace and heap to ourselves teachers whose thoughts and concepts and attitudes speak to us and validate our current emotional state. But do they provide to us the kind of childlike love that Jesus came to restore to us when He gave us back our Father God? Do they help us hear Him early in the morning? Do they open and reveal the Bible to us in such a way that it provides guidance for our ability to try the spirits and voices?

 

We should press into God and align ourselves with those who are God pursuers; who seek to Love God - Who Love Others by their actions and words - Whose discipling power is energized by the Holy Spirit because it brings forth life and not just more dialogue. We should not simply be spinning our wheels and validating our weaknesses and the path we have pursued to this moment in time.

 

I read a series of blogs over the last two days of whining baby Christians. Pointing to a past of teaching, discipling and training that they say, 'wore them out,' and 'caused guilt and shame.' They describe their church experiences as if they had been tied to a chair and water-boarded spiritually. In post after post they validated the horrors of their Christian history. Apparently God was not sovereign in their lives. He missed them. They were not on His radar.  Whatever happened to the words of Paul where he indicated that all the things he had gone through were meant to provide goodness, grace, power, teaching and all God things for himself and his readers? Ah! If you ask some of these they would say, "I think he got sidetracked in his pursuit of God by thinking he could please God and his zealousness got him in trouble."

Ya. Uh huh. THAT's what happened.

Wake up believers. Get a grip! The God who loves and saved you is speaking to you. Pursue Him. Follow Him. Expect to hear and be guided by your Heavenly Father as you follow Him.

 

Look, there are no guarantees that if we began well we will finish well. The life of Asa tells us this. It is only through God's grace that we can be faithful to our calling. But being faithful to it means we actively pursue it. This is the God who said, "You will find me when you seek me...with all your heart."

 

And, make no mistake of it. You have a calling. Each of us is capable of falling away from that calling in God. God gets great joy in answering the prayers of the week. You don't have to come up with some slick teaching out of your own paradigm that justifies why you feel the way you do. Pray that God will keep you faithful to the purposes He has for your life. Engage your fellow believers in your quest to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might! Reach down and help another. There is ALWAYS someone who needs Jesus love as it comes from you. Our Father strengthens those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. And that is not how I feel. Ask Asa...I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

 

Yes, You Have a Calling on Your Life!

But the Danites had difficulty taking possession of their territory, so they went up and attacked Leshem, took it, put it to the sword and occupied it.... - Joshua 19:47

 

This, I believe, is one of the greatest struggles every maturing Christian has in this life and that is the challenge of realizing what God has presented, promised and purposed for us in our lives; to take their inheritance in the land. The gifting, skill-set, and godly passions of your life are first realized and then must be taken hold of. It is the one thing that God abundantly uses that the enemy grapples with us about. It is also the thing that most easily sways us from a path of rightly dividing the word of God (the Bible) and God's voice.

 

What is the spiritual inheritance God has reserved for you? When God told the Israelites they were going to be given the Promised Land, it was not a walk in the park. They would encounter 39 battles in taking the land God promised to them. The devil and the natural enemies of godliness arrayed themselves against God's people. Obtaining the land, the blessing, the gifts of God, took a joint effort between God and the Israelites to engage and battle the enemy that maintained control of the land. The gifts, the creativity, the ingenuity, the crafting, the power of God for and in them were all used to conquer the enemy so they could occupy the land.

 

God has given you and me a spiritual inheritance that must be won in the heavenlies. We fight it in our spirits and our minds. A dear friend and mentor once counseled me after watching my life over a period by saying, "The Lord has given you a spiritual inheritance. That inheritance lies in your ability to speak into the lives of people. You are called to caring and close relationships. YIKES! And, if you know me you know why I say, yikes. However, I have found they were right. And, because my purpose, the land God wishes me to occupy lies in relationships, that is the place the enemy attacks most. The devil would use my past against me. He would use my personality to keep me from fulfilling the purposes of God for me. He would take my emotional proclivities and place them at the forefront of my decision-making processes when it came to people in my life. The enemy always attacks us in the area where we are to receive our inheritance or with the things God truly wishes for us to give up to Him for His glory. Invariably these are the places in our lives where we will find our greatest joys in God once they have been given over and back to Him that we might gain great joy in our service to Him through their use and that includes our emotions, gifts, skills, and all the other objects our God has placed in our life to conquer the land we've been promised.

 

Guys, you and I must walk in faithfulness and obedience to His righteousness in how you deal with the things that God has equipped you with to fulfill His specific call on your life. That call, in large part, is your inheritance in Christ Jesus!

 

I hope these words speak to you as the wisdom of God. The Lord has proven these words to be true in my life I can tell you.

 

What is the spiritual inheritance He has reserved for you? What is God purposing for you, first, today? I can tell you it was for you to start this day and proclaim His Lordship in your life and over everything that you do. It was also to give you a sense of duty, presence in the land and purpose for your life and for you to take steps, every day, to take more and more of the land He has promised to you. In your case that land is more and more of the life, the ministry and the purposes that you and you alone were given by God to occupy!

 

What areas of your inheritance must you take possession of today? What is it your God wishes for you to take back, in His name and for the Kingdom of God? The enemy of your soul does not want you to take possession. If you are frustrated in life then look up! Be glad! You are engaged in the battle. Put on your armor and begin walking in obedience into the areas God has called you to possess. Let's keep one another in prayer about this and together conquer in the mighty name of Jesus! I remain...

 

InHISgrip,
~J~