Forgetful Farmers

"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10)

Recently, my bride and I were blessed by the opportunity to visit our daughter who is teaching English in China. One reason she is there is the same as the reason that led Jesus to share a meal with a tax collector. While she has been able to share the Good News in various ways, the fruit of her year is not yet obvious. But, like the farmer, we believe the truth of the law of the Harvest. Good seed will bear good fruit if we do not grow weary and lose heart. In due season, we shall reap.

The Apostle Paul received rough treatment from those he tried to help, prison from his enemies and discouraging news from struggling churches. Yet, the fruit of his ministry continues to grow and ripen in incredible ways.

A friend recently told me the story of a woman in China who heard the Good News when she was sick and seeking help. This woman returned home to her village and also began spreading the news of God’s love in Jesus. Eventually, twenty thousand people became believers in that area because of that one woman hearing the Good News.

Why are we here today? Is it to make another dollar, lower our golf score or increase our influence in the company? If we have the Spirit of Jesus living in us then we will be following the footsteps of Jesus and His mission will be our mission. Along with Jesus, we are come to seek and to save that which was lost. Yet, we are tempted to forget. Jesus said to partake in Communion and to do it, “In remembrance of Me.” Part of our remembrance, is to remember the true mission of our few remaining days. We do not want to be forgetful farmers who neglect to spread the seed.

Project:
Let’s pray that God will remind each of us of our mission and lead us in how to fulfill it.
Let’s pray for God to encourage those who have been planting the seed of the Good News.

--

A Corpse Dressed in a Tuxedo

"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will {your} heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" (Luke 11:13)

My bride and I recently participated in a “Noble Partners” marriage seminar that gave us some great new tools to use in our relationship. There is, however, a hidden and very serious danger in discovering new tools for personal growth. If we use them to improve our natural man, then we are just putting new clothes on a dead man. The real value of these tools is only manifest as we die to pride, lust, and self-centeredness. Our new man or identity in Christ is defined by our yielding and empowering by the Holy Spirit.

When we hear some great new idea about things like “creating a safe environment”, “courageous conversations” or “the power of one”, we will be tempted to use these tools to manipulate the other person. We will naturally tend to think, “I can do this if I set my mind to it.” But, in Luke 11, is a serious warning that our “self” reform will create a spiritual vacuum which will eventually lead to a collapse that leaves us in an even worse state than where we started.

Our starting place must be at the cross as we admit our total inability to have genuine love, right attitudes, and moral strength to properly handle these tools. Only as we die to hidden agendas to fulfill self-centered desires to gratify our need for security, admiration, or lust and begin to genuinely love others can we begin to experience the incredible power of these tools. Genuine love for others is only possible in the Holy Spirit and any manifestation of it in our life will reveal God to others. The good news is that God is generous to His children. If we sincerely desire and ask for His Holy Spirit in any circumstance or relationship, He will joyfully give Him to us. Let’s stop dressing up a corpse with a tuxedo and plead for new power to give genuine love into our marriage, family and world.

Project:
Spend a little time alone to:

* Sincerely repent of wrong motives for right actions.
* Ask for God’s Holy Spirit in some specific situation or relationship issue.

Expectant, Eager and Energized

his fame was in all the land. (Joshua 6:27)

Joshua is remembered as a powerful figure in history. He led the Israelites into the Promised Land, defeated powerful opponents and brought reality to their dreams. What was the source of his power? Was it his wonderful education and postgraduate training under Moses? Maybe it was his charismatic personality, persuasive speeches or his muscular build. Could it have been his ability to rapidly build consensus, efficiently educate, or effectively create management structures in a large organization?

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?" (Joshua 5:14)

At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time." So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel.. (Joshua 5:2)

The source of Joshua’s power was right relationship. He trusted, listened and obeyed while God led, protected, and empowered. The question is not whether God is on our side but whether we are listening and obeying enough that we are on God's side. It's extremely easy for me to get in the habit of going through the motions of prayer, worship and life while missing out on the reality of a genuine connection with God. Just wearing the label, appearance and reputation of a Christian does not make an empowered life. God does not honor the brand name. He energizes the life of the person that has a genuine faith who expectantly listens and eagerly obeys.

So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. (Joshua 6:27)

Project:
Let’s consider whether we have genuinely listened to the Lord today.
Have we actually obeyed God in something we feel He is calling us to do?

Sitting Before the King

Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. (Deut 34:9)

I’m not sure how it started. But, when we pray together as a family, we normally hold hands. Sometimes this holding of hands has been difficult when there was a relationship problem between some of the young children. Our hands may seem like little more than tools on the end of our arms with little to do with our emotions and spirit. But, we are not neatly divided in three pieces of body, soul and spirit. In reality, we all recognize that we are highly integrated beings. Our body expresses in action what we are thinking and feeling. If we have negative thought patterns toward a person, we may try to hide it, but it will inevitably be manifest in our body language.

Mainly because of laziness, I’m tempted to isolate prayer to a mental process. But, when we enter into our closet for prayer, why not actually kneel, stand or lie before God in coordination with our thoughts and feelings. Actually verbalizing my words with the physical action of my tongue seems to make my prayers more focused and solid. Raising my hands as I offer them to God’s service seems more consistent with the prayer than letting them lie resting in my lap.

Obviously, God could have filled Joshua with His Spirit without Moses’ touch. Yet, God chose to honor not only the words of Moses but also Moses’ body language in transferring power and authority to Joshua. In addition, we know that the body language of hugs is vital to communicate love to our children. They need our loving touch as much as they need our words of love. In a similar way, prayer is more than our thoughts or our words. It is also the offering of our body as a living sacrifice for His service. Our good deeds are a body language that expresses our thoughts and beliefs. Which is more logical and consistent with our actual beliefs -- to sit before the King of the Universe or to bow before His Majesty?

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

--

Valuable but Vulnerable

I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It is melted within me. (Psalms 22)

Several years ago, I was thrown out of work by “downsizing” in the telecommunications industry. Prior to that, my neighbor and I had been commuting together for almost eight years. As it happened, my car had mechanical problems at the same time that the downsizing took place. My neighbor demonstrated his love and loyalty by letting me use one of his cars over a period several weeks for my job search efforts. In order to help me, he was willing to risk his “stuff” and to be inconvenienced. His actions demonstrated not only his love and loyalty but it also gave me a sense of value at a time when a company had essentially said, “We don’t value you.”

My neighbor’s sacrifice is of the same sort but on a much smaller scale than the sacrifice of Jesus for me. Think of your immense, incredible value to realize that the very Son of God let His bones be pulled out of joint for you. He did this before we loved him and while he was being hated. Think of the other person in one of your difficult relationships. They, like you, must be of incredible value for Jesus to have died for them. God wants to give us the grace of His Spirit of Love to sacrifice something of ourselves for that other person even when they are not showing love to us. It could be grace filled words or it could be an attitude of gratefulness or thoughts of forgiveness.

I have not always done the best job in teaching our sons to organize and take care of our tools. Sometimes, I have gotten angry and, without really intending to, ended up communicating that a hacksaw was more valuable to me than them or their relationship. A Thing is never more important than a relationship or a person. Things, however, can be symbols or placeholders for our feelings and values. And, when someone touches that thing it may trigger an emotional response. For instance, a lost hacksaw might trigger a sense of failure to train or organize. As another example, a perceived threat to our car might actually touch our fear of loss of freedom or independence. People and our relationships with them are incredibly complex but wonderfully valuable. May God give us grace to see not only our value and vulnerability but also the value and vulnerability of the others we relate to.

Project:
-- Meditate on how much value God sees in you to sacrifice His Son for you.
-- Ask God to help you recognize the value and vulnerability of the others in your relationships.
-- Ask God to help you demonstrate that you genuinely value the others in your relationships.
-- Pray for and find ways to bless those who treat you as not valuable.

God demonstrated by His actions that the most spiritual and mature person in a relationship will accept the primary responsibility for its success.

Tools of Satan or Fools for God

But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John. (Luke 7:30)

One of the most serious temptations we each face is the temptation to reject God’s messenger and his message. It is terribly serious because in rejecting that message one also rejects God’s purpose in their life. If we reject God’s purpose, then we are doomed to a futile, frustrating and ultimately foolish existence.

Why did the Pharisees reject John and his message? Could it be that they did not recognize their need for repentance? Or, was it too humbling or inconvenient to be baptized? Did they face rejection or ridicule by their peers? John’s style, language and appearance probably offended their sense of culture, fashion and social status. Maybe they rationalized that John was just trying to use them to build his own following and movement. Perhaps they did not want to follow the teaching of someone who was less theologically educated than they were.

Accepting God’s messages into our life can and usually does shake things up. For us, it meant having many more children than we originally planned on, home education, and moving out of our house in suburbia with its swimming pool. It also meant discovering new friends who were excited about God and hearing Him. It meant having a purpose in life beyond having fun, pursuing a career, raising a family, retiring, and dying. In contrast, the regrets in my life come from the ways in which I’ve either rejected or watered down some of God’s messages into my life. I’ve never been sorry when I’ve allowed God to move me out of my comfort zone. But, I am sorry for the times I’ve clung to my comfort, protected my image or listened to my fears.

By rejecting God’s purpose for themselves, the lawyers and Pharisees kept their comfortable way of life, their self-image, and their superiority. They didn’t have to change anything. They could just continue to follow the dictates of the society they wanted to belong to. Following God’s message may have meant looking foolish to or being rejected by their peers; but, by rejecting God's purpose they became tools of Satan.

Project:
- Purpose to seek God’s message for you personally.
- How are you feeling called by God to change?
- Embrace God’s messages and the changes He is calling for.
- Don’t put it off, but, in some way, no matter how tiny the step, act in the day you hear it.

Evolutionist Quote of the Week

“I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level—preschool day care or large state university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new—the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.”

– John Dunphy, A Religion for a New Age, The Humanist, January–February 1983, p. 26.

From Answers In Genesis Newsletter

Something or Nothing

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil {man} out of the evil {treasure} brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. (Luke 6:45)

There is a hymn that says, “Not a step will I take without Jesus.” This is a desire that we all have but I personally take too many steps without Jesus. The key to walking with Jesus is to be connected with Him in our heart -- our thoughts. Our actions and our words flow out of our thoughts. Daniel had a prayer time at least three times each day and because of his connectedness to God, he had a tremendous impact. What procedure do you follow to seek to be connected to God? Please, take time to share your ideas. Click on the link that says “Comments”.

My usual approach is to follow a plan to read through the Bible in a year (or sometimes two) combined with being on the lookout for a spark. I like to read until some verse seems “to spark”. In other words, it catches my attention or causes a question mark in my mind. Then I stop and focus on that verse. Many times God will open new meaning or new application of that verse in my life. Often that verse or section will speak to events that are happening in my life, family, church or society and will inspire prayer. We accomplish nothing (or worse) except when we abide in Christ; but, as we walk with Jesus, we eventually see "something" wonderful -- eternal fruit.

Please, share your approach to abiding in Christ. If desired, you can share your comments anonymously. Click on the link at the end of this article that says "Comments".