Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:19-23)
Matthew 6 records part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. It's the chapter that contains the Lord's Prayer, recited every week by millions of people at thousands of churches around the world. It also contains the often-quoted verses above.
I've been prone to see this chapter as a bunch of unrelated teachings, as Jesus just threw out as much wisdom as He could in the shortest time possible to a large audience. I visualized Him as the pastor of a mega-church with one of those time clock thingies hanging above the sound booth where only He could see it: "Ok, two minutes left...gotta talk about divorce and hit on fasting before the band starts playing me off the stage....what if these people never come back to church?!" (Let's be real: we can all see the time clock, and you know you've checked it before to see how long you had to go before you could bolt for lunch.)
But as I re-read this chapter earlier this week at the prompting of a friend, I realized that there was a common thread, and (as arbitrary as chapter breaks sometimes seem) these things were included in the same chapter on purpose. In fact, Jesus mentioned them at the same time on purpose.
There are many meanings in scripture; it's like a prism, hitting us with light in different places every time we read it. That's why I love it so much. That's also why the following interpretation is not the only one to be had. It's just a thought that occurred to me, so I thought I would share it.
The preceding chapter (that would be Matthew 5, if you're keeping up), is the one that is full of hard-hitting truths about particular sins (lust, oaths, anger, etc.). You know, the one your pastor never preached on so as not to offend people. Or, maybe you went to a church that preached on it constantly in order to put a big Hollywood spotlight on sin. In any case, Jesus was a master speaker, and He used the emphasis on sin to build up the heart of His message: the kingdom of God.
Chapter 6 begins with Jesus' warnings against a hypocritical "religious" lifestyle. He admonishes his listeners not to make a show of giving to the needy; or of praying loudly, with fake sincerity, to get attention. A few paragraphs down, He broaches the subject of public fasting as well. Sandwiched between these instructions is the Lord's Prayer, which seems a bit out of place.
This thought hit me as I read chapter 6: these are all warnings against our making a show of our relationship with God. The real sin, then, is caring what the world thinks of you.
The Lord's Prayer is all about speaking God's kingdom into earth, about being on the offensive against the devil. It sounds unobtrusive and passive, but it's really a one-two punch on the enemy: "Thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
What would it look like if we all prayed God's authority over the earth just as it is in heaven? We certainly wouldn't be worried about how "religious" or "righteous" we looked like to everyone else. Our concern would be less about our facade of righteousness and more about the real, authentic righteousness of God raining down on all the people of the earth, showering the lost with living water and purifying the bride (Ephesians 5:26-27).
With this prayer, Jesus is, as usual, pointing our eyes back to where they should be focused: not on gaining the approval of others, but bringing His kingdom to earth.
Then Jesus delivers the kicker: "Do not store up treasures for yourself on earth, which will be destroyed, but store up treasures in heaven, which cannot be taken away from you."
If you take the verse in context, He's not talking about literal treasure (although the same principle still applies, and He mentions money in verse 24). He's talking about your reputation, about how people view you. He says that people who are concerned about this "have received their reward" (verse 2). Their reward is as fleeting as the smile of approval they gain from others. It just simply doesn't last, unlike the kingdom, which is eternal, after all.
The more you care about what people think of you, the less you care about His kingdom. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
So, if the eye is the lamp of the body, and you focus it on your earthly identity--that is, the identity you can build for yourself based on what other people think--then your whole body will be full of darkness. But if you focus it on His kingdom, it will be full of light.
He is the Light of the World, after all.
The end of chapter 6 is also often quoted (as is everything in the Sermon on the Mount). It's about not being anxious--you know, the passage of "lilies of the field" and "birds of the air" fame. Jesus is emphasizing to His followers how much God cares about them; if only they would realize it, they wouldn't be concerned about food or clothing.
He's not telling us to be nudists. He's saying that, yes, we need these things, and we can even enjoy them. But they shouldn't be our focus. His kingdom should be our focus.
Especially when these material possessions begin to consume our identity. How many of us have stressed out about an outfit before, especially one for a special occasion? (If you say you haven't, I'm convinced you're lying.) Jesus is saying, "It's ok--don't freak out about your suits or your shoes. Your identity is in the kingdom."
"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you," said Jesus (verse 33).
Which is not to say high heels are going to rain down from heaven like manna. (That would be painful.) It's also not to say that we should go around dressed like dowdy old ladies or Steve Urkel. These statements are about more than clothing or food themselves.
Your reputation on earth is unimportant. If you are really seeking the kingdom, you will be righteous, and you won't have to worry if your prayers and fasting--or even your clothes--look good to everyone else. You'll be wearing Jesus' robes of righteousness...take that, Prada.
The kingdom of God is far bigger than adhering to rituals and making sure everyone knows you do. It's about the state of your heart. Jesus encourages us to look at the true Light, that our eyes may really see.
I want to have a kingdom state of heart, not a worldly state of heart. Because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
And I'll be darned if my heart is going to rot away in the opinions of others.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Thursday, July 24, 2014
The Body of Christ, Part Two: Heart Surgery
Therefore, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every
weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race
that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).
My last post was about recognizing that, when you belong to
the body of Christ, your personal sin does not only affect you. It makes the
whole body sick, because we function as one.
But if today you are struggling with an addiction, or with
jealousy, or unforgiveness, or some other secret problem that you harbor in the
dark parts of your heart—there is a
solution.
It’s not “working harder.” It’s not trying to manufacture
“good attitudes.” It’s not striving through some ten-step program for recovery.
It’s not secular therapy or drugs.
I don’t mean to offend those of you who have gone through
any of these processes; they have their place. But if you are a believer, you
have the ultimate solution.
It’s not
administering an antidote to the poison. It’s throwing the whole bottle out.
And this solution comes to the world through one man: Jesus Christ.
For we have no lasting
city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually
offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that
acknowledge his name (Hebrews 13:14-15).
He desires mercy, not sacrifice. (See Hosea 6:6 and Matthew
9:13.)
He knows you will fail if you, in your own strength,
sacrifice and sacrifice to overcome sin. He desires, instead, to grant you
mercy: to take your problems on Himself, and give you freedom. “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). Jesus
didn’t bust down the jail cell so that you could scramble through a cycle of
deliverance, failure, guilt, shame, and subsequent hard work to get back to
deliverance. I am very familiar with this cycle. I’ve been through it too,
every time I tried to overcome a sin that had captured my heart and bound it in
chains.
It’s only when you give your sin to Him—and don’t pick it
back up again—that you are really set free and can operate in your gifts, can
become well, can move with the rest of the body in unity.
But it’s not a “wham, take my sin, please and thank you, now
let’s move on” moment. It takes real, sincere, honest surrender. And in a culture that makes poison seem as
innocuous, even as tasty, as peach tea, that can be a difficult place to reach.
I have heard so many stories of people who were set free of
addictions to pornography, drugs, and alcohol in a moment, after struggling for years, because they finally admitted
that they couldn’t do it themselves and laid it before the throne. These were
people who thought all hope was lost. But they somehow had courage to approach
the throne of grace, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world
(John 1:29). I’ve lain resentment, competition, perfectionism—the list goes
on—at His feet, and have been delivered in a moment.
In order to do that, you have to be completely humbled. You
have to be willing to lay open the wound—expose it to the One who can heal it.
That takes bold honesty and surrender of pride. You have
to circumcise your heart (Deuteronomy 10:16, Romans 2:29). Circumcision, I
hear, is not a pleasant process. But it gets rid of things that need to go, and
it consecrates you. And I won’t lie to you: it’s as painful as surgery.
But no surgeon lays open your chest and then refuses to sew
it shut again. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God are the ultimate surgeons.
They cut down to the root of the problem (Hebrews 4:12-13). But almost as soon
as they touch you, they heal you.
That’s not to say you won’t ever face temptation again. But something will be altered, and you won’t fail. You’ll see. He’s ready for the unnecessary weight to fall off, and for you to be free to live out your destiny in Him.
He is the author and perfecter of our faith, and you can
trust Him with everything. After all, you
are His body. Worldly solutions, even your own resolve (as powerful as the
human will is), will never stand against sin. But no one hates his own flesh
(Ephesians 5:29-30).
Today, if you hear his
voice, do not harden your hearts….(Psalm 95:7-8).
He is waiting, my friend.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
The Body of Christ: Stubbed Toes
For the body
does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I
am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less
part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not
belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the
whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body
were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the
members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single
member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have
no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you” (1
Corinthians 12:14-21).
A body’s
movements are orchestrated by electric energy that comes from the brain. If you
are running, your brain is communicating to your legs, feet, toes, heart, arms,
lungs, eyes, everything—all at the same time. If one part is out of sync, you
trip—or worse. The very same day, the very same body parts may work together to
cook, to sit, to sleep, to stand on your head, to walk a tightrope…any number
of tasks. Each part plays multiple important roles.
Just think for a
minute about how amazing your body is, and how it functions completely on the
electrical impulses of the brain. Even now, I am alternately typing and sipping
a cup of coffee…and I don’t have to say, “Hands, move.” They just do it. They let
the brain take over, and it just happens.
Christ is our
head, and His Spirit is the electricity that makes us move as a body. Imagine
how strange it would be if you were trying to sit down and just one of your
knees refused. You would look pretty silly with your leg sticking out in front
of you like a Barbie doll.
But that’s how
it works when one of us is in sin.
I want to talk
about something hard today.
A lot of us have
pet sins, things that we do in secret (even in our own hearts), that we don’t
really tell people about. Sure, we can still operate in our gifts somewhat if
we are holding onto our pet sin. We still belong to Christ, and His grace is
sufficient. We think, “It’s just my sin.
It doesn’t hurt anyone but me.”
But let me tell
you this: if you stub your toe really hard, the whole body is going to have a
hard time walking for a few minutes.
If one member suffers,
all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together (1
Corinthians 12:26).
If one member of the body is sick, all members suffer.
So you may just think your sin is affecting only you, but it
isn’t. It’s making me sick. It’s
making all of your sisters and brothers sick. Not enough to kill us—but enough
to hold us all back from operating as the body should.
I say this not to condemn you, but to give you new
perspective about your battle against sin. I’m not sorry if the truth offends
you. I hope it cuts to the root, cleanses you, and offers you hope. I want you
to wake up to fresh motivation to wage war against whatever poison you’ve been
drinking.
Whenever I’m in relational sin—that is to say, when I have a
relationship with a brother or sister that is unhealthy—I can pretty clearly
see how it affects other relationships in my life. So, I may excuse my
behavior, my attitude, my thoughts, like this: “Well, it only affects the two
of us. This relationship is our business.” But it’s not. I’ve joined the body. I am woven together with
other believers. Therefore, I can no longer afford the luxury of the excuse,
“This is my problem.” I’m that awkward knee sticking out in front of the
body, and I better shape up real fast unless I want to throw things out of
whack.
Now, you may be feeling hopeless. You may be thinking,
“There is no way I can get out of this sin! I have tried for years!” You may
have accepted it as just a part of your life, something you will always
struggle with.
But there is a hope: Christ
in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). He is the only hope. He has a
vested interest in the problem; He is the head of the body, after all. Unlike
you, He has resisted sin to the point
of shedding His blood (Hebrews 12:4).
And He’s ready to make His dream of freedom for you a
reality.
(Stay tuned for my next post.)
Thursday, July 17, 2014
He Who Calls Stars By Name
He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.--Psalm 147:4
It's altogether beautiful (Song of Soloman 4:7). It's God's treasured possession (Exodus 19:5), and He can no more easily forget it than a mother can forget a nursing child (Isaiah 49:15).
It's....YOU, my friend.
I think a lot of people think of the church in terms of a giant labor force. There are orphans and hungry people and wars and, well, a plethora of other problems. We, as believers, are God's Plan A solution to the world's problems--that is the truth. We're meant to be salt (Matthew 5:13) to preserve the unsaved, and light (Matthew 5:14) to show them the way. And we certainly are His body, and we work together to do these things.
But this isn't some cosmic volunteer project. It's not like you show up at the altar call and then given a name badge and hustled into some line to pick up your instructions with the masses. No one arbitrarily assigns you a task--just whatever needs getting done.
Light isn't something to be directed like a robot or a mule.
I think sometimes the church gets so focused on what we think we should be doing that we miss our own unique, individual calls. And, as a result, believers can start thinking of themselves as just numbers to God--even believers who love Him and believe He loves them, believers who desire to do His will. We get so focused on spending ourselves for Him that we don't stop to ask Him what He wants each of us spent on.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them (Psalm 139:13-15).
Whoah--"wonderful" are His works. Well...we are His works, and He planned every detail of our destiny before we were born (Ephesians 2:10)!
God doesn't slap a name badge--"Hello, my name is Christian"--on our chests when we get saved. As a matter of fact, He doesn't give you a name badge. Oh no, my friend--He's not in the business of covering up what's already there. He's in the business of transformation. He gives you a new identity, and a mission that He has chosen specifically for you from the start.
This is the God who dreamed of stars and then spoke each one of them into life. I think He has bigger dreams for you than performing a task, sitting in a pew, and then dying one day. Sure, Stephen served tables. He was chosen for that, and he performed his duty as God ordained. And then, when it was time, he answered another call which he'd also been assigned: being martyred for the kingdom. (See Acts chapter 7.)
I'm not saying you're called to be a martyr. What I am saying is, there's a very specific call that God has placed on your life. God's call is not for "special" people or "chosen" people. If we're at the wedding feast, clothed in Jesus' garments of righteousness, we are chosen. (See the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22.) And each of us are chosen for a specific time and purpose (Esther 4:14).
If you are striving to complete some "good work," you may be neglecting the greater vision that God has for your life. What's more, you could be robbing somebody else of the blessing they've been assigned by doing it for them!
Don't over-think this. It's not wrong to serve, and there are most certainly everyday things that need to be done in the church. But God doesn't see you as a work animal, and He didn't create you just to use you for His purposes and toss you aside. He has a vision for your life that is much, much more than you could dream.
Yes, YOU.
"But I'm just a woman." "But I'm just a teacher." "But I'm just a nursery worker....just an usher...just a servant."
We are ALL servants. But guess what? The one we serve CREATED THE UNIVERSE. And, through His one begotten son, He has adopted us all as sons and daughters. And sons and daughters don't just sit on the sidelines, waiting for everyone else to tell them what to do. They go out and take the kingdom! We don't just get snatched out of the fire--we get to go take back the ground that was lost.
Don't you dare say, "But I'm just a sinner." If you haven't gotten the memo, Jesus took care of that at the cross. Put on your wedding garment and show up for the feast!
Parents purpose much more for their children than employers (even well-meaning ones) do. He has dreams for you, and a task that only you can do. In fact, if we are, as we believe, God's Plan A solution for the world, then don't you think He would create each of us to be on mission to a particular place at a specific time? We don't just get snatched out of the fire--we get to go take back the ground that was lost.
God's calling YOU, my friend. The Holy Spirit is ready to empower you to set about that beautiful work that God has had in mind for you since before you were born. Stop hiding out behind whatever table or task you have settled for and ask Him what it really is. Own it! Chances are, you're already on the right track; it's never a bad idea to serve where service is needed. But don't use "what needs to be done" as an excuse for what you should be doing.
He made stars. And He's waiting to make you shine.
It's altogether beautiful (Song of Soloman 4:7). It's God's treasured possession (Exodus 19:5), and He can no more easily forget it than a mother can forget a nursing child (Isaiah 49:15).
It's....YOU, my friend.
I think a lot of people think of the church in terms of a giant labor force. There are orphans and hungry people and wars and, well, a plethora of other problems. We, as believers, are God's Plan A solution to the world's problems--that is the truth. We're meant to be salt (Matthew 5:13) to preserve the unsaved, and light (Matthew 5:14) to show them the way. And we certainly are His body, and we work together to do these things.
But this isn't some cosmic volunteer project. It's not like you show up at the altar call and then given a name badge and hustled into some line to pick up your instructions with the masses. No one arbitrarily assigns you a task--just whatever needs getting done.
Light isn't something to be directed like a robot or a mule.
I think sometimes the church gets so focused on what we think we should be doing that we miss our own unique, individual calls. And, as a result, believers can start thinking of themselves as just numbers to God--even believers who love Him and believe He loves them, believers who desire to do His will. We get so focused on spending ourselves for Him that we don't stop to ask Him what He wants each of us spent on.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them (Psalm 139:13-15).
Whoah--"wonderful" are His works. Well...we are His works, and He planned every detail of our destiny before we were born (Ephesians 2:10)!
God doesn't slap a name badge--"Hello, my name is Christian"--on our chests when we get saved. As a matter of fact, He doesn't give you a name badge. Oh no, my friend--He's not in the business of covering up what's already there. He's in the business of transformation. He gives you a new identity, and a mission that He has chosen specifically for you from the start.
This is the God who dreamed of stars and then spoke each one of them into life. I think He has bigger dreams for you than performing a task, sitting in a pew, and then dying one day. Sure, Stephen served tables. He was chosen for that, and he performed his duty as God ordained. And then, when it was time, he answered another call which he'd also been assigned: being martyred for the kingdom. (See Acts chapter 7.)
I'm not saying you're called to be a martyr. What I am saying is, there's a very specific call that God has placed on your life. God's call is not for "special" people or "chosen" people. If we're at the wedding feast, clothed in Jesus' garments of righteousness, we are chosen. (See the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22.) And each of us are chosen for a specific time and purpose (Esther 4:14).
If you are striving to complete some "good work," you may be neglecting the greater vision that God has for your life. What's more, you could be robbing somebody else of the blessing they've been assigned by doing it for them!
Don't over-think this. It's not wrong to serve, and there are most certainly everyday things that need to be done in the church. But God doesn't see you as a work animal, and He didn't create you just to use you for His purposes and toss you aside. He has a vision for your life that is much, much more than you could dream.
Yes, YOU.
"But I'm just a woman." "But I'm just a teacher." "But I'm just a nursery worker....just an usher...just a servant."
We are ALL servants. But guess what? The one we serve CREATED THE UNIVERSE. And, through His one begotten son, He has adopted us all as sons and daughters. And sons and daughters don't just sit on the sidelines, waiting for everyone else to tell them what to do. They go out and take the kingdom! We don't just get snatched out of the fire--we get to go take back the ground that was lost.
Don't you dare say, "But I'm just a sinner." If you haven't gotten the memo, Jesus took care of that at the cross. Put on your wedding garment and show up for the feast!
Parents purpose much more for their children than employers (even well-meaning ones) do. He has dreams for you, and a task that only you can do. In fact, if we are, as we believe, God's Plan A solution for the world, then don't you think He would create each of us to be on mission to a particular place at a specific time? We don't just get snatched out of the fire--we get to go take back the ground that was lost.
God's calling YOU, my friend. The Holy Spirit is ready to empower you to set about that beautiful work that God has had in mind for you since before you were born. Stop hiding out behind whatever table or task you have settled for and ask Him what it really is. Own it! Chances are, you're already on the right track; it's never a bad idea to serve where service is needed. But don't use "what needs to be done" as an excuse for what you should be doing.
He made stars. And He's waiting to make you shine.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Recognizing Jesus
The Jews answered him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." (John 8:46-51)
Jesus' words probably seemed alien to the Jews. They were trying to identify Him, to understand Him by their worldly classifications: "Are you a Samaritan? Are you possessed? Who are you?" They had no framework to help them comprehend Jesus' assertion: "If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." They were stuck in a worldly mindset, and they couldn't see beyond it to recognize who Jesus really was.
Jesus totally disregarded their accusation that He was a Samaritan. Then He really threw them for a loop: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). Whoah there, Jesus--mixing up verb tenses? These people had no idea what the words "I AM" meant, even though God had identified Himself with those exact words before. They were so blind to who Jesus was that they picked up stones to kill Him.
Defensive much?
There's this girl at the gym I go to. She works REALLY hard on that elliptical. You can tell she is pushing her body too much, huffing away as she studies her medical textbooks. The other day, I was on the elliptical next to her, and she was silently judging me for not working as hard as she was.
How do I know she was doing that? Because I used to be that girl.
I used to organize my life with mathematical precision. Calories in, calories out, carefully maintaining what I thought was a balance. I was a little insane, and almost fell into a diagnosable eating disorder.
How does this happen? Like any problem, it began with me believing a lie from my culture: that I (as a woman and as an American) could and should become perfect. That lie grew in my mind, until I was a slave to a ritual of thought that revolved around food and exercise, and manifested in destructive behaviors like eating too little, organizing my day around meals, and working out too hard. My mindset became a comfortable security blanket to me, my mental refuge.
All that repetitive, cyclical thought accomplished exactly what the devil intended for it to accomplish: it kept my eyes focused on me, me, me, and NOT the person of Jesus Christ. And it even began to damage my body.
But I can tell you one thing without shame: Jesus wanted me so badly that He freed me from that mindset (and many other mindsets as well). Now I can look at that girl at the gym and know in my heart that I have left that type of bondage, never to look back--and that I want to help free others, too.
You probably don't have an eating disorder. But I can pretty much guarantee you that you have absorbed some lie from your culture, internalized it, and perform it every day, probably without consciously realizing it. A mindset is a familiar pattern of thought that is lived out in behaviors, usually with counter-productive results. They infuse our spirits with lies so that we become blind to who Jesus is, and we fail to recognize Him. What's more, when people try to tell us the truth about our mindsets, we pick up stones to kill them. (I hope not literally. Although my brother did throw some pillows last week when we were telling him about a mindset he needed to pray about.)
We become defensive.
Even right now you are thinking, "I don't have a destructive mindset!"
Well, the Jews didn't think so either. "Are we also blind?" asked the Pharisees (John 9:40). They were consumed by their own worldview--a religious worldview that had been reduced from the awesome righteousness of God to the self-righteousness of human performance. And because their mindset led them to believe that God couldn't possibly be a miracle-working, dirty-footed nomad from Galilee, they didn't recognize God when He was actually talking to them face to face.
I think a lot of Christians in the world today have a religious mindset that has been birthed in them not by God or His Word, but by their culture, so much so that they can't recognize Jesus even when they are sitting in church. But even more subtle are those other supposedly innocent lies we absorb from culture or from our childhoods or our families. They obscure our view of Him by locking us into a wrong mindset, drawing our eyes to ourselves rather than to the radiance of God.
What does this look like? You wouldn't know, because one of the most sinister things about a wrong mindset is that you don't know you have it.
I've known people who have had mindsets of failure, which is directly contrary to the Word of God. They wouldn't try to do things, or would even intentionally mess themselves up, simply because they were afraid to try and fail--and they didn't even realize that these behaviors were dominating their lives.
My calorie obsession was a control mindset, which can also manifest as manipulating loved ones, trying to achieve the highest grades at school, or even obsessively shaving your eyebrows and drawing them on with an eyeliner pencil. (I've seen this first-hand.)
I've known people with mindsets of unworthiness, which appears in self-demeaning comments, needy behaviors in relationships, sometimes even dressing sloppily or refusing to wear cute clothes. There's a poverty mindset, where people scrap and save and are constantly in fear that they will run out of money. There are mindsets of competition, where you constantly think about how much skinnier the girl next to you is or you keep your car spiffier than everyone else's. That can keep you from seeing people with the love of God.
There are mindsets that come from every place in your past where something went wrong, where the world hurt you and then said, "You better start thinking like me, or this will happen to you again."
We act like we don't know that Jesus came to empower us to walk out His life on earth. We make excuses for our behavior, never facing our bondage to mindsets that keep us from seeing Jesus and the power of His truth.
Well, I tell you what, folks: Jesus came to set the captives free.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound...(Isaiah 61:1)
Do not be conformed to this world (worldly mindsets from worldly lies), but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).
You can't determine what is perfect with your backwards mindsets. You must be transformed by the renewal of your mind(sets). When you get in the Word of God and absorb His truth, all of your thoughts and behaviors begin to change.
You start having a kingdom mindset. Your behaviors start to look less and less like fear and more and more like Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.
In John chapter 9, Jesus declares "I am the light of the world," and then heals the man born blind. The Jews argued among themselves about whether He was from God or from the devil. Even the formerly blind man said, "He is a prophet." Nobody really recognized Him, because they were too distracted trying to fit Him comfortably into their own lifestyles, their own ideas, their own mindsets.
They were too afraid of freedom to be set free.
Don't let your mindsets obscure the miracles in front of you. Jesus wants so badly for you to walk out your true identity in Him. Let Him rock you right out of your prison and into His glory.
Jesus' words probably seemed alien to the Jews. They were trying to identify Him, to understand Him by their worldly classifications: "Are you a Samaritan? Are you possessed? Who are you?" They had no framework to help them comprehend Jesus' assertion: "If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." They were stuck in a worldly mindset, and they couldn't see beyond it to recognize who Jesus really was.
Jesus totally disregarded their accusation that He was a Samaritan. Then He really threw them for a loop: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). Whoah there, Jesus--mixing up verb tenses? These people had no idea what the words "I AM" meant, even though God had identified Himself with those exact words before. They were so blind to who Jesus was that they picked up stones to kill Him.
Defensive much?
There's this girl at the gym I go to. She works REALLY hard on that elliptical. You can tell she is pushing her body too much, huffing away as she studies her medical textbooks. The other day, I was on the elliptical next to her, and she was silently judging me for not working as hard as she was.
How do I know she was doing that? Because I used to be that girl.
I used to organize my life with mathematical precision. Calories in, calories out, carefully maintaining what I thought was a balance. I was a little insane, and almost fell into a diagnosable eating disorder.
How does this happen? Like any problem, it began with me believing a lie from my culture: that I (as a woman and as an American) could and should become perfect. That lie grew in my mind, until I was a slave to a ritual of thought that revolved around food and exercise, and manifested in destructive behaviors like eating too little, organizing my day around meals, and working out too hard. My mindset became a comfortable security blanket to me, my mental refuge.
All that repetitive, cyclical thought accomplished exactly what the devil intended for it to accomplish: it kept my eyes focused on me, me, me, and NOT the person of Jesus Christ. And it even began to damage my body.
But I can tell you one thing without shame: Jesus wanted me so badly that He freed me from that mindset (and many other mindsets as well). Now I can look at that girl at the gym and know in my heart that I have left that type of bondage, never to look back--and that I want to help free others, too.
You probably don't have an eating disorder. But I can pretty much guarantee you that you have absorbed some lie from your culture, internalized it, and perform it every day, probably without consciously realizing it. A mindset is a familiar pattern of thought that is lived out in behaviors, usually with counter-productive results. They infuse our spirits with lies so that we become blind to who Jesus is, and we fail to recognize Him. What's more, when people try to tell us the truth about our mindsets, we pick up stones to kill them. (I hope not literally. Although my brother did throw some pillows last week when we were telling him about a mindset he needed to pray about.)
We become defensive.
Even right now you are thinking, "I don't have a destructive mindset!"
Well, the Jews didn't think so either. "Are we also blind?" asked the Pharisees (John 9:40). They were consumed by their own worldview--a religious worldview that had been reduced from the awesome righteousness of God to the self-righteousness of human performance. And because their mindset led them to believe that God couldn't possibly be a miracle-working, dirty-footed nomad from Galilee, they didn't recognize God when He was actually talking to them face to face.
I think a lot of Christians in the world today have a religious mindset that has been birthed in them not by God or His Word, but by their culture, so much so that they can't recognize Jesus even when they are sitting in church. But even more subtle are those other supposedly innocent lies we absorb from culture or from our childhoods or our families. They obscure our view of Him by locking us into a wrong mindset, drawing our eyes to ourselves rather than to the radiance of God.
What does this look like? You wouldn't know, because one of the most sinister things about a wrong mindset is that you don't know you have it.
I've known people who have had mindsets of failure, which is directly contrary to the Word of God. They wouldn't try to do things, or would even intentionally mess themselves up, simply because they were afraid to try and fail--and they didn't even realize that these behaviors were dominating their lives.
My calorie obsession was a control mindset, which can also manifest as manipulating loved ones, trying to achieve the highest grades at school, or even obsessively shaving your eyebrows and drawing them on with an eyeliner pencil. (I've seen this first-hand.)
I've known people with mindsets of unworthiness, which appears in self-demeaning comments, needy behaviors in relationships, sometimes even dressing sloppily or refusing to wear cute clothes. There's a poverty mindset, where people scrap and save and are constantly in fear that they will run out of money. There are mindsets of competition, where you constantly think about how much skinnier the girl next to you is or you keep your car spiffier than everyone else's. That can keep you from seeing people with the love of God.
There are mindsets that come from every place in your past where something went wrong, where the world hurt you and then said, "You better start thinking like me, or this will happen to you again."
We act like we don't know that Jesus came to empower us to walk out His life on earth. We make excuses for our behavior, never facing our bondage to mindsets that keep us from seeing Jesus and the power of His truth.
Well, I tell you what, folks: Jesus came to set the captives free.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound...(Isaiah 61:1)
Do not be conformed to this world (worldly mindsets from worldly lies), but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).
You can't determine what is perfect with your backwards mindsets. You must be transformed by the renewal of your mind(sets). When you get in the Word of God and absorb His truth, all of your thoughts and behaviors begin to change.
You start having a kingdom mindset. Your behaviors start to look less and less like fear and more and more like Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.
In John chapter 9, Jesus declares "I am the light of the world," and then heals the man born blind. The Jews argued among themselves about whether He was from God or from the devil. Even the formerly blind man said, "He is a prophet." Nobody really recognized Him, because they were too distracted trying to fit Him comfortably into their own lifestyles, their own ideas, their own mindsets.
They were too afraid of freedom to be set free.
Don't let your mindsets obscure the miracles in front of you. Jesus wants so badly for you to walk out your true identity in Him. Let Him rock you right out of your prison and into His glory.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Mustard and the American Way
He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)
The mustard seed is probably the smallest thing Jesus' hearers could imagine. They didn't have microscopes yet, so He couldn't say, "The kingdom of God is like a mitochondria...." But the mustard seed works better anyway, because it represents growth.
The mustard seed, to me, is the moment when we say to Jesus, "Yes, I believe you're the Son of God, and I want to give you my life." In a world full of billions of people, that may seem a small thing; but God says it can move mountains into the sea.
A few days ago, I was writing about gardens. We work hard in the gardens of our ministry--feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, speaking kind words, walking in love--but God is the one who grows the harvest. We can't make plants grow, no matter how much fertilizer we dump on the seeds.
I think personal sanctification--the process of becoming more like Jesus--works in the same way. We meet God with a mustard seed of faith, and He starts doing miraculous work in us.
We all have mountains. Most of them grew up out of our past, ugly, jutting, rocky scars on our spirits. They look impossible to move. Most of us have accepted them as simply part of the landscapes of our hearts. They form into ranges: anxiety, resentment, offense, fear of rejection, insecurities, anger, hopelessness, depression, impatience, unkind thought patterns, and every other visible or invisible sin we harbor.
It's the "American way" to conquer the mountains. Just picture little pioneers, defenseless against the wind and snow, doggedly driving oxen and covered wagons through the Rockies on their way to Oregon, their determination evidenced on their grim faces. We are told that we must work hard, that we can do anything, that there are ways to fix us, if only we would try hard enough. A good result of that is that many of those pioneers did make it over the mountains. (Well, just don't think about the Donner party.) But there's a catch: the mountains are still there.
It's important on this Fourth of July weekend to reflect on who we are and how our culture formed us. And, for many of us, the atmosphere of self-determination/motivation/whatever has just left us feeling like failures.
Why? Because we can't move those mountains by ourselves. We strive hard, alone, to conquer anxiety, bitterness, jealousy (the list goes on and on), and to "grow" the fruits of the Spirit instead. But that just looks like some little person at the base of a mountain, striving with all his might to pick it up and cast it into the sea.
It ain't happenin', bro.
This isn't to say that you shouldn't weed the garden of your soul, pulling out distractions, sinful behaviors, and other things that try to choke the life of God out of you. But what I am saying is that, if you meet God with a little mustard seed, just a teeny bit of surrender in a particular area of your life, He will respond by sending His Spirit to do the work in you.
You just have to bring Him the seed. That's harder than it sounds, since we have often been disappointed by our own efforts to fight sin and past issues. But, "I will not leave you as orphans," said Jesus (John 14:18). "...I will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth..." (John 14:16-17).
Even Paul said, "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). The "work out your own salvation" part sounds like great all-American advice...and then Paul blasts it with the second half of his statement.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
Come to Jesus and ask Him to baptize you with His Spirit, as He promised. Believe you receive it. That's your mustard seed faith.
There is a garden inside of you, and the Holy Spirit has to produce the fruits in you. That's why they're called "fruits of the spirit," not "fruits of hard labor." Yes, you must create an environment in your spirit conducive to growth. Yes, you must weed, consciously removing distractions and sins. And you can definitely starve out your seeds if you don't water them with the Word.
But you don't have to get all American about it.
The mustard seed is probably the smallest thing Jesus' hearers could imagine. They didn't have microscopes yet, so He couldn't say, "The kingdom of God is like a mitochondria...." But the mustard seed works better anyway, because it represents growth.
The mustard seed, to me, is the moment when we say to Jesus, "Yes, I believe you're the Son of God, and I want to give you my life." In a world full of billions of people, that may seem a small thing; but God says it can move mountains into the sea.
A few days ago, I was writing about gardens. We work hard in the gardens of our ministry--feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, speaking kind words, walking in love--but God is the one who grows the harvest. We can't make plants grow, no matter how much fertilizer we dump on the seeds.
I think personal sanctification--the process of becoming more like Jesus--works in the same way. We meet God with a mustard seed of faith, and He starts doing miraculous work in us.
We all have mountains. Most of them grew up out of our past, ugly, jutting, rocky scars on our spirits. They look impossible to move. Most of us have accepted them as simply part of the landscapes of our hearts. They form into ranges: anxiety, resentment, offense, fear of rejection, insecurities, anger, hopelessness, depression, impatience, unkind thought patterns, and every other visible or invisible sin we harbor.
It's the "American way" to conquer the mountains. Just picture little pioneers, defenseless against the wind and snow, doggedly driving oxen and covered wagons through the Rockies on their way to Oregon, their determination evidenced on their grim faces. We are told that we must work hard, that we can do anything, that there are ways to fix us, if only we would try hard enough. A good result of that is that many of those pioneers did make it over the mountains. (Well, just don't think about the Donner party.) But there's a catch: the mountains are still there.
It's important on this Fourth of July weekend to reflect on who we are and how our culture formed us. And, for many of us, the atmosphere of self-determination/motivation/whatever has just left us feeling like failures.
Why? Because we can't move those mountains by ourselves. We strive hard, alone, to conquer anxiety, bitterness, jealousy (the list goes on and on), and to "grow" the fruits of the Spirit instead. But that just looks like some little person at the base of a mountain, striving with all his might to pick it up and cast it into the sea.
It ain't happenin', bro.
This isn't to say that you shouldn't weed the garden of your soul, pulling out distractions, sinful behaviors, and other things that try to choke the life of God out of you. But what I am saying is that, if you meet God with a little mustard seed, just a teeny bit of surrender in a particular area of your life, He will respond by sending His Spirit to do the work in you.
You just have to bring Him the seed. That's harder than it sounds, since we have often been disappointed by our own efforts to fight sin and past issues. But, "I will not leave you as orphans," said Jesus (John 14:18). "...I will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth..." (John 14:16-17).
Even Paul said, "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). The "work out your own salvation" part sounds like great all-American advice...and then Paul blasts it with the second half of his statement.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
Come to Jesus and ask Him to baptize you with His Spirit, as He promised. Believe you receive it. That's your mustard seed faith.
There is a garden inside of you, and the Holy Spirit has to produce the fruits in you. That's why they're called "fruits of the spirit," not "fruits of hard labor." Yes, you must create an environment in your spirit conducive to growth. Yes, you must weed, consciously removing distractions and sins. And you can definitely starve out your seeds if you don't water them with the Word.
But you don't have to get all American about it.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Dirt Under Your Nails
But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly. (Psalm 52:8-9)
I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me. I'd like to be an olive tree in the house of God, continually feeding on the water of life.
If you've been reading my blog, you know that I spent a lot of time towards the end of the school year being upset about not seeing results for some of my students. I felt like I had worked so hard, and they had worked hard, but we just didn't see all the results we wanted to see. It was then that God started talking to me about gardens.
I know a lot of old-school Southern women who take their gardens very seriously. They have timed sprinklers, picket fences, and many pairs of dirty gardening gloves. They go out and spend all day working in their gardens, and their hard work manifests in beautiful, prize-winning flowers and the juiciest, tastiest tomatoes. (You just can't get those up North, where the soil isn't alluvial...but let me lay biases aside.)
For all their hard work, however, these experienced gardeners can never actually make a plant grow. They can plant seeds, certainly. They can fertilize and weed and water, making an environment most conducive to productivity. They can even sing to their plants. But they cannot, with a magical touch of their supposed "green thumbs," make a seed germinate, sprout, bud, and produce.
We all know who does that. He has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass (Job 38:25-27).
Yeah. The one and only God.
In the same way, we can plant seeds in other human beings. We can sow the word of the Good News to them. We can labor hard over them, sacrificing our sweat and tears in prayer and good works. We can pour out all the living water God gives us, more and more still, to nurture them. We can be faithful to return to them day after day, never growing weary of doing good (Galatians 6:9). But we cannot actually make them grow.
That's the beautiful irony: plants will never grow if someone doesn't plant a garden, and your hard, hard work is essential. Yet it's not essential at all, because God is really doing the work.
I think we should each view our ministry on earth this way. We should always work hard, but we should realize that (thankfully) the produce of the garden does not depend on our work. This is a paradox that is so hard to grasp, and it slips through my fingers every time I try to understand it.
Paul helps a bit:
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).
We are fellow workers with God and each other. In heaven, Jesus isn't going to be running around handing out "lawn of the month" or "garden show finalist" certificates. Here is one of the best things about the garden: it belongs to all of us. Not only are we sowing and watering in it, we are also growing in it ourselves. And the one that both our work and our growth glorifies is our Father.
I tend to like to take my little patch of earth and work in solitude. I don't like having other people trample their booted feet through it or offer me suggestions about what seeds to plant. I don't like to leave it under the care of another. I considered keeping my job a second year for the sole reason that I did not want to leave my kids to be tended by another gardener. I wanted to place a scarecrow and a "Warning: No Trespassing" sign in my classroom. (Not literally...I'm not that crazy.) I especially wanted this because I had not yet seen the total results for many of my students. I saw buds where I wanted to see flowers.
But if you're going to co-labor with God, you're going to have to accept that you might not be the one who gets to reap what you have sown. You have to accept co-laboring with other people.
Jesus said, "Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together, for here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor" (John 4:36-38).
That seems a bit unfair at first reading. You may not get to see the results of your work. Or, you may have to wait a very long time to see anything coming up out of the ground. But, as usual, God always pleasantly surprises us, even if we have to wait, with the unexpected beauty and bounty of His plan.
The glory of the harvest is bigger than each of us as individuals receiving "wages" or recognition for what we've done. We will receive these things, but that's not the main point. The object is the glorification of the Father. Our Father's goal is to bless as many of us as possible by calling us to be part of His plan.
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James 3:18).
We work so hard, but at the same time, we're a green olive tree, planted and nourished by the shores of His peace, because [He has] done it. I can trust that the seeds I planted in my kids will grow for years to come. I worked hard, and my hard work opened the door for the true Gardener to do what He had in mind from the start. No matter how hopeless it looked, or how barren it seemed, in my sight, He is faithful, and He will surely finish it. I was just honored to be chosen as the one to get my hands dirty.
I love being a product of His imagination. Stay tuned for more thoughts about gardens in my next post!
I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me. I'd like to be an olive tree in the house of God, continually feeding on the water of life.
If you've been reading my blog, you know that I spent a lot of time towards the end of the school year being upset about not seeing results for some of my students. I felt like I had worked so hard, and they had worked hard, but we just didn't see all the results we wanted to see. It was then that God started talking to me about gardens.
I know a lot of old-school Southern women who take their gardens very seriously. They have timed sprinklers, picket fences, and many pairs of dirty gardening gloves. They go out and spend all day working in their gardens, and their hard work manifests in beautiful, prize-winning flowers and the juiciest, tastiest tomatoes. (You just can't get those up North, where the soil isn't alluvial...but let me lay biases aside.)
For all their hard work, however, these experienced gardeners can never actually make a plant grow. They can plant seeds, certainly. They can fertilize and weed and water, making an environment most conducive to productivity. They can even sing to their plants. But they cannot, with a magical touch of their supposed "green thumbs," make a seed germinate, sprout, bud, and produce.
We all know who does that. He has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass (Job 38:25-27).
Yeah. The one and only God.
In the same way, we can plant seeds in other human beings. We can sow the word of the Good News to them. We can labor hard over them, sacrificing our sweat and tears in prayer and good works. We can pour out all the living water God gives us, more and more still, to nurture them. We can be faithful to return to them day after day, never growing weary of doing good (Galatians 6:9). But we cannot actually make them grow.
That's the beautiful irony: plants will never grow if someone doesn't plant a garden, and your hard, hard work is essential. Yet it's not essential at all, because God is really doing the work.
I think we should each view our ministry on earth this way. We should always work hard, but we should realize that (thankfully) the produce of the garden does not depend on our work. This is a paradox that is so hard to grasp, and it slips through my fingers every time I try to understand it.
Paul helps a bit:
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).
We are fellow workers with God and each other. In heaven, Jesus isn't going to be running around handing out "lawn of the month" or "garden show finalist" certificates. Here is one of the best things about the garden: it belongs to all of us. Not only are we sowing and watering in it, we are also growing in it ourselves. And the one that both our work and our growth glorifies is our Father.
I tend to like to take my little patch of earth and work in solitude. I don't like having other people trample their booted feet through it or offer me suggestions about what seeds to plant. I don't like to leave it under the care of another. I considered keeping my job a second year for the sole reason that I did not want to leave my kids to be tended by another gardener. I wanted to place a scarecrow and a "Warning: No Trespassing" sign in my classroom. (Not literally...I'm not that crazy.) I especially wanted this because I had not yet seen the total results for many of my students. I saw buds where I wanted to see flowers.
But if you're going to co-labor with God, you're going to have to accept that you might not be the one who gets to reap what you have sown. You have to accept co-laboring with other people.
Jesus said, "Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together, for here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor" (John 4:36-38).
That seems a bit unfair at first reading. You may not get to see the results of your work. Or, you may have to wait a very long time to see anything coming up out of the ground. But, as usual, God always pleasantly surprises us, even if we have to wait, with the unexpected beauty and bounty of His plan.
The glory of the harvest is bigger than each of us as individuals receiving "wages" or recognition for what we've done. We will receive these things, but that's not the main point. The object is the glorification of the Father. Our Father's goal is to bless as many of us as possible by calling us to be part of His plan.
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James 3:18).
We work so hard, but at the same time, we're a green olive tree, planted and nourished by the shores of His peace, because [He has] done it. I can trust that the seeds I planted in my kids will grow for years to come. I worked hard, and my hard work opened the door for the true Gardener to do what He had in mind from the start. No matter how hopeless it looked, or how barren it seemed, in my sight, He is faithful, and He will surely finish it. I was just honored to be chosen as the one to get my hands dirty.
I love being a product of His imagination. Stay tuned for more thoughts about gardens in my next post!
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