Linkage: Discipline-The Means to an End

Spiritual disciplines are essential for us to mature as followers of Jesus.  Speaking from my personal experience I was frustrated and my spiritual growth was stunted when I did not value spiritual disciplines in my life.  

Another reason I know that spiritual disciplines are essential for our spiritual development is become of the importance self-discipline is for life.  We cannot learn to do anything well without disciplining our selfs to set aside the time to do it, to learn the techniques, and to practice.  Discipline is the means to personal growth.  That is the point of this manvotional posted at The Art of Manliness.

From Self-Knowledge and Self-Discipline, 1916
By Basil William Maturin 

We do not endure [self-discipline] merely for its own sake, but for what lies beyond it. And we bear those acts of self-denial and self-restraint because we feel and know full well that through such acts alone can we regain the mastery over all our misused powers and learn to use them with a vigour and a joy such as we have never known before… 

It is as though one who had a great talent for music but had no technical training, and consequently could never produce the best results of his art, were to put himself under a great master. The first lessons he will have to learn will be, for the most part, to correct his mistakes, not to do this and not to do that; it will seem to him that he has lost all his former freedom of expression, that he is held back by all sorts of technical rules, that whenever he seeks to let himself go he is checked and hampered. And it is no doubt true. But he will soon begin to realise that as he learns more and suffers in the learning, possibilities of utterance reveal themselves which he has never dreamed of.

Continue reading Discipline-The Means to an End.

Daily Thought: To Daily Grow Better

For our life to be perfect every day, it must be our latest improved. The world is getting worse, we say, but you and I as Christians can daily grow better. Our life today can be an improvement over our life of yesterday. The Christian life is a real life, and is as capable of development as any life. The same law that develops us physically is necessary to our development spiritually. Day after day we can be built up into stronger spiritual beings. We can become more like God, possessing a firmer Christian character and having an integrity that will not swerve for a life nor a world from the path of virtue. Constant progress is constant peace and happiness. It is the triumphant life.

Orr, Charles Ebert (2004-11-01). How to Live a Holy Life (p. 80). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: Exercise for Godliness

"The grace of godliness in the Christian character is capable of cultivation and increase. There is a law in both the material and spiritual that exercise is conducive to growth. The Spirit-filled apostle said, 'Exercise thyself unto godliness.' In the Emphatic this reads, 'Train thyself for piety.' Here is something for every soul that has any aspiration to be more godly in life. Train yourself for piety. To become of deeper piety and more godly is the joy of the Christian heart. By training we become more pious. The lawn-tender forms an espalier by intertwining the branches of the vine. He keeps intertwining them as they grow, and by such training forms a latticework made of shrubbery. The soul intertwined with the meek and lowly life of Jesus will form a character of deep piety and sincere godliness. The daily life should be intertwined with the life of Jesus. Let there be no reaching out for anything outside of him. For a proper development of the Christian graces there must be a constant training or intertwining of the soul with God. This linking more tightly is the result of growth, and growth is produced by exercise, and exercise consists in reading the Scriptures, in prayer, and in deep thought or heart-communion with God. The athlete takes such exercises and eats such foods as will most properly develop and strengthen his muscles."

Orr, Charles Ebert (2004-11-01). How to Live a Holy Life (p. 40). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

God will Help Us Keep on Going

We are God's children.  That is a wonderful thought, for it implies that God loves us and that He desires us to live out the potential that each on of us have.  Isn't that what parents want for their children?  Parents want their children to achieve their potential and which uses their many talents.  In this train of thought what parents are looking in their children is progression.  Parents are thrilled when their baby rolls over, then are equally thrilled when baby begins to crawl, to walk, and then run.  Parents don't expect their baby to come out of the womb running 100 yard sprints, and they are excited by the progression of the child to get to that point.  Parents also know that if a child does not move past crawling then something is seriously wrong.

As we follow Jesus and seek to become more like him what God wants to see in our lives is a progression. It would not make sense for God to expect us to come up out of the waters of baptism, new creations in Christ, able to love perfectly.  There is a progression that follows with the ultimate goal being to love like Christ.  To have love such a part of who we are that we love people without thinking about it, that it happens automatically.  The question we need to consider is not whether or not we are perfect in our love, but whether or not we are making progress in our love?

Here is the thought that struck me this morning as I thought about the above, just as there are things that halt a child's progress in walking or learning, there are things in our lives that can halt our progress in becoming like Jesus.  These things vary from our emotional "wiring" to a severely dysfunctional family to addictions.  When our progression is halted does God then condemn us to hell?  If we are broken and can't take the next step despite our best efforts are we doomed?  Consider how a parent of disable child reacts.  The good parents continue to love and continue to help the child in whatever ways are needed.

God, being the best Father, isn't going to give up on us because our progression towards  Christ likeness was halted by drug addiction, by emotional baggage that makes trusting people impossible, or a temptation that will not go away.  Instead God is going to love us and use His power to enable us to continue on as we become more like Jesus.  God will not abandon us if we are not perfect.  Like a loving Father He will take us in His arms and help us keep on going.

Daily Thought: It is Something to be Learned

"If you want to make music, you have to learn how to play an instrument.  And in the beginning, it doesn't sound too good—all the squawks and squeaks and bad timing.  You really are on your way to making music.  It just sounds like you're strangling a pig.  If you stick with it, something beautiful begins to emerge.  Or how about snowboarding—learning to do that is really awkward at first.  You fall down a lot.  You feel like an idiot.  But if you hang in there, you come to enjoy it.  You get better.  It starts to feel natural.  That's  when it becomes fun.  This hold true for anything in life.

"Including our walk with God.  It takes time and practice.  It's awkward at first, and sometimes we feel stupid.  But if we hang in there, we do begin to get it, and as it becomes more and more natural, our lives are filled with his presence and all the joy and beauty and pleasure that come with it.

"It is something to be learned.

"And it is worth learning." ~ John Eldredge, Walking with God, p. 17

Daily Thought: We Need to Think

"Part of the problem in contemporary Christianity, I believe, is that  talk about the freedom of the Spirit, about grace which sweeps us off our feet and heals and transforms our lives, has been taken over surreptitiously by a kind of low-grade romanticism, colluding with an anti-intellectual streak in our culture, generating the assumption that the more spiritual you are, the less you need to think." ~ N. T. Wright, After You Believe, p. 158

Daily Thought: Spiritual Formation and Community

"Spiritual formation, good or bad, is always profoundly social.  You cannot keep it to yourself.  Anyone who thinks of it as a merely private matter has misunderstood it.  Anyone who says, 'It's just between me and God,' or 'What I do is my own business,' had misunderstood God as well as 'me.'" ~ Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 182

Daily Thought: A Measure of Spiritual Growth

"The truth is, the more spiritually mature you grow, the more you will find your heart being drawn to people.  You want to reach out to people, especially those neglected by society or far from God." ~ John Ortberg, Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them, p. 59

Daily Thought: Becoming Spiritually Mature

"The truth is, the more spiritually mature you grow, the more you will find your heart being drawn to people.  You want to reach out to people, especially those neglected by society or far from God." ~ John Ortberg, Everybody's Normal Till You Get To Know Them, p. 59

Trusting God With Our Lives

{James 1:1-4; ESV}

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

It is no secret that life is filled with heartbreak, disappointment, tragedy, and all sorts of different trials.  We understand that God has not promised us an easy life, and that He is able to use the junk that happens to us to mature our faith and transform us into the people He created us to be.  That is why we should find joy in our suffering, because God is redeeming our pain to make us new creations.

Yet, we also know that this is easier said than done.  When our lives are going smoothly, or at least manageable, we can say, "I trust God no matter what happens."  Then the clouds descend and the storm hits and before long we are questioning God's heart.  Some times we will even begin to question His existence.

How do we make the rubber meet the road here without sounding like a cheerleader?  You know the person who says, "Just try a little harder.  You can do it.  Hang in there."  That type of encouragement is worthless.  It is like trying to encourage a guy with a compound leg facture to get up and run a marathon, "You can do it.  I am in your corner.  I will pray for you."  We would recognize such behavior as cruel, and rightly so, because the problem isn't a lack of effort but a broken leg.  Spiritual growth often isn't about a lack of effort, but it is about a wounded heart.  A heart that doesn't trust that God is good.

So how can we use the tragedy and trials in our lives to mature our faith?  I think first we have to lay a solid foundation.  This has to be done before the storms hit, because once the rain starts to fall it is going to be awfully difficult to make any progress.

Jesus said:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it" (Matthew 7:24-27; ESV)

The reason it is so important to do the listening and the obey before the storm hits is because that gives us the experience we need to remind ourselves that God is good.  He can be trusted to bring us life, even if at the moment the flood waters seem to be winning.  Yet, even in the midst of the storm this is where we need to begin.  We will not survive, we will not find healing and life, if we do not have the firm foundation of Jesus.  So even if it is pouring down rain and the flood is rising we need to spend our time trying to find the rock that will keep us from being swept away.

Second I think we need to daily surrender our lives to God.  Read what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, 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 12:1-2; ESV)

In other words we have to give up control of our lives.  The only way we will be changed is to allow God to change us.  If we are going to insist on doing things our way we will never experience the life that God wants us to have.  We won't be transformed. We won't be the salt of the earth or light of the world because we will be conformed to the world around us.  This is scary because we our handing over the reins of our lives to God, giving Him control, and trusting Him for the results.

That is where the rubber meets the road: trust.  Spiritual maturity isn't about trying harder, but it is about trusting more.  We learn to trust through experience and so prayer and obedience become the route through which our faith is grown as we come to know that God is one we can trust with our lives.

Take Time to Listen

I don't need to tell you that life is busy because you are living it. Life can be hectic, and if we are not intentional about carving out time for God, then we will miss it.

As much as I enjoy spending time with my family, one thing that I dislike is that it throws my devotional routine off. That is what happened to me last week as I spent time at my parents' house with my brother and his family. We had a good time together, but my time alone with God was limited and distracted.

As I begin this new week I am feeling a little bit out of sorts, and one of the reasons is because I missed out on a vital part of my devotional time last week, and that is simply taking time to listen for God's voice. That time of silent meditation has become a huge part of my time with God, and missing out on that feels like missing out on God's guidance.

I wasn't intentional about my devotional time, and though I made time for God every day, I missed out on a vital aspect of my devotions.

David in Psalm 145 conveys a very similar thought. In verse 5 he wrote; "I will meditate a on your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles" (NLT). It is this time of silent reflection that enables us to make sense of life and just how great and wonderful God really is.

I urge you to take some time today and get alone with your Bible and you thoughts and meditate on God and His Word.

Sent from my iPod

Sunday Quote: The Missing Nutriment

"What is it that is missing in our deformed condition? From a biblical perspective, there can be no doubt that it is the appropriate relation to the spiritual Kingdom of God that is the missing 'nutriment' in the human system. Without it our life is left mutilated, stunted, weakened, and deformed in various stages of disintegration and corruption." ~ Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 65

Philosophy or Action

One of the preachers I listen to via podcast is Aaron Brockett from Trader's Point Christian Church in Indianapolis. In the sermon I listened to today as I walked Barkley, Aaron said; "If your belief continues to be a philosophy and not action it will sour within you."

It is so easy to mentally agree with the Bible and vocally declare Christ Jesus as Lord, but it is far more difficult to live a life of obedience. We would much rather come to a worship service once a week and listen to a sermon.

The reality is that faith is, at times, very difficult. Faith is difficult because it requires us to sacrifice. Faith will make associate with people we would rather avoid and serve in ways which
make us very uncomfortable. Yet, if our faith isn't pushing us outside of our comfort zones, then it will not remain faith for very long. Eventually faith will shrivel and die.

While faith is rooted in what we believe, it requires us to eventually live out that belief. The reason so many of us feel stunted in our spiritual growth is because we have not taken the step of obedience. It is not a lack of knowledge that kills faith, but a lack of action.

This is one of the points Jesus made in His teaching on the wise and foolish builders. Remember to whom Jesus compared the wise builder who built his house on rock? Jesus compared the wise man to a person who hears and obeys. That is the key to spiritual growth: obedience.

We can have the right philosophy, but if we aren't doing the right actions then we aren't living by faith. True faith combines right philosophy with right action. The two go together.

Sent from my iPod

The Good Side of Pain #2

The reason that pain is such an important part of God’s molding process is because it gets us to redirect our focus. So many of us have our focus on other things besides God. We may be focused on the money we will be making on what we will spend it on. We may be focused on a romantic relationship, and we put in so much effort to make it work. Our focus may be the upcoming football season and winning the state championship. It could be on getting good grades so you can get into a good college. Whenever our focus is on something other than God, we are cheating Him of what He deserves. As long as our lives are good and problems are small and manageable we are not going to change our focus. For many of us, the only way we will learn to focus on God is to have our worlds rocked and our dreams shattered, in a word, Pain.

Dr. Larry Crabb in his book Shattered Dreams wrote; “But we almost always mistake lesser pleasures for this greatest pleasure (an encounter with God) and live our lives chasing after them. We’re not in touch with our appetite for God” (p. 5). God allows pain in our lives to help us get in touch with our desire for God.

If we were honest with ourselves we would admit that many times the only way God could redirect our focus is to take away the thing that distracts us the most. When our dreams shatter or when our lives are turned upside down the result is pain. Having our lives disrupted is not be a pleasant experience, it does hurt. This is the second reason why pain is valuable in our lives. Pain is valuable because it is an opportunity to trust God.

The apostle Paul wrote about a particular pain he suffered in 2 Corinthians 12:6-10. This is what the Apostle wrote:

If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NLT)

Pain can be valuable in our lives, but only if we learn the lesson that God wants us to learn. So often we miss out on growing in our relationship with God, because we miss the opportunities God has given to us. The next time you go through a trial or some great pain enters your life, ask God this question, “God what is it that You want me to understand or do?” If you do that I am confident that you will make the most of the pain that is in your life.

Though I believe pain can be valuable, I also believe that not every situation will fit neatly into these two reasons. Sometimes we have to realize that we will not understand that pain and suffering that is happening. Think about the grandmother with Alzheimer. How is that disease valuable to her? How can her character be developed when her mind isn’t functioning? How can she focus on God when she can’t even remember the names of her grandchildren? We will not always understand why God allows pain into the lives of people, especially into the lives of His children. It is a mystery that we need to learn to live with.

The Good Side of Pain #1

After losing his wife the late Christian thinker CS Lewis wrote a book entitled A Grief Observed. The Following quote is taken from that book:

Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, if you turn to Him then with praise, you will be welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away.

C.S. Lewis had a difficult time dealing with his wife’s death. It presented him with a crisis of belief, because the pain was real and immense. But C.S. Lewis’ experience is not any different then the rest of humanities’ experience. Everyday people experience pain and suffering, crying out to God and finding no answer.

Let’s be honest, when tragedy happens, when pain enters our lives, God doesn’t always feel close by. Where was God when the World Trade Center was burning in New York? Where was God when a drunk driver killed your friend? Where was God when your parents got divorced? Where was God when your brother got involved with drugs? Where was God when my uncle got cancer and died?

If we were all powerful like so many people claim God to be, then we would use that power to make the world right and good. When we see a friend of ours hurt and suffering we want to do whatever it takes to fix the situation. We love them, and want their lives to be good. Haven’t we heard that God loves us and wants our lives to be good? If that is the case why does God allow suffering to happen?

I know that pain is not a pleasant experience. It hurts! You are out there thinking, “Thanks for pointing out the obvious. I knew that before I came to this class.” Here is my point, even though pain hurts, it is valuable to our lives. One of the worst Star Trek movies made, is Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier. The only redeeming part of the movie is a line the Captain Kirk has. The crew meets up with Spock’s half-brother, a Vulcan who has discovered how to take away the emotional pain that we all have. Imagine what your life would be like if all the emotional baggage you carry could suddenly be taken away. You simply forget about that time you father yelled at you and called you sissy boy. You forget about the deaths of your grandma and of your dog Spot. You don’t remember the betrayal by your best friend when she stole your boyfriend. The fact that you other kids call you fat vanishes from your mind. Wouldn’t that be great!? This Vulcan offers to take away Kirk’s pain, and the Captain looks at him and says, “No! I need my pain. My pain makes me who I am.” Pain is valuable to our lives because it shapes our character. Though to be honest, it isn’t the pain that shapes our character, what shapes our character are our choices, suffering is the environment in which we have to make those choices.

James 1:2-5 says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking (NLT).

I want you to understand something, God’s greatest concern in your life is not your happiness. God does not intend for His people to constantly go through life feeling like they are on the top of the world. Why? Because that type of life does not create the type of people God wants us to be. If God immediately took away our pain and struggles we would never know what it would be like to trust Him. Pain and suffering often forces us to rely on God in ways we would never have before.

The struggles, trials, and pain of life is what develops Holiness in our lives. That is God’s greatest concern in our lives, that we be holy. We are created to be holy not happy. Because happiness is not the goal God uses pain to create us to be holy. Rebecca St. James wrote, “God really wants to mold all of us -- male, female, young, and old -- into what He created us to be.” Pain, trials, and struggles are one way God molds us into what He created us to be.

Don't Get Comfortable

It is a theory of mine that most of us just want a comfortable and secure life. Really we are not asking for much, just a life filled with love, relationships, and nice surroundings. We are not asking for mansions, popularity, and millions in the bank, just enough to be comfortable.

We might not be asking for much, but it is here is where we clash with God. It is in our comfort, when things are nice and easy, that we stop trusting God. Instead of worshipping the Provider we begin to worship what He has provided. We may not put it in those terms, but that is what we do. Every time we ignore God and pursue what we want is evidence that we are worshipping something other than our Creator and Savior. For this reason God doesn’t allow our lives to remain comfortable. Instead He calls us into the unknown and to follow Him.

God called to Abram. Abram was to leave his home land and everything he knew and follow God to a land Abram knew nothing about. Abram went, and in the process learned to trust God. Abram, later known as Abraham, had to leave the comfort of the life he had created and follow God into the great unknown.

Nicodemus came to Jesus to inquire whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to abandon what he had learned and trust in Jesus. Nicodemus didn’t understand what Jesus meant, but he decided to follow Jesus, and his life was changed. No longer did Nicodemus trust solely in the Law, but now he trusted in the Giver of the Law.

A rich young man came to Jesus with a question. “How do I get eternal life?” Jesus gave him an answer that the young man didn’t expect. The young man was looking for a discipline or a ritual to add to his collection of good works, but Jesus said, “Sell what you have and give it to the poor, and then come follow me.” The young man went away sad, because he was unwilling to give up what was comfortable. He missed out on God, because he insisted on worshipping his wealth.

When God calls us into the unknown, it is imperative that we follow. It might be a call to physically move, or it could be a call to change our doctrine, or it could be a call to action. Whatever it is, God is calling us for a reason. Only by leaving what is comfortable and following God can we experience God for who He is. Ultimately we worship God by following Him into the unknown.

Worship is more than singing songs, it is about trusting God. When we worship God only on Sunday mornings we don’t give Him the all honor He deserves. Worship is seen through our trust in God.

It is also through following God into the unknown that we learn the most about God. Study is very important. It is, in fact, essential, for the Bible provides us with the truth we need to learn about God. Yet it is experience which makes what we know about God move from our heads into our hearts, so that we know God, and not just information about Him. Only when we move with God into the unknown do we truly have a relationship with Him.

Even the Bad

{James 1:2-4; NLT}

Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

Spiritual growth is not easy. It requires more than reading books, singing songs, listening to sermons, and giving a few dollars. Spiritual growth is the result of following Jesus. We follow Jesus by applying God’s truth to our lives.

We can be certain that along this path of spiritual growth Satan, our great enemy, will throw many different obstacles along the way to trip us up. He throws out fear, and we hold ourselves back from going into the unknown with Jesus. Satan sits the trap of temptation and we miss out of the experiences God has planned for us as we pursue the pleasures of sin. He digs the hole of guilt and we fall in overwhelmed with the evil we have committed, and forgetting to rely on God’s grace and forgiveness.

The good news is that God even uses Satan’s obstacles as opportunities to make us better people. Just as Joseph told his brothers; "As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil" (Genesis 50:20; NLT), we can recognize the good that can come out of our failures. God is so powerful that He can even turn evil into good!

If we are going to become productive citizens of God’s Kingdom it is going to require us to apply the truth we have been taught. God’s Word does us no good if all we do with it is listen to it. Ultimately we have to start applying it to how we live our lives. What many of us Christ Followers need is not another book to read or class to attend, but to simply do the good we have already been taught. Spiritual maturity is the process that happens as we live by faith, regardless of the consequences that we may have to face.

What makes trusting God difficult, is when bad things come our way. We have this belief that if we are living the way God wants us to, if we have applied His truth to our lives, then our lives should be filled with God. How can we trust God when we allows such bad things to happen to us? It is during these times that we have to remember that God is able to turn our pains into something that is beneficial to us. Goal of God is not to make us happy, but to make us holy, and be holy experience the life He wants us to live.

In the passage quoted above James says that we should approach trials with joy, because we know God uses them to produce in us the character He desires to have. Because God loves us He will not waste our painful experiences, our failures, or our troubles. He will use them to make us stronger, and in many cases, He will use them for the benefit of others as well.

When trials, troubles, and failures come our way shouldn’t get discouraged and wonder where God is in the tragedies of life. Rather we should respond with trust, knowing that even through the most horrible of circumstances God can bring about His will and create us to be a little more like Jesus.

• Point to Ponder: God uses even the bad in our lives to make us more like Jesus.
  
• Questions to Consider: How has God used your pain in the past to develop your character? Why do you think we question God when hardships come our way?
• Prayer to Pray: Lord, thank You for loving me and caring about the type of life I live. Give me eyes to see You at work in the world around me, and a heart of hope so that I will hold on when the storms of life come my way...

Loving Other Christians

{Hebrews 6:10-12; NLT}

For God is not unfair. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other Christians, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep right on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and patience.

The central command of the Christian faith is love. Love is what sets us apart from the world and makes us beacons of light in the dark world. If we are going to be lights in the world we need to love.

In this passage we notice the writer of Hebrews encourages his readers to love their fellow Christians. It is through this love, he says, that we demonstrate our love for God. I find it very interesting that he states that we are to “care for other Christians”. After all shouldn’t we love everyone equally?

This is a valid question because we have been told that God loves everyone. I have no doubt that God loves everyone and He desires them all to be saved. The Bible tells us this much. The Bible is also very clear that we are to love other Christians first and foremost. Is this a contradiction?

Perhaps we should take a look at our lives. A teacher can love all the kids in her classroom, but the love she has for them pales in comparison to the love she has for her own children. A guy can love all his friends and buddies, but that love is nothing compared to the love he has for his wife. The fact that God loves the Church differently, and expects us to love other Christians differently, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love the rest of the world, but simply points out the special relationship that the Church has with God.

Remember that Jesus didn’t die for just a person, but Jesus died for a people. Jesus died for the Church, and that makes us very special to Him. We are God’s Children and the Bride of Christ and that means that we have a special relationship with Him.

This might seem unfair, but in reality when Christ Followers love other Christians first it makes the Church a very attractive group to be a part of. The world is a hard place filled with rejection and heartache. Many people are searching for a place to belong and place to be loved, regardless of who they are or what they have done. By loving each other, rather than bickering and fighting with one another, the Church becomes a place of hope in a land of hopelessness.

It also appears from this passage that by loving each other we grow spiritually. The best way to grow in our faith is not through a study or listening to a sermon series, but through experiencing life with other Christians. When we are able to do things with other Christians because we enjoy their company and have their best interest at heart we begin to develop the heart of God. We desire the things God desires and we become spiritually sharp and full of passion.

It is by having this heart of God beating in our chests which moves us down the road of becoming the people God created us to be. When we care about the things He cares about we become a little more like Him. The people of faith of old were set apart because they had this heart. They were willing to sacrifice in order to do what God wanted them to do, because they wanted the same thing God wanted.

In our quest to become more like the people God wants us to be we have to start loving other people. First, we need to love the Christians who make up our Church family. This is helps us develop a heart like God’s which allows us to love the hurt and lonely people of the world.

• Point to Ponder: By loving other Christians we develop a God-like heart.
• Passage to Remember: Hebrews 6:10-12
• Prayer to Pray: Father in Heaven, help me to see past myself so I can love the people around me...

Do You See The Harvest?

{Matthew 9:36-38; ESV}

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

I think one of the ways we can measure our spiritual growth is a more sincere compassion for hurting people. When I was younger it was easy for me to negatively judge people because of the bad circumstances in their lives. “After all,” I reasoned; “if they would make better choices they wouldn’t find themselves in those difficult circumstances.” Compassion was absent from my life. Now my heart breaks when I see people throw their lives away, because I know God has a life that is so much better than the one they are living.

I don’t want to diminish the responsibility each of us has for the choices that we make; I have come to realize that many choices are made because people just don’t know any better. They have had bad models for their lives and are unaware where to turn for help. They may want to change but don’t know what to do. We also need to remember many of the sin addictions people have are the result of their desire to cope with the tragic circumstances of their lives, but now they are in a cycle that they can’t break free from.

When we read the gospels it appears that when Jesus looked at a crowd of people He didn’t see dirty rotten sinners; instead He saw lost traveller. Rather than condemning people for their faults and sins, Jesus showed them compassion and acceptance. Jesus was the one person who could sit in judgment but He chose to extend help instead.
If we believe we have God’s of truth it is tempting to judge people, rather than to help them. That was one of the sins Jesus condemned the Pharisees for. Focusing solely on the truth can make us feel superior, and thus we think we are in the position to judge the lives of those around us. It also give us a sense that we are doing God’s work since we are standing up for God’s truth. Yet, in Revelation 2:1-7 Jesus told the church in Ephesus that they were in danger of being shut out of the Kingdom because they did not love. the Ephesians were known for standing up for the truth, but somewhere along the line they had lost their love.

Compassion, which is a form of love, must be mixed with truth. It is the mixture of the two which has the ability to change the life of the vilest sinner. The example of Jesus is that of compassion and truth. Jesus loved people, where they were at, and yet He always told them the truth. Truth is a lot easier to take when you know it comes from a person who care for you.

Jesus looked at the crowds of people and He saw people who were lost and who had no idea how to find their way home. What these people needed was a person who would show them compassion by pointing them in the right direction.

The legions of people who need help are more than we can help by ourselves, so what can we do? If we are going to show compassion to the world we have to pray. Prayer helps us gain a proper perspective on life and what is happening around us. It also helps us to align our hearts with God’s hearts. On top of that we are to ask God to provided what we need: workers for the harvest. There is a shortage of leaders able to show the lost the way home.

Compassion is not just reserved for our prayer life, but it is also about how we live. Jesus lived in such a way to show the people around Him that He knew the Way they were to travel. As Jesus’ Followers we have that same responsibility of living our lives in a way to show people that there is a better way to live.

Ultimately what we need is a change of perspective. Instead of seeing the people of the world as dirty rotten sinners we need to see them as lost travelers trying desperately to get home, or better yet, a field ready for harvest.

• Point to Ponder: Compassion for people is a sign of spiritual growth.
• Passage to Remember: Matthew 9:36-38
• Prayer to Pray: Lord God, open my eyes to see the harvest and soften my heart to the needs of people...

The Self-Examined Life

{1 Corinthians 11:27-32; ESV}
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

A week ago I received in the mail a notice from the city code enforcement that I need to trim some bushes. These lilac bushes are on the far east side of the property and the backside of them faces an alley. The issue was that some of the branches began to hang over the alley, which of course is a problem for people who use the alley, which include garbage trucks and snowplows.

Until I received the notice I did not realize there was a problem. Since those bushes face away from the house, and since I don’t use that alley, I was unaware of what had happened. I neglected my responsibility of taking care of the property.

As I spent the next day trimming the lilac bushes I thought about the fact that I do the same thing with my heart. I don’t examine it, and the result is that I don’t know what is taking root and branching out. This means I am not caring for my heart: nurturing the good and pruning the bad, like I should. This means that my heart is often a tangled mess of good intentions and evil desires and so I am unable to understand who I really am.

I believe that God wants us to examine our hearts. One of the purposes of communion is to provide us with an opportunity to examine our hearts and lives. This self-examination, according the the apostle Paul, is one of the requirements of properly participating in the Lord’s Supper. Communion gives us the chance, not only to remember the sacrifice of Jesus, but also to recommit our lives to Him.

What the Apostle tells us in this passage is that by not examining our hearts we become weak and ill. The reason we become sick is because we don’t understand what is happening in our hearts. We become oblivious to the temptation, to the deception, and to the dreams that are taking root there. These things, because they are fertilized by the world, will grow and grow, and eventually push out our commitment to Jesus. Spiritual maturity requires constant attention: the nurture of truth and the weeding of lies.

The examination of our hearts is essential to spiritual growth. If we are not pay attention to what is happening in our hearts then we will allow Satan to regain a foothold in our lives. By not being vigilant we pay the price and ultimately we fall way from Jesus.

Take some time this week and examine your heart. Are you dedicated to Jesus? What temptations lurk in your life? Is the love you feel in your heart for God seen in the life that you live? If you are interested in spiritual growth then self-examination is a must.