The Shame of Christmas

There are many glorious things in the Christmas story. Many miracles and eye-popping angels and a quick escape to Egypt. But to only see the glory is to only see half the story.

Becoming Human: Amazing that anyone could do it! But to change from perfect spirit to a body filled with organisms and living nine months in fluid and having to go through birth and… being a teenager? No thank you.

Virgin Birth: An amazing miracle of God that a virgin can be pregnant by the Spirit, without any fleshly contact. However, that virgin then had to face the shame of dealing with neighbors and her fiancée wondering who the other man is.

Annunciation: An angel coming to announce the pregnancy is fantastic, but there is the simple human question of “how?” And this is insulting to the angel. Luckily, he just says that nothing is impossible for God.

Going to Elizabeth: Elizabeth and the pre-natal John the Baptist were rejoicing to hear about the virgin birth. But Mary recognizes her lowliness and poverty and desperation. But she recognizes that God is raising her to a different level—one of blessing.

Going to Bethlehem: Sure, having your baby born in the town of prophecy, the city of David is great, and fulfilling the prophecy is great. But it is not so great to be forced there by a Satanic, Roman power.

Shepherds and Angels: “Glory to God” and people worshipping is great. But shepherds? Shepherds are the lowest of the low, the rejected profession. Why did it have to be them?

Three Magi: It’s great to have aristocrats from afar to give you money, just like a king. But to have them accidently lead your great enemy to you—the local ruler— that’s not so good.

Escape to Egypt: Wonderful that God gave Joseph a dream to help him escape the persecution. But having other babies die for the sake of the one who escaped is awful.

Going to Nazareth: After all this adventure and excitement, finally it’s time to settle down in a small, hillbilly town, living a quiet, normal life. What was all this for, anyway?

Did you see the other half? For every glorious, wonderful, miraculous event, there is another aspect of shame and sadness and even terror.

The story of Jesus sometimes is seen as simply a story of glory—of miracles and successes and happiness. But the real story is God bringing glory out of a context of shame. The virgin birth is shameful. Mary had to face her family and friends and to be shamed by their stares, their whispers and outright lies about her. God did that through His miracle. God knew it would be done. And it was necessary.

To live in a world that sees God’s ways as something less than ideal means that to live for God is to live in shame. It means that people will look at a God-led lifestyle and say that you need to “get a life”. It means doing good and having people hate you for it. It means people doing wrong to you and you never doing wrong back to them.

Sometimes we can feel that our lives are lives of shame, of people hating us all the time, of them looking down on us. However, just because others look down on us doesn’t mean that God does. If we are doing our best to live for Him, and holding onto His word and helping others, not judging them—then we have nothing to be ashamed about. Our lives should not be about shame.

Instead of focusing on the shame in our lives, we should focus on God’s glory through us. We should see the miracles God is doing in our lives. We should recognize that if we are getting shame from others in living for God, then we are just like Mary. Just like Joseph. Just like Jesus.

And that’s nothing to be ashamed about.

Who Is God?

 

Signs of A Healthy Congregation

1. The healthy congregation is founded on and acts out the teaching of Jesus and the apostles, seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness. (Luke 6:46-49; Acts 2:42; Acts 4:33; Matthew 6:33)
The unhealthy congregation focuses on the needs and requirements of this world, rather than the teaching of Jesus. (Mark 4:18-19; Matthew 6:19-34)
The believers in an unhealthy congregation give commands to each other that are not found in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. (Mark 7:1-8; I Corinthians 14:36-39; Revelation 22:18-19)

2. The members have faith in Jesus Christ, have repented of their past sins, have been baptized, and have received the Holy Spirit. (Romans 10:9-10; I Corinthians 6:9-11; Acts 2:37-38; Luke 14:33;)
The unhealthy congregation sanctifies or accepts something that Jesus and the apostles call sin or fail to discipline believers who do not repent. (I Corinthians 5:1-2; I Timothy 6:4; Revelation 2:20)

3. The believers adhere to the teaching of Jesus and obey it with all their heart as disciples of their master, including, receiving the Lord’s supper, loving their enemies, renouncing wealth, seeking the lost, reconciling with brothers, pray regularly, etc.
The unhealthy congregation allows some aspect of the teaching of Jesus to be ignored or despised. (II John 1:9; I Timothy 6:3-4)
The unhealthy congregation listens to the words of Jesus, but do not do them. (Luke 6:46-49; Revelation 2:4-5)

4. They meet together regularly to worship together, to pray and to encourage each other to do acts of love and righteousness and participate in the Lord’s supper. (Acts 2:42, 46-47; I Timothy 2:1; Hebrews 10:24-25; Acts 2:46)
The believers in an unhealthy congregation separate from each other due to petty controversy, unforgiveness, unclear interpretations of Scripture, or rejection of actions that are not sins in the teaching of Jesus. (Mark 7:1-8; Romans 14:1-13; Galatians 5:19-21; I Timothy 1:3-4)

5. The actions of the believers in a healthy congregation are controlled by the desire to benefit the other. (Philippians 2:3-4; Matthew 7:12; Galatians 5:22-23)
The actions of the believers in an unhealthy congregation are based on selfish desires. (Philippians 2:3; James 4:1-3)

6. There are clear manifestations of the Holy Spirit, through power and giftings used by all the believers, supporting the church and the teaching of the gospel. (Acts 2:43; I Corinthians 12:7-11; I Corinthians 14:26)
They deny the power of the Spirit or they focus on powers so much that they are blind to the requirements of love. (Mark 3:22-30; I Thessalonians 5:19-21; I Corinthians 12:31-14:1)

7. When there are physical needs among those in the congregation, or among believers passing through, those who have resources attempt to meet those needs. The congregation also strives to meet the needs of unbelievers, as they are able.(Luke 12:33; Acts 4:34-35; Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 6:32-36; Galatians 6:10)
The unhealthy congregation ignores the needs of the poor and needy, withholding their good for their own comforts. (I John 3:17; Acts 5:1-10; Luke 12:15-21)

8. Conflict between members is dealt with in the church, in reference to the teaching of the apostles, in love and gentleness, through mediation if necessary. (Acts 15; I Corinthians 6:1-8; Galatians 6:1-2; Matthew 18:15-17).
In an unhealthy congregation, conflict is ignored, dealt with in outside courts, or dealt with harshly. (I Corinthians 6:1-8; Galatians 6:1-2)

9. If sin is found among the believers, the sin is confronted gently, with the goal in mind to cause the believer to repent. (Matthew 18:15-17; Galatians 6:1-2; Luke 17:3-4).
The unhealthy congregation ignores those who are apart from Christ in their sins, or denies them forgiveness when they repent. (Luke 15:1-32)

10. They are bold and loving in their witness of Jesus Christ, and they suffer because of their proclamation of and obedience to the gospel or stand with those who do suffer. (Acts 4:1-34; Revelation 2:9-10; II Timothy 3:12; Hebrews 13:3)
The unhealthy congregation avoids suffering at all cost, even if it compromises the gospel. (Mark 4:16-17)

11. They have a good reputation and a positive relationship with other congregations, meeting the needs of other congregations and listening to the correction and encouragement of others. (I Thessalonians 1:7-9; II Corinthians 8:1-8; Ephesians 4:11-13)

12. Although they remember that they are all brothers before God, elders and deacons of the healthy congregation are respected and submitted to and they in turn serve humbly, with the needs of the individuals in the church foremost in their minds. (Hebrews 13:17; I Peter 5:1-5 ; Luke 22:24-27)
The unhealthy congregation ignores the counsel of the elders and speak ill of their church leaders. (I Timothy 5:17-19)
The leaders of an unhealthy congregation lord it over the congregation, demanding control and strict obedience to their every whim. (Matthew 24:45-51)

Seeking and Saving

The focus of the church is distracted amongst many diversions. Church growth, Sunday schools, building management, worship, the most recent Christian events or Christian concerts. These things can be good, in context, but none of them should be the focus, the center-point of the church’s time and resources. Jesus gave us a clear commission, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” (John 20 We are to continue Jesus’ mission, and take it as our own.

What was Jesus’ mission? The clearest, broadest statement made by Jesus is in Luke 19—“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus came to find those who had fallen away from God, but were still soft-hearted toward Him. Those whom Jesus found were ready to respond to him in faith, he restored them to God, allowing them to find acceptance in God’s kingdom.

This is to be our mission as well. Our mission, our focus is not for the feed and caring of the ninety-nine who remain in the fold, but to leave the flock behind and search for the one or two or million that are lost. There are many in every one of our communities, and beyond our communities, that are ready to be restored to God. So often, however, we think that the revival of our own congregations lie in the teaching or worship or entertainment of our group. Rather, our quickening comes as we do work that is led by the Spirit alone—restoring the fallen back to God.

Our focus isn’t to be on the latest book or video, the latest Christian event that comes around the circuit. Rather, our focus is to be reaching out to the lost, wherever they may be. We are to seek out the downcast, the ones who seem to have no reason to have faith and give them reason to have confidence in God through Jesus Christ. We are to seek out the poor and encourage them to seek God for deliverance. We need to seek out the destroyed and give them hope in God’s restoration. We are to seek out the mentally ill and pray with them into wholeness. We are to seek out the oppressed and tell them of God’s coming day of salvation. We are to seek out those misled by false teachers and to assure them of God’s truth, purity and love.

So often we demonize groups that seem to be opposed to our way of life and that threaten our comforts. We make bold stands against Muslims, the Mormons, the homosexuals, the secular humanists and various cults. Or we can vilify others who are Christian or evangelical for holding views opposed to our own. Perhaps some of their ways aren’t the ways of Jesus, but we fail to recognize that in our accusatory polemic we are ostracizing and separating when we really ought to be reaching out to those among those groups who are ready to be restored to God. Our job is not to destroy the enemy, but to restore those oppressed by our true Enemy.

It is our task to go out to the lost, to find where they are and to seek them out. We need to teach the truth gently and with great patience—greater than the world gives. We need to coax the lost back to God, treating them with kid gloves. We need to assure them that they are welcome and that the Lord is waiting for them to commit themselves to him. We need to pray for them to receive the covenant of God and to hear and listen to the Holy Spirit. This is the mission of the church. This is our focus.

In this mission is our life. In this we will be revived in the Holy Spirit. In this, we will gain the tools that we need to change the world, to establish God’s kingdom.

Mixing God and Culture

God is a mystery of another world. God is Spirit, another substance, another entity, a person that we can relate to, but can only understand through symbol and metaphor and the broadest of concepts. God is separate from this world, as different from this world as a cow is different from an amoeba. God is a part of Himself, which before creating this universe created the spirit world for His essence to dwell in, although nothing can hold Him.

We, however created by God and in God’s image, are creatures of this world. From the instant we are born, possibly before, we are swimming in the substance of our world, breathing in the ideas, experiencing its vision, consuming the smells and tastes around us. All that we experience is not just created by God, but created by humanity. The sea of humanity is not only the mass of people, but the crowd of human creations that we cannot escape. This force, as pervasive as gravity or air, is culture.

The culture we are raised in and live in is not just something we live in, but it lives in us. Even as our soul is united with our body, our being is infused with culture. Every thought we think is a cultural thought. Every act we perform is a cultural act. Every word we speak is a cultural word. The unique ones are never a culture of their own—at best they are a sub-culture of one, but still reacting in one way or another to the culture or cultures they know and remain a part of, even if absent.

How then can we know God, who is so apart from this world, and we are so inseparable from it? The only way to experience the greatest of all Aliens is to have the superior intelligence teach the lesser one. To understand the best of who God is, we need to have it explained to us in cultural terms. We have no reference to who God really is, but God patiently presents himself in terms we can appreciate and understand. How God wants us to live is encased in culture. And when we relate to God, whether in worship or in prayer, God kindly allows us our cultural expression, for we have no other.

The difficulty is that culture is not a rock foundation on which our ideas are based, but culture is in constant flux. It is an ocean, that as soon as you have determined a pattern of water flow or of hot and cold streams, it shifts, or there is a hurricane and everything changes. With each generation, culture makes a major shift again with minor shifts happening all along. And if a single culture is divided, then it becomes two, distinct, unique cultures within two generations, and never can they be united again without irreparable harm.

Because of this, our relation to God changes. That which one generation holds as the truest form of worship, within two is completely rejected. The worship itself has not shifted, but the mode would be unthought-of by all previous generations. The communication of how we live must change, for the good life of one culture could be evil in another and visa versa. In one context, it is good to give money to beggars, while in another it is death. And even our understanding of God himself, wrapped up in an ancient culture, becomes an enigma, uncovered only by those who have knowledge of the ancient culture, and that only in the most vague way.

God continues to display himself. He is not limited by time, by changing contexts or by unused languages. He continues to speak, and yet He does not neglect his older speech. But that speech is transformed, born again, renewed. It is both old and yet strangely new. It’s old context and life still lives and it lives again. Yet God can only be understood by communication that comes from God himself. Because He is fundamentally unknown, that which we know about Him, as vague as that is, must come from Him, not our own culture, our own thoughts. For God is beyond our thoughts, never being of our culture, as much as He uses our culture.

The difficulty we have about God, however, is trying to grasp Him only through His communication, and not through our own. Alongside the God that dwells in the Spirit world is a god, in the semblance of the former, that is a creation of culture. This god (in reality, gods) is very real in the minds of humans, more real than the true God of heaven. But this god is real because it is a part of culture, a part-and-parcel of “real” life, everyday existence. And this god can use the same ancient revelation and mode of modern communication in order to take the place of the God who existed before time.

This god promotes religious prejudice. This god limits himself, even as he makes claims that are vast. This god is everyone’s friend, and yet he creates enemies and has his people kill them at their pleasure. This god places himself in philosophical concepts of Trinity and Sovereignty, Prime Mover and Anti-Flesh. This god becomes a part of patriarchy, of empire, of rebellion and of complete independence. So a culture of human theology is created, and shifted and soon there are many theologies and many truths about god, all equally inadequate. And they can all say, “We have as much truth as the last theology,” and it is true, for none of it is based on revelation, but on speculation.

And then this god makes demands to shape and warp culture into his own image. His followers become advisors and judges and lawyers and politicians in order to control the passage of culture. He imposes his own limits and laws, his unique principles and precepts become the law of the land. Other cultures fight against this trend, and the followers of the god say, “You are opposing god! You are evil incarnate!” Yet the true God waits on the sidelines, allowing the culture war to play out.

Other cultures to whom God is revealing Himself in a unique way become the evil cultures, in opposition to god, no matter how close some in those other cultures are to the true God. The followers of god do not have understanding of God, so they cannot see Him at work. So the strong culture of god makes war with the other cultures—often destroying the communication of God there. The god of a culture is never the critic of the culture, for the culture itself becomes the god. And anyone or anything that changes the culture is trying to change god. Yet God never changes. He waits, continuing to communicate, continuing to love and critique all equally, for all need support and all need change.

To overcome god, we must restore God to His place. We must re-discover the revelation that God has given—both ancient and modern—and take such revelation seriously. We must not hear it for what we want it to say, but allow it to speak for itself. For it is the best understanding of God we have. We must allow Jesus and the prophets and apostles speak. And we must listen.

In listening, we must do two things. We must first create principles of the cultural communication to have ideas that surpass culture. And then we need to embed the concepts back into culture, otherwise they are words with no life. We must see how revelation is in agreement with culture, and when it opposes culture, remembering that God is beyond all culture, not taking sides, but is only on the side of Truth and Love. God is no respecter of persons, upholding one culture above another, one human ideal above another. So God has both a message of approval and of change for every culture, equally.

If we truly want to see God, then we must look for His communication to other cultures as well, in ways that we would not have expected. And when we find God in the other culture, in the context of that culture, we will know more of Him than we ever would have in one culture.

And we must never automatically reject another’s worship or communication with God or ethical pattern until we understand how they are trying the context of what they are doing. We fear and reject that which is unfamiliar—that is the human pattern. But to grasp God, we must go beyond the human as God does. God’s revelation, one might notice, has few items that are condemned in comparison to the limitless variety of the human experience. The variety, obviously, is pleasing to God, and so we must accept it, wherever it comes. And if a particular mode of variety is displeasing, then God will correct it, if we would but trust it.

But we must be rid of god. We must be rid of the cultural idol we have created in our own image. We can often recognize this god when he says, “We must not speak this way. We must not act this way. We must not love this way. We must not restore this way.” God rarely says these things. But god will demand destruction of the other, will limit variety at every incarnation of it. We know that god has reared his ugly head when each of our congregations look the same, worship the same, act the same and always knows what the other congregations are talking about. In God there is natural conflict—but in God there is the craving of accepting so that we all might achieve the One in many.

Co-laboring With God

Jesus the king
For all who believe in Jesus, Jesus is the Lord. The King of a kingdom does not just accept or reject people in his kingdom, but he gives people responsibilities. To some he provides a full-time job, whether that of a counselor or that of a kitchen servant. Sometimes he provides a particular task, such as taking a message to one of his servants. But in the Bible, the worker for a king is called the kings servant or slave. Thus, we are all called to be the servant of Jesus, to participate in his work and to follow his commands. But if we are to do Jesus’ work, how much is his work, and how much is ours?

Our work is not our own, but it is really a communication or relationship with God. God initiates the work, and we respond to God’s call. God provides the ability and we use it. God tells us what to do, and we do it, and then God gives us the ability to do it. The work of God is not just the work we do for God, but it is our response to God’s work and God’s working through our response. As far as our work goes, God is in all, and the source of all and the end of all. (Colossians 1:29)

God’s initiative in our work
God begins our work. Without God’s beginning, we could never do God’s work. Of course, God’s creation of the world and of humanity is the foundation of all of our work, but he also initiates our work more directly.

Establishing our work
God saw us as a people before the foundation of the world, and he created the world for our sakes. But God did not only that, but also established the very work that we would do. He desired that his people would be doing work, specifically the work of love, and he prepared the whole world in order for us to do his work. (Ephesians 2:10)

Calling us
God drew us to Jesus, calling us to believe in him and obey him. Jesus commanded us to do his work, and told us what it would be. Then God sent the Holy Spirit so we could know specifically, day by day, what our work should be. The call of God is like an employer first advertising a job in the newspaper—inviting people to apply—and then hiring an employee to a particular task. (John 6:24; Acts 13:2)

Gifting us
God not only calls us, but he also provides abilities that are beyond ourselves. Each of us have an ability that we only gained through the Holy Spirit—we would be unable to do them without him. Some of these gifts are prophecy, tongues, pastoring, or celibacy. Not everyone has every gift, some have certain ones while others have other ones. But all of us have received something from the Spirit. (I Corinthians 12:7)

Our gifting is not the same as a talent. A talent is something we have a fleshly, natural ability to do, like being good at sports or at reading. A gifting is something that comes only by the power of the Spirit. Our gifting is also not like our calling. Sometimes we are called to a task that the Lord did not give us the ability to do. This is a frustrating situation, but we do what we can for God is in control. And sometimes we have an ability, but God did not call us to use it. Perhaps God is waiting for us to mature in obedience and love before we are allowed to use our gift.

Providing a pattern of work
God not only provides the ability and call to work, but also gives us a pattern to work with. From the beginning God was working—he was never lax. But he also took a day of rest after six days of work, a day to appreciate what he gained from his labor. God gives us this same pattern—six days to work, one day to rest. God also provides the context for work—that we are to love everyone in our work, even those that hate us. (Exodus 20:9-11)

Our acceptance of God’s calling
Believing in Jesus
God called us to believe in Jesus, to be faithful to him. That is the heart of our work, our whole work. Our response to this is to do the work he calls us to, to believe in Jesus, to obey Jesus and to honor Jesus with our actions and mouths both privately and before people. (John 6:29)

Asking for the Spirit
We need to recognize that without the Spirit, we cannot do God’s work. Thus, to participate in God’s work, we should ask for the Spirit, so that we can enjoy the benefits of working for God. (Luke 11:9-13)

Asking for gifting
We are told as well to seek God for certain gifts, especially for prophecy or teaching, which Paul calls “greater gifts”, because they accomplish much good in the church. (I Corinthians 14:1)

God’s part of our work
Resourcing
God himself is the resource of our work. If we do the work of healing, God is the healer. Jesus is the one teacher. And all prophecies come from the Lord. Thus, we rely on God to do all the work we do. (John 5:19)

Providing for the worker
God is the employer, so he provides the wage. We can rely on God to provide for our needs, although God’s idea of a salary might be different than the world’s. No matter what, however, God will make sure that the needs of his workers are taken care of. (Luke 10:7; Matthew 6:25-33)

Growth of the work
The worker works, but God causes the work to either succeed or fail. While we respond to God’s initiative, God is the one who provides power in our work. (Mark 4: 26-27; I Corinthians 3:6-7)

Encouragers of work
God also provides other people in the church to encourage us to do the work. Sometimes we don’t know how to work properly or we might need to be trained in our work. The Lord provides leaders in his church to train us and prepare us and guide us in our work. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Our response to God’s Work
Diligence
The main part of our work is to respond to God. God tells us where to go, what to do, who to help us and he gives us the resources to do our work. Our main work is responding to God’s work. The Scripture tells us one thing—act diligently. We are to respond to God’s work with struggle and with every effort. We must work hard at the work God provides. (II Peter 1:10)

Point-men
This means that our work is not so much working with our effort alone, but working hard to provide opportunities for God to work. Elijah challenged Baal, and he worked hard and suffered much in order to accomplish the defeat, but the actual work—the swallowing up of the altar with flame—was God’s alone. Elijah was there as a point-man—one who creates opportunity for another to do their work. That is really a summary of our task.

Endurance
Our work is not only to accomplish what God wants us to accomplish, for we will also face much opposition in our task. Not only do we have to work, but the hardest thing we will have to do is to endure in the work. Again, it is God’s work, but we have to persevere in providing opportunity for God to do his work among men. (I Corinthians 15:58)

It is God who is at work in you in order that
you may work. Philippians 2:13

The Context of Work

There are some who look at working for God and get frustrated. They say, “I can’t work for God. I’m stuck paying off debts for the rest of my life.” Or some are required to care for children. Or others are forced to work where they don’t want to. Some are incapable of working at all because of a disability of some sort. These might be frustrated, because they long to work for God, and find it almost impossible to do so. There were many in the early church who were in the same situation. There were wives, who were trapped in their social role to do very little for the people of God. There were slaves, forced to do their master’s work, but none of their own. Even so, some of us feel trapped by our work situations.

However, Scripture is clear that even if you can’t change your job situation, that doesn’t mean you can’t work for God. What you do for God is certainly important, but your work environment is what matters the most in working for God. Perhaps you may think that your work environment is completely godless, but that’s not true—because YOU are in it.

Whether we are working for God or not depends upon the context of our work, and that context is created by us. It is what we bring to our work that makes it a work of God or not. If we bring deceit to our work or laxness or hatred, then God cannot be in our work, no matter what it is. But if we bring love and faith and purity to our work, then even if we are doing a seemingly senseless task, we could be working for God. The Scripture says again and again that the work that God acknowledges is work done in faith and love and self control—and that is what really matters! (I Thessalonians 1:3; Galatians 5:6; II Corinthians 8:7; Colossians 1:4; I Thessalonians 5:8; Revelation 2:9; II Timothy 3:10; I Timothy 4:12).

The Basic Context
Faith and Love and Purity are the most important matters, but that doesn’t mean God’s work is all attitude—as if the work itself isn’t important. The work matters quite a bit as well. In our work we need to follow these principles to work for God:

We must do the work, not just be willing to do it
Just like the son in the parable that Jesus told (Matthew 21:28-31), we need to not just want to do God’s work—we have to actually do it. To do God’s work is to work hard and willingly.

Work to meet your basic needs
When we work, we need to have at least part of our work be providing for our basic needs (Ephesians 4:28). This doesn’t mean that we need a job, but we should be providing for ourselves with our work, and not just sponging off of someone who doesn’t really want to support you. If we work, we work to meet our basic needs and wants. And if we have a family, we must work to provide for them as well (I Timothy 5:8).

Do the Work God Tells You To
There is some work that is evil before God, no matter how good of an attitude you have. If your work is to make pornography, loving your co-worker doesn’t absolve you from working evil. We must never work evil, and, if we have any choice, we should seek God as to what work we should do, and obey him in that.

Faith
When the Scripture says that we need to work in faith, it is saying that in our work we need to be devoted to God, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. To love God with our whole selves means that everything we devote to work—our intentions, our desires, our thinking, our abilities, our labor—all of this needs to be devoted to God. It is like what Paul said, “In whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.” (I Corinthians 10:31).

Do what God says in our work
To work for the glory of God means that we are thinking about how to obey him in our work (Heb 4:11-12). We need to be constantly focusing on God’s word and how that word can be fulfilled in working (II Timothy 3:16-17). Perhaps it is how you do the work (for instance, with dillegence) or it could be something you do in your work (for instance, singing to the Lord—Colossians 3:16).

Commit your work to God
When you are working—and before your work—commit it to God, and acknowledge it is his. (Proverbs 16:3) If we are looking toward God in all of our work, seeking his direction in it and his power through it, then it will be his work we are working, and not our own. (Psalm 127:1-2)

We look for God's blessing on our work
Throughout our work, we are seeking God’s blessing on it. This is a part of our devotion, because we are acknowledging that our work is only fruitful if God makes it so. So we seek out the Lord to make the work worthwhile. (Job 1:10)

Self-Control
To have “self-control” means that in your work you won’t let your desires get control of you, so you do whatever you want, even if the Lord doesn’t want that for you. It is allowing the godly part of your self have control over the part that just will do whatever it wants. If we are to work for God, we need to be under control.

Purity
First of all, in our work, we need to be pure from evil. This means any area in which God has condemned—hostility, hatred, evil desires, and more. (II Timothy 2:19-21) Our work should be a pure, holy offering to God, without our flesh or evil side getting in the way.

Submission
Another area we need to control ourselves is allowing ourselves to be ordered by others. More often than not, in our work, we are told what to do and how to do it by others. If that is the case, then we need to control ourselves to be submitted to that leader. (Colossians 3:18-24) That doesn’t mean we agree with everything that person says or obey them in everything in our lives, but if we have leadership above us, in the area they are a leader, we do what they say. Another part of submission is to not make it difficult on the leader, but to give them no reason to hate their work (Hebrews 13:17)

Love
If we want our work to be worthwhile at all, we need to do it in the context of being concerned for others. Paul says that even if we do great works for God—fantastic miracles and saintly deeds—if we did not do it for the benefit of other people, then our work was pointless. If we do not work in love, then we do not work for God. (I Corinthians 13:1-3)

Edification
To work in love is to “edify” (Romans 15:2; I Corinthians 14:12, 26). What is meant by that is to build up, like a tower toward Christ. To edify is to help others be strong in Christ, to encourage, to exhort, to draw one up toward God in speech and action. No matter what we do, we should do it in a way to remind others that we are working for Christ and that Christ cares for them, and wants his best for them.

Patience and Humility
In our work, we often need to deal with many difficult people—sinners, fools and jerks. But with all of these people, we need to show patience as we work. If we do this, we are showing that the Spirit is working in us, giving us the ability to deal with situations that we could not handle on our own. We should also place other’s needs before our own, displaying that we care for other’s before our own welfare. (Galatians 5:22-23; Philippians 2:3-4; Ephesians 4:2)

Helping the Needy
In every work we do, we gain something from it—often it is money, but sometimes it is something else. In whatever we gain, we must do one more work—help those who are in need. It is in this way that the Lord will bless our work—if we do not help the needy, he will not bless our work and cause it to be worthwhile. (Deuteronomy 15:10; Ephesians 4:28)

Why Work For God?

Okay, so God wants us to work. Buy why should we? I mean, God can do the work on his own, can’t he? And God is so powerful that he doesn’t really need us. So why don’t we just relax and bask in the knowledge that God’s got it all under control? Well, here’s some good reasons for us to work for God:

1. God and Jesus gave us an example to work
Jesus worked all the time—and the reason he gave for his hard work is because his Father is working (John 5:17). God is working all the time—creating, sustaining, healing, helping, providing for, and more and more. Jesus was also working on earth, recognizing that his time was short. Because of this, we should be like Jesus and do his work as much as we can. We are in the midst of the same workplace Jesus was—the world full of suffering, oppressed people. So we need to keep working (John 4:34, 38).

2. Jesus commanded us to work
When Jesus left the world, he didn’t tell his disciples to just sit around talking about him. Nor did he want them to just meditate on the word all the time. Rather, Jesus commanded his disciples to make more disciples—to do work with other people! (Matthew 28:19-20) Jesus commanded the disciples to do work while they still could, because the time is growing short and there will be a time when the work cannot be done. (John 9:4).

3. If we work, the kingdom of God will be stronger
The work we are supposed to do is work for the kingdom of God. It isn’t just in a vacuum, but the work is among God’s people. If we do this work for people, as we are supposed to, then we will cause God’s kingdom to grow stronger. This is our goal for working. The kingdom of God will last forever, and if we build it up, we are a part of God’s eternal work. This is a good reason to work! (Ephesians 4:16)

4. If you do the work of God, you will be provided for
If you work, you get paid with what you need. To be honest, not every work provides you with what you need, but God’s work does! If you focus on God’s work, Jesus promises that you will be provided for and that you will have more than what you need—even if you don’t have a salary. (Matthew 10:10; Mark 10:29-30)

5. We are judged according to our work
The Scripture says many times in many contexts that everyone will be judged according to their work. It does not say that we will be judged according to our thoughts, our desires, our intentions or our faith. It says that our final state—reward or loss—is determined by our work. So what work we do is very important. If we do the wrong work, we will be judged according to that. But if we repent from dead works and do the work of God, then we will be rewarded. (Proverbs 24:11-12; Job 34:11; Psalm 62:12; Jeremiah 25:14; Ezekiel 24:14; Lamentations 3:64; John 5:29;I Corinthians 3:12-15; II Corinthians 5:10; I Peter 1:17; Revelation 20:12-13; Ezekiel 18)

6. We are rewarded for our work
If we work well, then we will be rewarded. And the more we work, with the better gain, we will be rewarded more. Everyone who works will at least gain the kingdom of God. But those who work harder for Jesus will gain greater prestige and honor from Jesus on the last day. (Matthew 20:1-16; 25:14-23; I Corinthians 3:12-15)

7. If we do not work for God, we will be not allowed in the kingdom of God
However, with every good news comes bad news. Those who claim to be of Jesus and who have received blessing from Jesus, if they do nothing with that blessing or that glory, then they will receive nothing from God on the final day. They who do no work for God, gain nothing from God. Those who work a little receive at least the kingdom; but those who do not work at all receive nothing. They may think that it is all grace, but God expects us to respond to that grace and do his work as well. So if we do not work, then we will be rejected by God. (Matthew 25:14-30; Matthew 22:10-14)

8. The church will judge us if we do not work
Because the church wants to make sure all people, even their own people, enter into God’s kingdom, they will discipline those who do not work. If a person is not working for God at all, the church will begin a process of discipline, which may mean that they will have to not fellowship with us for a time. This is not because the church wants to cause us to submit, but because they care about us enough to even discipline us to do what God wants us to do. (II Thessalonians 3:10-15)

To do God’s work is to gain God’s kingdom

What is Working For God?

When we work for God, we are participating in God’s work. Just like when you work for a company, you are no longer working for yourself, but for your employer, even though you gain benefits from it (like a paycheck), even so those who work for God are not doing their own work, but the work of their boss, God himself. But what is this work? In general, what is God asking us to do?

1. Working for God is not working for the world
“Whatever you do, do your work as to the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23
When we are working for the world, we are working for our own purposes or for the purposes of the world. Maybe we just want to survive, or to be comfortable. Maybe we want to continue living in sin, and so we work toward that. Maybe we want to be seen as good by other people, or to do something good for the world apart from what God says is good. Any of this would be acceptable to normal employers, because they don’t care why you work, as long as you work well. The Bible tells us not to work for the world, not only because it would be futile (Psalm 127:1; John 6:27), but because to work for the purposes of the world means we gain no reward (Matthew 6:1-4; I Corinthians 3:13-15).

Just because we are not to work for the purposes of the world, we can work for men, if it serves the purposes of God. Paul worked for men, so that he would care for his own needs while working for God. In fact, many people are required to work for others in order to work for God. We must remember two principles, however: a. we must work for God as much as we can, as well as work for men, and b. In working for men, we must work as if we were working for God—obey God’s principles of work, and work dilligently for those whom we work for. (John 6:27; Colossians 3:22-25; II Peter 3:10).


2. Working for God is not working under the law
“By the works of the law no flesh will be justified in God’s sight.” Romans 3:20
Many people do not want to do work for God, because they think that it is trying to gain “salvation by works.” The works that the Bible says we cannot be saved by is the works of the law. If we are in Christ, we cannot be saved by the works of the law, or any religious body. The Bible says that even though the law is good, it has no power to save, and it can be used to oppress or do evil to others. In this way, no one can be pleasing to God by the law. Even so, no one can be saved just by trying to obey some kind of religious rule, even if it comes from God (Romans 2:12-13; 7:12-14).


3. Working for God is believing in and obeying Jesus
“The work of God is this: to be faithful to the one whom He sent.” John 6:29
The key to working for God is faith, or loving God. We work for God because we love him through his Son, Jesus. To believe in Jesus is the foundation for all of our work for God, and it is an indication of how we love God. Another indication of our love of God is obeying Jesus (which we will speak of more, later). To obey Jesus based on our faith is not just an empty action—an act of the law— but it is displaying our great love for God. Nor are we working for the world, but we are doing what God is pleased to see us do—act in response to our faith in Jesus. (John 6:29; Mark 10:17-21)


4. Working for God is building up God’s kingdom
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” Matthew 6:23
The main purpose God wants us to work for is to build up his kingdom. This does not mean to create buildings or to buy up land. Rather, to build up God’s kingdom is to do the work of placing God’s word in people, and helping them to live it out. To build up the kingdom of God is to build up the people of God, to help them be in Jesus, to remain in him and to work for him. (Romans 14:19-20)


5. Working for God is following the Spirit of God
“If we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25
Our main directive in working for God is to obey the Spirit of God— God speaking to us, within us. It is the Spirit of God who will keep us from working for our own purposes, and it is the Spirit of God that will direct us into the next work God wants us to do. The Spirit gives us our abilities to work for God and the character with which to work. Our work is not complete unless we are working under the direction of the Spirit. Our work is not just a piece of paper which tells us our objectives—it is a partnership with God, in which he does the work and we work with Him. The Spirit is essential to make this partnership work.

Working for God is devotion to Jesus, for the purpose of building God’s kingdom, in partnership with God’s Spirit.

Working for God

What is work?
Work is all that we do for a purpose. It is the action we take toward the focus of our life. For many people, one’s work is the most fundamental building block to who one is. That at the end of one’s life, people ask about two things—who one’s family was and what one’s work was—and this is what is usually placed on gravestones.

We all work
Some older people complain because “this generation doesn’t work anymore”, or they talk about “bums” who “have never done a lick of work in their life.” The reality is that everyone works, without exception. Only an invalid in both mind and body does no work. Every human is made to do work, to make or create, to work to survive, to labor (Genesis 3:16-19). We can work for many different reasons, but everyone works and everyone wants to work. The one who cannot work is not the lucky one, but the pathetic one—because they are unable to fulfill their created goal. People have different styles of work, and different kinds of work—some are ditch-diggers, while others are poets; some are computer engineers, while others are dumpster divers—but everyone works.

The goal of work
The major difference between what one would call “work” and what another would call “laziness” is for what purpose the work is done. For most Americans, unless one has a forty-hour a week job that provides for a family’s livelihood and a family’s comforts, plus a bit for savings, then one is not truly “working.” Someone could be holding up a sign for change in shame thirty hours a week for a meager living and some little pleasure, but most people would say that they needed to get some “work”. Why? Because they are not working toward the established American goal—a regular wage that sustains and provides creature comforts.

Why work?
At some point in our lives, we need to ask the question, “For what reason am I doing my work?” We recognize that we are working—some how we are making a living, even if we consider that living inadequate. But why are we working? Each of us will have different reasons. Some of us work simply so we can make a living. Some have to have a specific kind of work in order to release themselves from the oppression of debt. Some work because they consider the work itself to be significant—such as politics or teaching children. Some work because they want to provide enough for their family so that they will not feel ashamed. And our satisfaction with our work has everything to do with the reason we are working for. Unless we accomplish our motivation for work, our lives will not have meaning.

The Futility of Work
And, in fact, most people feel that their work has little meaning. Perhaps they are allowing their families to survive, but the work itself is pointless—without honor in and of itself. The Bible also talks about how the work we do is simply futile: “I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind. Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool” Ecclesiastes 2:17-19 The Preacher was frustrated because he saw that his work ultimately led to nothing, and produced nothing significant for himself. And most everyone’s work can be seen this way.
• You may work for your family, and your family may still hate you.
• You may work for comfort, but ultimately all the pleasure is meaningless.
• You may work to better others, but all your efforts could still be fruitless and you may help no one.
• You may work to make a living, but when you’re dead, then you can see that it was pointless.
• You may get yourself out of one debt, only to pile up more and more and more.
In the end, all of the reasons we do work seem meaningless.

Working for God
However, there is one way of working that actually seems significant. A motivation for work that has real meaning—meaning that will be beyond yourself, and beyond your limited life span. That is working for God. This does not mean necessarily working in a church or for a religious group. It means participating in the work that God is already doing. God is the boss, and he is looking for workers—people who will take part in his work on earth. God is the one who tells his workers what to do and how to do it. He provides the resources and the context to work in. And he provides all of the regulations in which the work must be done, otherwise it isn’t his work. But those who participate in His work are working for Him.

The great thing about working for God is that it isn’t pointless. The Bible says, “Everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it.” (Ecclesiastes 3:14) God’s work is significant, and those who assist God will see the work they do last longer than the pyramids of Egypt. For the rest of eternity, they will see their work accomplish amazing things. Perhaps the work itself seems insignificant, but anyone who participates in any part of God’s work gains greater wages than anyone on earth could give. For God’s wages are eternal life and eternal peace—beginning now.

Perhaps the daily wage for God’s work isn’t so great, but the retirement package is fantastic.

Evolutionary Creationsim

 

Boy, You Turn Me Upside Down

My heart exults in the LORD;
My horn is exalted in the LORD,
My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
There is no one holy like the LORD,
Indeed, there is no one besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.
Boast no more so very proudly,
Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth;
For the LORD is a God of knowledge,
And with Him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty are shattered,
But the feeble gird on strength.
Those who were full hire themselves out for bread,
But those who were hungry cease to hunger.
Even the barren gives birth to seven,
But she who has many children languishes.
The LORD kills and makes alive;
He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The LORD makes poor and rich;
He brings low, He also exalts.
He raises the poor from the dust,
He lifts the needy from the ash heap
To make them sit with nobles,
And inherit a seat of honor;
For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S,
And He set the world on them.
He keeps the feet of His godly ones,
But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness;
For not by might shall a man prevail.
Those who contend with the LORD will be shattered;
Against them He will thunder in the heavens,
The LORD will judge the ends of the earth;
And He will give strength to His king,
And will exalt the horn of His anointed.
An ancient Hebrew poem

In I Samuel 2, this song is quoted by Hannah, a formerly barren woman who had been oppressed by her co-wife, who had many children. The context of this song is that of increasing God’s reputation in the world because of the great things he had done. While Hannah might have specifically been focusing on verse 5, that shows God’s help to the barren woman, the song speaks in general of God’s strength being given to those without strength.

She sings about the “feeble” who have no power against those who take up arms against them. She sings about the hungry, who are unable to provide themselves even with the staples of life. And, of course, she speaks of barren women, who have no ability in themselves to gain what they most desire in life—a child. These are the hopeless, the ones who gain nothing from anyone.

But she also makes it clear that these are the ones whom God has focused on. God takes these resourceless people and provides them not only with what they need, but more. Not only do the defenseless have protection, the hungry have food and the barren have children, but they are also given authority and power over those who used to have all the world.

It is a natural part of life that those who have look down on those who have not. It is a moral position of the powerful and satisfied that anyone could possibly have gained their position or strength or wealth or authority. All that would need to happen is for them to be self-disciplined and wise enough and anyone would have gained the same power. But, say the powerful, since they were morally superior, they gained the greater position, and thus the greater life. For this reason, the powerful place themselves in the position of moral guardians and standard-bearers. No one else is worthy.

And this unworthiness of those who are not in positions of authority is a natural consequence of those who have. Those who do not have wealth or position or possibilities in their lives, they must be in some way morally inferior. The rulers are righteous, while the pauper is morally poor as well.

“What right do these lowlifes have to ask our kind for money? Perhaps they are in need, but it is their own fault. They just want to take advantage of honest, hardworking people! Why don’t they just get a job? Aren’t the shelters and workhouses still open? If I give—which I probably won’t—I want to make sure my money’s not being used for drugs or alcohol. If they want some food, okay, I can understand that, but I can’t trust that they would actually use it on food! Since they are on the street, drugs must be more important for them than food. In fact, I wonder if they are truly human in the way that we are. After all, real humans are more interested in slaving all day so we can spend an insignificant fraction of our lives in wealth and extravagance. These people who wish to live simply, who do not seek power, who live a hand-to-mouth existence—I just don’t trust them. Some kind of alien, I think.”

Hannah sees the ones who have military might, more than enough to eat and multiple children as being boasters, arrogant in their strength. They are not righteous at all, but the lucky who do not humbly recognize the One who gave them their strength.

And God is strong, in Hannah’s view. God is the source of all strength, authority and power. Human power is nothing, Hannah boldly proclaims. Human strength is not real strength. The reality we see is like the matrix we mentioned before. That which looks to be strong is only the semblance of strength, and the real strength is at the foundation of reality. In Hannah’s song, real power and might comes from God. And the only ones who will obtain that power in the end are those who are weak enough to depend on God for that power.

For this reason, reversals are necessary. The wealthy who oppress the poor will be set aside and destroyed. They will be “made low” or taken out of their positions of authority and power and wealth. The weapons of the soldiers will be destroyed; the full of food will soon be so desperate they will hold signs saying “will work for food”; the woman with many children will be in mourning. These will soon have nothing, looking at their empty hands wondering what happened to their lives. But the lowly—those who depended on God to strengthen them—they will gain the fullness of God’s strength. They will be the strong, the powerful, the important.

And these reversals display God’s strength, God’s power. It does not show that God can grant his power arbitrarily, but that he chooses those who depend on Him. God looks for the nobodies to display what he can really do with what he has.

Directional Quiz

In Scripture, devotion is described as being a slave under a master—you are either a slave of God or you are a slave to someone or something else. We are never a slave to two masters—we can only do proper slave service to one master at a time. And our real master is indicated by who we really love. Our real master is the one we serve with all of our mind and soul and body—the one we give ourselves to most willingly.

To serve grudgingly or spitefully is no real service at all, and it is an indication that we may want people to think we are dedicated to something we really are not.
One’s love of God is not just a matter of going through the motions. Going to church, praying a prayer, giving one’s money—these are not things that keep one close to God. Loving God is a decision one makes to be enthusiastic about the Lord and to desire him and his ways. Our emotions are guided by our thoughts. We can decide what we are excited about in our lives, and our emotions will (eventually) follow along.

To be devoted to the Lord isn’t just where you are—it is the direction you are heading in. While we may have some emotional highs in our spiritual life, our love of God is not given to us at once. It is something that grows and takes over more and more of our lives as it matures. The question is, what direction are we heading in? What mastery is taking over us? Is God making us more and more his slave day by day? Or are we enslaved to another, who will eventually lead us to sorrow and misery and death?


For each statement pair, choose the one that best describes your current attitude. Remember, this is to indicate the direction of your love right now, not to indicate where you are all the time. If one pair is too difficult, leave it and go on to the next one, you can come back later. Be as honest as you can with your answers. The only ones who will know are you and God!

 Decreasing interest in God or Jesus.
 An increasing hunger for God’s word.

 Greater focus on the material, temporary things of life.
 Directing one’s mind as often as possible to the things of God.

 More frequently not keeping promises to people.
 Remaining more faithful with every word one says.

 Forgetting or considering covenants made with God as unimportant.
 Finding it easier to accomplish the promises one makes to God.

 Using more of one’s resources—money, possessions, time—on things of the world or personal comforts.
 Greater use of one’s resources for the kingdom of God and for the poor.

 Decreasing interest in spending time with other believers.
 Attending church, not for a social event, but to get closer to God.

 Taking less effort to control areas of sin in one’s life.
 Increase of discipline over areas of sin.

 Prayer is becoming less frequent.
 Consistent prayer in the Spirit.

 More often, one’s energy is directed to things other than God.
 Consistent service to God.

 Having increasing struggle with doubts
 Getting increasingly excited about being in God’s presence

 Being more unable to do what God wants.
 Gaining more victory over sin.

 Being more concerned about what other people think of you.
 Increasing one’s boldness for the Lord.

 Being more irritated at people and their selfishness
 Thinking more about what other people need, rather than yourself.

 Becoming less content with your life and the situation your find yourself in.
 More and more giving thanks to God for your circumstances.

 An increasing desire for more things to satisfy you.
 Becoming more satisfied with what God has given you.

 Greater apathy as to whether your speech effects other people.
 Greater control over your speech, to be more righteous and loving.

 Greater tendency to judge others.
 Increasing desire to show mercy to others.

 Wanting to reign things in more, to take care of one's own.
 Wanting more to help and serve those who are in greater need, even if you don’t know them.


We won’t tally up the points, because we can’t quantify our love of God. But what does this test reveal about you?

Killing My Old Man: Overcoming Our Own Self Destruction

More often than not, we are our own worst enemies

Much of our suffering, anguish and pain comes from what we have done to ourselves and our relationships. As the old blues song communicates so well, “ain’t nobody’s fault but mine.” The Bible has different terms for this part of ourselves that destroys our lives from within: the old man, sin within me, and the flesh. If we are a Christian, then we do not just have the flesh leading us and deceiving us—we also have the Holy Spirit that is giving us truth and freedom.

Our life can be seen as a battle between the flesh and the Spirit over every aspect of who we are (Mark 14:38). The Spirit is seeking to have more and more control, while the flesh is attempting to maintain control over us. However, the only thing the flesh is really interested in doing is to keep us in comfort and ease. The flesh wants us to feel good and to be comfortable. Although the flesh often encourages us to sin and to take a good thing and to do it to excess, the flesh might also encourage us to do something the Spirit wants us to do, if it meets its own desires.

1. Maintain a focus on the kingdom of God, not oneself, not this world (Mark 8:34; Matthew 6:33)
Our first and only priority is to do God’s will and to establish God’s rule on earth. In all that we do, we need to focus on God and his ways. If there is anything we do without God as our focus, then the flesh has control over that area in our life.

In order to gain that focus, we have to make a shift in our lives, and change patterns we were once used to. This is difficult—possibly the most difficult thing to do in our lives. We have to change our relationships, our morality, our actions, our motives. And this can only be done through the power of the Spirit. Our flesh must be denied and Christ becomes most important in our lives. But once we are in Christ, even our flesh will want to maintain that relationship. However, it is only the Spirit that wants us to have the kingdom of God as our only priority.

2. Battle Against Sin (Hebrews 12:4; Matthew 5:29-30)
Sin in our lives isn’t just a part of us—it is what wants to destroy us, to tear us apart from the inside out! We need to take sin seriously—as serious as a heart attack, for it, like a heart attack, is the indication of encroaching death.
When we look at the sin in our lives or the sin we might do, we need to look at all the consequences of the sin. We need to recognize all the misery the sin does and how even one seeming small sin can destroy our whole lives. Sin destroys relationships, destroys our bodies, destroys our finances.

Then we need to look at the positive things that would happen to us if we repent and cease to do the sin. The opportunities for forgiveness, the open doors, the freedom from guilt and excess. We need to seek the good we can gain from doing God’s will.
Then when we see the seriousness of sin, we need to take drastic, life-changing steps to get rid of it. Whatever it takes, let’s do it!


3. Establish disciplines that support your placement in God’s kingdom—taming the flesh
One of the strongest tools of the flesh is inertia—continuing to do the habits that we have been doing in the past. We find it more comfortable to do what we have always done, and to do something we are used to feels better than doing nothing. We can use this for the benefit of the Spirit by developing habits that help us conform to the Spirit of God and drive us away from the excesses of the flesh. These habits that lead us to God are called “disciplines”. Once they become a habit, they are ways in which the flesh can help you stay in the kingdom

We must remember that these disciplines do not make up the life in the Spirit in and of themselves, but they can assist you in overcoming the flesh and to do God’s will.

a. Praying—Interceding for others; blessing others; asking God for justice, the Holy Spirit, healing, etc.
(Luke 11:1-13; Luke 18:1-8; Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:28; Mark 9:28-29; I Thessalonians 5:17.)
b. Listening—To teachers of the word; to the Spirit; to God’s word; to the community of saints.
(Mark 4:24; Luke 10:39-42; Luke 10:16; Luke 18:15-17; Luke 16:31.)
c. Worship/Alignment—Participating in the Lord’s supper; singing hymns and psalms; thanksgiving; saying the Shema.
(John 4:23-24; Mark 14:26; I Corinthians 11:23-26; Mark 12:28-32; Mark 8:6.)
d. Speaking the gospel—Proclaiming the kingdom of God; discipling with Jesus’ teachings; speaking of the death and resurrection of the Lord, fellowshipping with other Christians.
(Matthew 10:32-34; Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 9:60; Matthew 10:27; Luke 24:45-48; Hebrews 10:11-12.)
e. Downward mobility [humility]—Taking the “one down” position; not seeking prestige; serving in ways others don’t want to serve.
(Luke 14:7-11; John 13:12-16; Matthew 20:25-28; Luke 18:10-14.)
f. Giving to the poor—Hospitality; giving food or drink; providing for the needy according to their need.
(Luke 12:33; Matthew 10:40-42; Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 16:9; Luke 10:25-37.)
g. Fasting—Refraining from food or other item for a set amount of time.
(Matthew 6:16-18; Mark 2:20)

Even these disciplines can be used in excess to disobey God—forcing others to do disciplines by using harshness; judging others because they do not do these disciplines in your way, trusting in the disciplines to keep you right with God rather than listening to and doing his will. Any discipline we use must be done in devotion to God, and for the benefit of others around us.

We need to see the disciplines as tools in order to do God’s will. They help keep us focused on God, but they are just a means to an end—remaining right with God.

4. Seeking The Spirit (Ephesians 6:18; Jude 1:20)
To overcome the flesh, we must delve deeper and deeper into the Spirit. To do this, we must pray for the Spirit, be alone with the Spirit and be in groups that have the Spirit manifest. The more the Spirit shows his power in us, the less we are in the flesh. How else can we seek the Spirit? We need to take time regularly to focus on the Lord, apart from the world. We can spend time before the Lord praying for our needs. We need to be open to the Holy Spirit speaking in us and through us in any way He pleases—we need to have an attitude of being here for His service, not Him for ours. And when the Spirit clearly leads us, we need to obey that leading. When we do, the Spirit will lead us some more. If we focus on the Spirit and live in the Spirit, the flesh has no power over us.

5. Taking Up The Cross (Mark 8:32-38)
The way of the cross is the opposite of the flesh. It is better than fasting, for it is following Jesus precisely, acting as He acted, thus being completely acceptable to God. In summary, the way to follow the path of the cross is as follows:
a. Accept the word of the Lord as what is right to do.
b. Accept and prepare for the suffering you will have to endure to do it.
c. Sacrifice yourself for the love of others.
d. Cry out to the Lord for strength through the suffering.
e. Do the will of God, waiting for God’s deliverance from suffering
This way is not easy, nor is it always simple. But there is no better way to overcome the flesh than to follow the way of Jesus. For most people, the previous four steps must happen before we can be ready for the fifth, most drastic, way of overcoming the flesh.


The Flesh destroys us. Don’t just take it. Fight back.

Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayer?

Have you ever had a time when you were praying, but it seemed as if God was distant? Perhaps this was your own feeling, or perhaps you had something to really base that feeling on. If we pray at all, there will be times that we know that God isn’t answering our prayer. Doesn’t he promise to deliver us from our troubles, doesn’t he look at our sorrows and wipe them away? Then why are we still living in them?

When we are going through difficulties, and we cry out to God, but God doesn’t seem to be answering, then we could be looking for blame. And either we will blame God or blame ourselves. If we blame God, we may think that He doesn’t really care about us. Or perhaps he doesn’t understand what we are going through. Or perhaps He isn’t as strong as we were led to believe. Maybe God doesn’t actually exist at all, but we are just praying to thin air.

At other times, we might look at ourselves and think that we are not good enough for God. Maybe we don’t belong to the right church, or something in the past is displeasing to God. Perhaps God doesn’t like our family or the community in which we live. Maybe we didn’t pray the right words or in the right manner.

Be confident

According to God’s word, all of these tracks are the wrong way to look at it. God doesn’t care about whether we pray correctly, our past or our community. And God DOES care about us and our troubles. He will listen to us, no matter what we’ve done or how separated from Him we were. God is also powerful enough to do whatever He wants.

And yet, still, God often will not answer our prayers. He listens, but does not act. He pays attention, but we do not receive what we want. Why is this? Why doesn’t prayer just work when we want it to? According to the Bible, there are a number of different reasons why our prayers may not be answered—why God may ignore our requests. Not all of them are easy to hear, but we should look at them carefully, to see if any of them apply to us:

Prayer requires a relationship with God

Maybe, for some reason, our prayers really are blocked. Maybe God knows our requests, but He isn’t going to answer us now. This would be because something is blocking our relationship with God. God is attentive to everyone, but some people have issues that God cannot see, for He is a pure God and cannot abide impurity. There are certain things that people do that will stop any communication between them and God. Some of the things that are mentioned is: Not meeting the needs of those under one’s authority (such as children, wives or employees); living a sexually immoral lifestyle; to cheat in business; those who cause strife between people; and those who tell lies in God’s name. As well, God will reject those who refuse to listen to his Son, Jesus, who is Lord over the earth. God does not listen to these people, nor will listen to their prayers.

If we are caught up in any of these lifestyles or if we refuse to listen to Jesus, then the answer is simple—we need to repent and change our ways. God will listen to our prayer, but only if our prayer is: “Father, I was wrong, please forgive me.” We need to admit that we were in a bad place, and we want to be different people, people to whom God will listen. We need to ask God for help to change our lives and to focus on His ways. If we do, then God will listen to our prayers and answer them. This is devotion, this is faith in God and trust in his ways.
(I Peter 3:7; I Corinthians 6:9-10; Proverbs 6:16-19; Deuteronomy 25:13-16; John 15:7; John 5:38; Acts 2:38)

Prayer requires the right motive

Another thing we look at when we pray is the reason we pray. James says: “You ask and you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives—You ask in order that you may obtain your own pleasures.” (James 4:3). Many of us pray because of our own needs, our own wants. We don’t pray because of what is really right, but because we feel a certain way and think that only one thing will help us, and so we see God as a wishing well, who will give us whatever we desire.

However, Scripture is clear that when we pray it is not our own desires or motivation that we need to be looking at, but God’s. The Lord’s prayer is unique in that the first three requests are prayers for God, not for humans. Psalm 37:4 says that if we put God’s desires first in our heart, then God will give us whatever we want—not because we want it, but because we are reflecting God’s will. Prayer is not about getting what we want, but about God establishing his justice and mercy on the world for everyone.

Prayer is about Giving God Sovereignty

At the creation of the world, God gave each human rule over the earth and over themselves. However, He made it clear that we are to remain under His authority and listen to His choices. The truth is, however, that usually we make our own choices, apart from God’s recommendations and so we establish our own control over our lives. God loves us and wants to help us, but He also respects our choices and will not stand against them. Sometimes we are praying for God to deliver us from ourselves, from our own choices that we are still making. But God will not do this, for to do this is to make Him unfaithful to His promise that we are in charge of our lives.

If we wish to have God’s help, despite ourselves, we need to turn ourselves over to Him. We can pray, but it is a prayer of surrender to God’s control and a desire to reject our past choices. If we completely surrender ourselves to Jesus, and make him Lord over our lives, then God will begin to change our own wills, our own choices to make us a better ruler over ourselves, with His help. (Romans 12:1-2; Psalm 8; Judges 10:10-16)

Prayer Sometimes Takes Time

But perhaps we are in a good relationship with God. Perhaps, as far as the Bible says, God really is listening and we are praying prayers that He agrees with—maybe even prayers that He commanded us to pray! Why, then, are there many prayers that aren’t answered. If God wants them prayed for, shouldn’t he answer them quickly?

Of course he should. But some prayers just take time to answer. God often is not rejecting our request, but is waiting for the right time to answer it with action. Prayers are not microwave popcorn—put it in the oven and four minutes later, boom, there it is. Prayer is about God’s timing and what is best for everyone. Sometimes our timing is not God’s timing, but it doesn’t mean that He’s forgotten.

So what can we do? Many just stop praying because “God knows what I need and I don’t want to bug him about it.” Yes, God knows what we need, but he wants us to keep bugging him about it. If we don’t stop praying about something—once an hour, once a day, or once a week, depending on the request—but keep on praying, it shows that we haven’t forgotten about the issue and we still trust that God will resolve it. (Luke 11:5-10; II Peter 3:8-9)

Prayer Sometimes Isn’t Answered How We Like

God always sees our need. God always wants to answer prayer. But sometimes God doesn’t answer us in the way we expect. Perhaps we expect God to just take away our suffering and pain. Perhaps we expect God to give us the certain thing we need to meet our needs. And then it doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t.

Does this mean that he didn’t answer our prayer? Suppose my child comes up to me and says, “Daddy, I’m really hungry—could you go out and get me some candy to eat?” Of course, I know that a rock isn’t what my child needs, so I get him good food instead. Maybe she will cry because I didn’t give her what she wanted, but I know a little better about what kind of food is best for her. This is how God acts with us. He knows better what we need. Sometimes we think that God is ridiculous, and God just needs to listen to what we want—but He refuses to give us what is bad for us.

If we are in difficulties and it seems that God isn’t answering our prayer, then we need to just trust in God. God is the one who knows what is best for us, and will give us what is best. Sometimes what is best for us comes in the form of difficulties or problems or temptations that we just want to go away. But God is the one who loves us more than we love ourselves, and so will help us in accord with what we need, not according to our childish requests. (Luke 11:11-13: Hebrews 12:5-11; James 1:13-17; II Corinthians 12:7-9)

Trust in God and He will give us what is good—always.

What Would You Give?

For an entertaining evening, ask the question of your friends or family what you might do with a hundred million dollars, tax free. Given the fact that lotteries are sometimes won at the unbelievable heights of a couple hundred million dollars at a time, this isn’t outside the realm of imagination, and it is a thought that crosses the mind of the poorest homeless person, no matter how unlikely. Let’s say that we happen to obtain the whole amount at once—unlike the lottery money—and we didn’t kill ourselves with drinking or drugs right off the bat. What would one purchase with such a large amount of money—more than any of our needs might warrant?

Perhaps we would buy a new house, filled with stuff. Then we would have to have a new security system, but that would be no problem. We could quit our job and the whole lifestyle we are living dependent on others to meet our needs. Some of us might take the opportunity to get a new family. Others might travel around the world, seeing everything they ever wanted to see. It would mean unlimited freedom. Some might see this as an opportunity to do good, or to change the world into a better place for all. It could be an opportunity to get a particular message out. It would mean amazing power.

What would we give for such an opportunity. Suppose the wealthiest man in the world came up to us and said, “I want to give you a hundred million dollars, tax free. What would you give up for it?” Would you surrender your dignity—do something publicly that would shame you before everyone? Would you surrender your sexuality? What if he asked you to never have sex again in your life for a hundred million dollars? Would you surrender your right arm—have it amputated right off for the sake of all that the money provides you? Would you surrender some of your life—you would have to work for the billionaire, do whatever he wanted, and at retirement he would give you the money?

Most of us would be willing to make such sacrifices—within limits. This is because to have almost unlimited freedom and so much power is worth almost any price we give it, even if it means we are limited in many other ways.

We are often willing to sacrifice much, if only we believe that the exchange is worth the amount we pay. It is amazing to me the huge sacrifices people make for such small gains. A man, in order to gain a small amount of dignity or money, will kill someone, and spend a lifetime in guilt in prison for it. Another woman will give up a life of security and contentment for the excitement and drama of cheating on her husband. Another will live their lives in abuse rather than get away because they have an anxiety of what “might” happen.

These are extreme examples, but all of us, at one point or another, make exchanges that are significant to our lives, but they make the quality of life miserable. We will keep working in a job we hate for a small amount of money each week. We will eat food or smoke things we know will kill us, and make our bodies miserable, because we gain a small pleasure in eating or smoking it. We will marry someone for the security of a relationship, even though the relationship is awful. We will pour our heart and effort and time into a project in the hopes of obtaining some respect, only to be ignored.

It is hard to determine a proper exchange. What is our life really worth? And is it equal to what we actually give it? We desire freedom, we desire respect, we want our deepest longings fulfilled. What are we giving to get that which we most desire? Every life has a price. Are our lives worth the price we paying?

The wealthiest man in the universe is approaching us right now. No, he is not offering us a hundred million dollars—that would be too simple, and that life wouldn’t actually give us what we want anyway. Instead he is offering other, more essential goods. He promises to provide our food, our clothes and often our shelter—a simple existence, but one that offers contentment. He promises to provide peace of mind. He promises to help us deal with our guilt and anger—not just wiping them away, but processing them in a positive way. He promises to grant us justice. He promises to give us the freedom to be the best people we can be. And most importantly, He promises to give us hope—hope for an existence that not only is good for ourselves, but good for everyone else.

What does He want in exchange? He wants us to give up our shoddy existence, to give us trying to seek justice for ourselves. He wants us to stop grasping for our own needs and allowing Him and others to help us. He wants us to give up our crippled ethic, and to adopt one that is complete and is good for all. He wants us to work for Him, to go where He tells us to go and to do whatever He tells us to. He wants us to surrender our possessions and money to those who need it more than we do. He wants us to give up our family, so He can provide us with a family that loves us. He wants us to give up scrounging for our needs so that which we did not even know we need could be provided. In all honesty, He wants our whole life—everything. So we can have a richer, fuller, more satisfactory existence. And this satisfaction He offers is not just for now, but for all eternity.

This is a huge price to pay. But it is a huge thing to receive. It is a fair exchange—give up one’s miserable life for one of generosity and peace. The main issue in such an exchange is that the one giving up one’s life has to trust the one offering him or her a new life. Because to surrender one’s life is the ultimate act of trust. This is why God, in making this offer, says that to be involved in this exchange one must have faith. The less faith one has in the one making the offer, the less the offer means. Because the more of one’s life is surrendered, the better exchange one gets.

Desire of God

God is our Father. God has reached out and touched our souls, giving each the breath of life. God holds us together, keeping us alive. God empowers us with strength and allows us to do good. Every good we have ever received came ultimately from God. And so we rightfully thank God, for all He has been to us.

All God wanted from us in return is our love. God desires our devotion, not just our worship, but our heart of gratefulness and joy to be in Him. God gave us all we had in order to be in relation with us. God desired to sit long hours with us, to bask in our company. We are not sure why, for often we cannot even endure our own presence, but God desired us more than we do ourselves. He longed for love and intimacy that only we could give.

Yet when has so much been given for so little in return, only to have the true Lover spurned and despised? Oh no, we do not hate God. We cater to Him, and so we sing our little songs and attend our little churches and express our little devotions. But He cannot endure them, because He knows that though our lips express longing, our hearts are distant from Him. Not only because our busyness has crowded Him out of our lives. No, because of the sorrows we have poured on Him.

God has let it be known to us how it must be if we are to live with Him. We must be people of faithfulness, people of love. We must walk in justice and our hearts must overflow with mercy. We must have integrity and grace. We know the life we must live to be with Him. And yet we refuse it. And yet we constantly reject being the people whom God asks us to be so we can have intimacy with Him.

God understands. We are people of the world. The world is corrupt, and some of that corruption rubs off, sometimes. But what God sees, that we do not, is that the world is corrupt because of our action and inaction. The world is separated from heaven because we are separated from God. As long as we allow the little fears, the little injustices, the little infidelities, the little judgments, the little greeds, the petty rejections, the furies of passion that destroy those around us become our lifestyle—then the world will not only remain corrupt, but will become more and more corrupt daily. Should the salt of the earth become unsalted, what hope is there for the earth?

Us being part and parcel of the evil—yes, let’s call it what it really is, the damned evils of this world—means that we are not a part of God. And so God remains lonely. He is alone in heaven, surrounded by the angels, lonely, without the love of humanity. We, His created partners, have rejected Him, because the ways of the world are more real to us than He is. We have accepted that which we know is separating us from God, because we love our comfort more than we love Him, our Father, who gave us all things.

He is there, waiting. He awaits for us. We cannot know just how much He loves us. He calls to us, daily, begging for us to surrender our petty evils and to return to embrace Him. And this is what we want as well. We hear his call, and we long for Him. We fall before Him, beg for forgiveness and then we get up and return to the evils of our lives. Never forsaking them. Never turning away from them. Longing for them, even as our lips speak confession.

See God the Father, alone in His study, wishing for our company. Beside Him, ever before Him, is His Son who died for our sins. The crucified Jesus, wounds still bleeding for us, dripping on the floor, the pool of his suffering growing larger. Jesus died for us, his sufferings meant to fill our separations—every one of them—if we would but break from them and embrace Him.

Can we turn from the world to embrace the Son? Can we run from our evils to go to the Father who waits? All of His resources are ours, every grace that He provides is waiting to be poured into our lives. Because of Jesus’ death, we need not fear death, nor the lack of survival. God will help us survive. Because of Jesus’ death, we need not fear injustice, for God promises true justice for us. Because of Jesus’ suffering, we need not fear a lack of mercy, for God pours out mercy upon us as a waterfall pours water.

Kneel in the puddle of Jesus’ suffering. Accept it, receive it. Embrace the Son, kiss his wounds. Put your hand in his side and make His suffering your own. To separate from the world, to deny the very self that is knit tight with evil, we must bleed with the suffering of Jesus, our very flesh being torn from us, until we die.

Mourn, cry out to Him who loved us so. Weep because of the separation that you, you yourself caused. Let Him know of the sorrow you felt. Let him know how weak you were—how weak you are. Confess to Him with all your heart how you long to be with Him, how you thirst for Him like no other beverage. That you desire Him deeper than your most joyful experience. That He is the fulfillment of your greatest needs.

For this sorrow, this mourning, this suffering is the seed of the greatest joy. Through your tears of sorrow come tears of joy. Through your surrender comes the greatest gain. It is though dying to this world—the destruction of the plans, distractions and comforts of this world—that we can obtain our greatest satisfaction.

Only in the surrender of all in the presence of God can we obtain the greatest joy.

A Thirst For Wisdom

In the world there exists no lack of truth. Libraries are stacked with truths, the internet is exploding with facts, experts are just full of it. If we want truth, we can look anywhere and find it. The world focuses on the differences between what is true and what is untrue. This is significant, for if we believe a lie, then we have nothing true within us. However, it is equally possible for us to focus on the wrong truth. For some truth does not set us free, but bind us and blind us to what is significant.

The church has often been mislead by what is untrue. We have often listened to rumor or the speculations of a charismatic figure rather than examining what we have received in order to determine it’s accuracy. The Bereans were considered high minded because they didn’t just accept what they heard—as true as it was—but examined it according to a standard of truth. They analyzed and so were able to decide what was true, not just accepting it blindly.

But rarely does Scripture command us to determine what is true. Because there are so many truths to choose from. The Scripture never denied that there were spiritual powers beside God. The Scripture never said that all the pagans had to say was false—instead, they used the literature of the pagans to convict of the truth that was obvious to all. But what the Scripture emphasizes is the differences between truth and wisdom.

Truth is simply what is. It is fact. But we cannot live by facts alone. It is a fact that the sky, when clear, is blue, but that does not tell us why we are on this earth. It is a fact that light travels at the speed of … miles per second, but this fact does not tell us how we should live. It is a fact that there are (a hundred) kinds of penguins, but this fact does not tell us how to live in integrity and love.

Truth is the fact. Wisdom is the significance. Wisdom not just applies truth to reality, but it brings balance to all things. It tells us which truths to focus on and which truths are less important. Wisdom recognizes what is real and how to communicate reality for the benefit of all. Wisdom does not see fact as a hard-edged, black and white proposition. Wisdom sees truth as being the moldable tool of love and community.

Truth is relatively easy to discover. In many questionable areas we can find the reality, if we would but look. Truth is only difficult because so many people determine to remain ignorant, to leave it unsought. But wisdom, no matter how often or with what effort one seeks it, is always difficult. No matter how many confirmed facts we learn, we do not from that know the fact of what is important for us to know. We can comprehend and communicate millions of true sentences, yet none of them true for us, true for our family, true for our community, true for our world.

Knowledge is not life.
Facts are not action.
Truth is not love.
Propositions are not wisdom.

To focus on this fact can be despairing, which is also in opposition to wisdom. We must not dwell too deeply on the fact that fact is outside of practical reality. Where can we obtain wisdom, love, community, hope and significance? With wisdom God created the world. With wisdom, God saved the world. With wisdom, God decided to give His Son with love. Where is wisdom? It comes from God, and God alone.

Many have looked at God and have reduced Him down to facts. This accumulation of facts—both historic and philosophical—is called theology. Yet God cannot be found in the beauty of theology. God can truly be found in the wisdom of God.

Jesus is the wisdom of God. Jesus, who sat with the sinners and explained the Law as love. Jesus argued against the true facts of the Pharisees to show how insignificant they were compared to the act, speech and love of God. Jesus argued against the priests who put God into the box of the temple, and so tore the veil in two which blocked people’s vision of God. The fact that Jesus was the being of God isn’t what we should look at. Rather, Jesus was the revelation of the wisdom of God. In Jesus the truth of what is important is found.

Because Jesus is the revelation of the Father. The Father wanted us to understand wisdom, so he gave us not a rule book, nor a theology text but a living person. As Jesus is passed to us, it is not in a mathematical formula nor logical propositions, but written lives. Only life can display a wise life.

And Jesus knew that he would not be sufficient wisdom for all the generations to come. A single life, even expressed four-fold, is not enough to give the wisdom for all. So God planted the wisdom in our hearts. The Spirit gives us the teachings of the Father, day by day, hour by hour. These teachings are not the facts of truth, but the wisdom of life. Significance, not proposition.

The Spirit is revelation. The Spirit tells us that which human logic could never convince us of. The Spirit leads us to holiness, to love, to mercy, to humility, to community, to the power of God, which cannot be seen by eyes or measured by instruments.

For wisdom is the direct gift of God. All we need to have it is to open ourselves to receive. All the best of life is ours to grasp, if we would but seek Him. If we would listen to Him, we might have to set aside the facts that we have grasped onto in order to truly have Him. We must surrender our knowledge to Him, so that we can live in love. We must burn the insignificant as a sacrifice, so that God will grant us peace with others. We rest the burdens of our lives upon his arms, so that His wisdom might guide. Give us your wisdom, O Lord, display before us the love you wish us to live.