Godly Character Matters

     As a church we have been walking through the last 200 years of the Old Testament in 2 Kings, Daniel, Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah.  The time has been profitable and greatly challenging to see all of the things that are so much like our current culture in the West.  As we came to Esther 2, we see the Persian culture as one what is totally obsessed with outer beauty and driven by King Xerxes who has a warped view of beauty and sex.  Xerxes (his Greek name) or Ahasuerus (Persian name) loved luxury and impressing people.  He once took 180 days to show off the riches of his glory - think about that for a moment - 180 days to show off his external glory, not his character.  To show his character would have taken about 10 seconds.
     He loved being impressive and he is representative of our world.  Our world thinks that what we have and who we know has more value than who we are on the inside.  The pattern of our world is driven to show others that we have value based on our what we look like, the size of a bicep or whether we have less wrinkles than the person across the street.  To be as beautiful as we can, just as is in Esther 2, we must go through "Beauty Treatments".  These treatments have wreaked havoc upon us and our culture.  We are absolutely confused about real beauty.  Just look at every magazine at the grocery store where every article is focused showing our value through some type of external.
     What is a "Beauty Treatment"?  They come in all kinds of forms.  Here are some:

• Cosmetic Surgeries of all kinds from facelifts, breast surgery, botox, and tummy tucks.
• Go in debt to live in a certain area so that an address defines us
• Drive a certain car so that a symbol marks us
• Comb-Over - What is this?  It is a vain man trying finding value in the amount of roots on a head.  Can you say Donal Trump?
• Resume - people lie on these all the time now to show themselves more than they truly are.

I could go on and on.  Sadly, Christians fall into this same trap.  What is the answer then?  As with everything, we need to get back to the truth of scripture.  God has always said the same thing about our beauty and worth and it has nothing to do with externals, it has everything to do with who He is and what He has done.  Any drift away from those 2 things is a drift toward valuing that which is external.  Look at possibly the greatest verses that addresses this issue:

"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.  I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth"... Psalm 139:13-15 


Look at the significance of these words and their implications:

• We are formed by Him - therefore all of our size, look, sound, etc. has been formed by Jesus.  If the voice we hear more is the world's, then we will naturally try and get in line and let the world's ways form us.
• Wonderful are Your Works and my soul knows it very well - The implication here is that God does everything absolutely well.  If we never get to the place where we embrace that as Creator, Jesus is all good, then our soul will never know that who we are is very well.  David said we are skillfully wrought by God.  We are wonderful, as is.

You see, it is Godly Character that matters.  You see, since He created us skillfully, He knows there is not an improvement that man can do that adds value to who we are.  We are valuable simply from the fact that we have been formed and created by Him.  This should be enough for us.

My prayer is that our soul will come to know this well and that contentment settles deep within us.

The Eye of God on a People

In my study of Ezra this week, one of the verses, this verse: "But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report could come to Darius, and then a written reply be returned concerning it." Ezra 5:6, moved me to look at bit further at the "eye of God".


I found 3 other verses and they provide unique insight about the eye of the Lord on people


For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.”  2 Chronicles 16:9
He gives support to those whose hearts are completely His.


1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
His ears are attentive toward the righteous.


Psalm 33:18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
Those who fear Him and whose hope is clearly in his steadfast love, He has his eye on them.


So, here is an important question: When  does the "eye of God" settle on a person or a people?  The point of these 3 verses is that God settles on a people whose greatest treasure is Christ.  His eyes find those whose hearts, life, and hope are set on Him.  Could it be that the reason we don't see much of the outpouring of His Spirit because God is simply not treasured.  


I think it is way past time to see this get righted.  The church is so distracted by a love of the World that God is just not going to be moved to pour out His Spirit upon the church.  


We are at a sad place where this reality is just to real.

Worshipful Silence

Through the years, possibly mainly because I lived in Germany and it is a land I deeply love, but I have become more and more enamored by Dietrich Bonhöffer. His 39 years of life were full and would amount to the lifetime's of 3 or 4 people. In 1933, he gave a series of Christology lectures at the University of Berlin. Here is a quote from those lectures about worshipful silence.

"Insofar as the church proclaims Christ, it must fall down in worshipful silence before the unspeakable. God's word is unspeakable. Speaking of Christ is the ground of speech. This is what it means to make an obedient response to the revelation of God that occurs in the Word. The speaking of the church through silence is the proper proclamation of Christ. Prayer requires both silence and crying out at the same time, both in the presence of God and in response to God's Word." Who is Christ for Us? Dietrich Bonhoeffer p.31

Ponder that a bit in view of the reality of church life in year 2012.

Is it the Spirit or the Word

I have been contemplating much about the Holy Spirit lately as a men's group I am a part of is walking through the the gospel of John. One of my newest thoughts is this:

It is clear that the Holy Spirit moves in us and around us We have when we are in the Word of God, but sometimes I wonder which moves more? Not that it really matters, but it is just food for thought with me. So here is my thought:

"Is it the Spirit moving because I am in the Word or is it that the Word is awakening the Spirit's movement in me?"

This thought comes from this passage in John: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you." John 14:13-15.

The Holy Spirit plays such a role in the deepening of our faith and we should pay attention to His role of ministry in our lives. Look at these important things:

1. He is the Spirit of Truth - Everything He does is to connect us to the truth. Where do we find the truth? The Bible! His ministry is to be active in moving when we are in the Word of God. He Guides us into all truth, not just some of it. We are the ones who keep ourselves from knowing more of Scripture. His aim is to guide us all into ALL truth.
2. He shines the light on the Glory of Jesus - How does He do this? Jesus says by taking what is Jesus' and declaring it to us. The Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, wants us to know things about Jesus who is the Living Word (John 1:1).

So it is obvious that it is both. The Spirit moves us to be in the Word. The Spirit moves us to know more of Jesus. Being in the Word moves us to greater knowledge of God.

It is heard often today about Christ-Followers talking about experiencing more of the Holy Spirit and what that might look like. In our current church culture, we want the Holy Spirit more in terms of an emotional experience. I think the greater reality for us lies not in an emotional experience, but rather in a deeper reality of knowing Christ.

For deeper knowing results in deeper reality and we should never forget that.

That should be why we want more of the Word and of the Holy Spirit. That is the deeper reality for us all.

The Falsehood of the American Dream

There is no other passage that highlights the failure of the American Dream than Luke 12:13-21. Let me put it here for us: 13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul is required of you, ’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Before we look at the lie of the American Dream, let's look at what is the American Dream.

Wikipedia says, "The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth". While there is nothing in and of itself wrong with being blessed, this should never be seen as equal to the will of God for our lives or God's ultimate plan for our lives.

Here is the falsehood found in the American Dream found in Luke 12.

• The Amount of Possessions Equals Life (Luke 12:13-15) - Jesus says here that life does not consist of possessions. This should be enough for us to shift our thinking away from the pursuit of things to surround our lives with.
• Bigger, Newer and More Always Means Better (Luke 12:18) - The man kept none of his old barns, but he needed bigger and newer barns. There was nothing wrong with the old barns, he could have built a few more smaller ones or even figured out a way to give away his abundance. This thinking never entered into his view of things.
• Comfort is the Ultimate Aim of our Lives - (Luke 12:19) - Instead of continuing to be a man who worked hard, he decided comfort was better and that he deserved a life of leisure and relaxation. The whole focus of his quitting from working was that he could become the center of the fruit of his labor.
• All of This is Solely Mine - (Luke 12:20) - The man thinks it is all his, but really it is not in two ways: 1. Belongs to God 2. Someone else in the end gets it - "and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" We better be careful how strong we all our hands to grip things.
• Consumerism and Stuff Protects our Soul - (Luke 12:20) - The only thing that can protect our soul is being rich toward God. How does one do that? Foundationally, one has to trust in Christ alone for salvation. Being rich in this life does not tip the scales in our favor for gaining salvation.

Don't let the falsehood of the American Dream grip you so strong that you never see your life being rich toward God.

The Necessity of Light

Light is a must for almost all of life. In simplistic understanding, we need it to see where to go, where things are, to see the beauty of life or the faces of our family. The bible speaks of light in many ways and its necessity to us. Here is one of those in Matthew 6:22-23:

"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"

The eye is the window or gateway into our soul. It is the beginning place where things come into our lives. We better beware what "our little eyes" see. We need the light else we will remain in darkness. While that is true, Jesus also says here that the condition of the lens matters greatly. If it is clear then light comes in freely and fills the room. If the lens is dirty, colored, or distorted, then the light stays outside of the room.

The quality of the light of Christ that comes into our heart is totally dependent on the condition of our spiritual eye.

What then is the light that needs to be let into our lives?

Matthew 4:16 "..the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned."

John 1:4 "In him was life, and the life was the light of man".

John 8:12 "...I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life".

The light is Jesus. That is what we need in our lives more than anything. Knowing Jesus as the light will bring understanding to our life that is in line with Jesus.

Jesus next indicates that the amount of light has a direct influence upon the quality of our spiritual life. If only a little light gets in, then there is little influence Jesus has in our lives, which therefore results in a spiritual life that has no power. The more light , the closer our values will be in line with the values of Jesus. On the flip side, when our values are wrong, then the natural course is more darkness.

How do we best do this, to have more light? Since we have two eyes, why does Jesus say singular "eye". The emphasis is that we must be "single-minded" in our pursuit of the light. We must have one treasure (6:19-21), one light (6:22-23), and one master (6:24). One thing matters and that is the pursuit of the glory of God.

Let's pursue!

What Owns You?

Is there anything in this world that owns you? You know, something like a job, a relationship, or the pursuit of things. Last week I spent time looking at the familiar story of the Rich Young Ruler and it occurred to me that his issue was that he never saw the things that his money and position gave him from the perspective of stewardship.

Matthew 19:20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will havertreasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

He did not see that it was God who blessed him, but he felt he had earned it all himself. Since he saw his "stuff" as his and what he alone had accumulated, he could not let go of it. The very thought of giving it up made him sad. This reality proves that his stuff "owned" him - That is why he could not let them go. Is there anything that possesses you?

If we don't see things in light of stewardship - meaning that what we have has been given to us from the Father of Lights (James 1:17), we will hold onto them as if they give us life. We must get to a place when we can let go of anything from our spouse, our kids, our job, our car, or our money. They all belong to Him.

What also stood out to me about him was Jesus invitation. He was invited to come and join Jesus in going throughout Israel ministering to people and extending the Kingdom of God on earth. He chose the security of things as to a life near Jesus. Can you think of anything more sad than wanting to be near our stuff compared to depth of a life in the circle of Jesus and the disciples?

**Instead of seeing God as great, he sees his possessions as greater.**

Let us all not make this tragic mistake. Life is found when we are owned by King Jesus.