James 3:2-12
Philippians 4:8
If I had kids, I would teach them Philippians 4:8 before they could speak. I would sing it to them in the morning and in the evening and many times during the day. And I would make it the guidelines for what is said in my home. What would it be like if we constantly asked - Is this true? Is it noble? Is it right? Is it pure? Is it lovely? Is it admirable? Is it excellent? Is it praiseworthy?
Discipline, discussions, disagreements... can you imagine if we really tamed our tongues by Philippians 4:8? It wouldn't make everything filled with sunshine and lolly-pops, but it would provide a platform for love and honor to grow... a platform for God to be revealed. It would be hard. Really hard. It would take careful attention and self-discipline. It would mean that I speak out of careful attention and not just off the top-of-my head.
Oh, goodness. I don't know when I'll have kids in my home. But, I do know that if I will expect tongues of Philippians 4:8, I'd better start practicing myself today.
Friday, August 27, 2010
The Fine Print of Ministry
James 3:1
Those of us in ministry know what it is like living under a magnifying glass: what kind of car you drive, what radio station you listen to, how you educate your kids. Sometimes we feel the line between private and public is a glass wall. Should we allow people's opinions to shape our own? No, especially when one person will say You're Too Liberal and another call us Too Conservative. We need to be careful that our decisions are made as we follow God's heart and not in striving to do what is popular or pleasing to man. And it's there that we find the judgement that really matters. It's so easy to fall in the trap of worrying what your "people" are thinking that what God is thinking. The next time someone holds up that magnifying glass - instead of complaining about how it's Not Fair, let's respond in grace and kindness and truth in love knowing it's just part of the job... but let's carry it further in our hearts and minds and let's ask God to search our ways.
Those of us in ministry know what it is like living under a magnifying glass: what kind of car you drive, what radio station you listen to, how you educate your kids. Sometimes we feel the line between private and public is a glass wall. Should we allow people's opinions to shape our own? No, especially when one person will say You're Too Liberal and another call us Too Conservative. We need to be careful that our decisions are made as we follow God's heart and not in striving to do what is popular or pleasing to man. And it's there that we find the judgement that really matters. It's so easy to fall in the trap of worrying what your "people" are thinking that what God is thinking. The next time someone holds up that magnifying glass - instead of complaining about how it's Not Fair, let's respond in grace and kindness and truth in love knowing it's just part of the job... but let's carry it further in our hearts and minds and let's ask God to search our ways.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Evidence of Faith
James 2:14-26
On one of my other blogs wrote an entry called "Would Jesus Fit Into My Spiritual Rubric".
Recently I heard a preacher try to encourage his congregation to make sure their faith was authentic. Good. Great, even. He then proceeded to say (through a fictional scenario) that the way we can know other people have authentic faith is that they
a) attend Bible studies at church
b) walk around carrying their Bible
c) pray aloud at church
What? Really? OK - I, too think that those three things are good things... but as proof of your relationship with Jesus? They might overflow from it - certainly - but... I don't know... seems a little Pharisaical to me if that is our rubric. But the truth is - we all fall into that trap.
So what if we have the rubric of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, of being peacemakers, of being merciful, of being pure in heart?
James's rubric has two things: taking care of the poor's physical needs and offering your most precious child on the alter. Yes, our faith overflows in our deeds... but Lord! Please help us from being content with or even calling our "deeds" carrying around our Bibles.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Mercy and Truth
James 2:12-13
The King James translates Proverbs 3:3 as
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.
Do you know someone who lives in mercy and truth? It's a rare gift. Not many people have it. Most of us live somewhere in between, which results in neither mercy nor truth. If you read anything about forgiveness, you'll be advised that the purest forgiveness can only take place when the truth is out in the open. This is dangerous ground. We don't like it. We don't want these wounds. It is easier when we brush over things and wave our "It's OK" wand.
The subjunctive form of this mercy is the word beauty. This truth is a compound word from the word stability. When you know someone who lives in both mercy and truth - it will change your life. It will make you feel safe. It's going to give you a soft place to land. It's going to be a place where you find freedom... to let yourself be known, to give up your masks, and to give up trying to win God's grace. Yes... you'll find a new freedom.
And in that freedom, you'll find a new you - one that's growing more merciful every day... partly because you see it lived out in front of your eyes... but mostly because every day your eyes are being more and more opened to the mercy of God.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Everything
James 2:1-11
Is your love language physical-touch? Is one of your favorite books The Posionwood Bible? Do you like long drives and listening to Rich Mullins? Do you like to sit on the floor and chat for hours about what God is teaching you? Can we give each other make-overs? Let's spend a couple of hours planning our dream homes. Do you love peanut M&M's? Let's trade backs. You wanna sit around and play DJ for each other? Do you want to go for a slow walk through the trees? Let's give each other pedicures. And let's talk some more about our deep secrets and be really real with each other. And let's make some dream-lists. And make yummy coffee drinks. And eat more chocolate.
And I will love you.
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS IF THEY ARE LIKE YOURSELF.
And I find that I, too am prejudiced. I show favoritism to those who are in the same financial bracket, the same interest bracket and the same heart bracket. And I hear the argument of It's Natural... It's Normal. But I'm not called to a natural love. I'm called to a holy love.
And in that - I fail. Which is why I need Grace. My Christian heritage is not enough. My resume is not enough. My quiet time is not enough. The things I do "for God" are not enough. My righteousness-compared-to-everyone-else is not enough. My loving-the-loveable is not enough.
Is your love language physical-touch? Is one of your favorite books The Posionwood Bible? Do you like long drives and listening to Rich Mullins? Do you like to sit on the floor and chat for hours about what God is teaching you? Can we give each other make-overs? Let's spend a couple of hours planning our dream homes. Do you love peanut M&M's? Let's trade backs. You wanna sit around and play DJ for each other? Do you want to go for a slow walk through the trees? Let's give each other pedicures. And let's talk some more about our deep secrets and be really real with each other. And let's make some dream-lists. And make yummy coffee drinks. And eat more chocolate.
And I will love you.
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS IF THEY ARE LIKE YOURSELF.
And I find that I, too am prejudiced. I show favoritism to those who are in the same financial bracket, the same interest bracket and the same heart bracket. And I hear the argument of It's Natural... It's Normal. But I'm not called to a natural love. I'm called to a holy love.
And in that - I fail. Which is why I need Grace. My Christian heritage is not enough. My resume is not enough. My quiet time is not enough. The things I do "for God" are not enough. My righteousness-compared-to-everyone-else is not enough. My loving-the-loveable is not enough.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Religion, Part 3
James 1:27
I watched a disturbing movie yesterday. I don't recommend it at all: language, 3 fast-forward scenes, lots of heavy, heavy issues, justification of sin... just skip it. Yes, I should have turned it off... but I didn't. And now I can't stop thinking about it.
The plot was that salespeople acted like a family (with the last name of Jones), moved into a neighborhood and spent their lives selling things. Their goal was to win people to themselves and very nonchalantly make the neighbors want to buy everything the Jones's had. The story really is of Dad Jones who sees the damage materialism and greed brings to a friend's life.
The crazy part was that the whole time during the movie, I was being sold to... love is based on physical attraction, coming-out-of-the-closet is the highest success of a gay man, beauty in hair and youth and size.
I told Dave about the movie and we talked about the solution: how do you stay non-effected by these pressures? Is our only alternative to find a hermitage in the woods? ...
James tells us that God says our religion is pure and faultless in our loving orphans and widows and in keeping ourselves from being polluted by the world.
So, what does that really look like? Only Disney movies? No Disney movies? No movies at all? No fiction at all? No books at all? Nothing but the Bible?
I don't know. I have a lot of ideas. I have a lot of theories. I have a lot of self-examining to do. And I have a lot of repenting that needs to take place.
I watched a disturbing movie yesterday. I don't recommend it at all: language, 3 fast-forward scenes, lots of heavy, heavy issues, justification of sin... just skip it. Yes, I should have turned it off... but I didn't. And now I can't stop thinking about it.
The plot was that salespeople acted like a family (with the last name of Jones), moved into a neighborhood and spent their lives selling things. Their goal was to win people to themselves and very nonchalantly make the neighbors want to buy everything the Jones's had. The story really is of Dad Jones who sees the damage materialism and greed brings to a friend's life.
The crazy part was that the whole time during the movie, I was being sold to... love is based on physical attraction, coming-out-of-the-closet is the highest success of a gay man, beauty in hair and youth and size.
I told Dave about the movie and we talked about the solution: how do you stay non-effected by these pressures? Is our only alternative to find a hermitage in the woods? ...
James tells us that God says our religion is pure and faultless in our loving orphans and widows and in keeping ourselves from being polluted by the world.
So, what does that really look like? Only Disney movies? No Disney movies? No movies at all? No fiction at all? No books at all? Nothing but the Bible?
I don't know. I have a lot of ideas. I have a lot of theories. I have a lot of self-examining to do. And I have a lot of repenting that needs to take place.
Religion, Part 2
James 1:27
episkeptomai... We read it in the NIV as "to look after"... but in Greek it has a fuller idea. First, you inspect, then you select and then you relieve.
OK - I am not a mechanic at all. Shoot, I don't even have a car. But what mechanics are good at - is this episkeptomai business. They inspect the motor/engine/what-ever-is-under-the-hood, they select the dilly-ma-bobber that needs fixin', replace or repair it, thus relieving the issue.
We are told to do that for widows. Yes, yes... we love hugging those old ladies on the third row on Sundays. We love taking them a basket of goodies at Christmas. But do we really love them? Do we episkeptomai them? Do we really inspect their lives and choose an area in which we could relieve something for them?
Maybe it's grocery shopping. Maybe it's taking them to the doctor. Maybe it's listening to them or reading to them. Maybe it's taking our children to talk to them. Maybe it's just sitting with them and relieving the loneliness.
episkeptomai... We read it in the NIV as "to look after"... but in Greek it has a fuller idea. First, you inspect, then you select and then you relieve.
OK - I am not a mechanic at all. Shoot, I don't even have a car. But what mechanics are good at - is this episkeptomai business. They inspect the motor/engine/what-ever-is-under-the-hood, they select the dilly-ma-bobber that needs fixin', replace or repair it, thus relieving the issue.
We are told to do that for widows. Yes, yes... we love hugging those old ladies on the third row on Sundays. We love taking them a basket of goodies at Christmas. But do we really love them? Do we episkeptomai them? Do we really inspect their lives and choose an area in which we could relieve something for them?
Maybe it's grocery shopping. Maybe it's taking them to the doctor. Maybe it's listening to them or reading to them. Maybe it's taking our children to talk to them. Maybe it's just sitting with them and relieving the loneliness.
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