Hope for the Hurting

"My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice." -- Psalm 34:2

Your testimony of God's goodness brings hope to the hurting.  Don't refrain from your boast in the Lord--it could very well be the good news that somebody else is needing to hear.  Tell it and be joyful:  Our God is Good!  He is full of grace, comfort, holiness, mercy, justice, peace, and love! 

Thank You, Jesus, for Your sacrifice on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins.  We love You so much.  Halelujiah and Amen!!! 

Prayer for Others Transforms Us, Too

"A Christian community either lives by the intercessory prayers of its members for one another, or the community will be destroyed.  I can no longer condemn or hate other Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they cause me.  In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died, the face of a pardoned sinner.  That is a blessed discovery for the Christian who is beginning to offer intercessory prayer for others.  As far as we are concerned, there is no dislike, no personal tension, no disunity or strife that cannot be overcome by intercessory prayer.  Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the community must enter every day." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Do Both

We are in the middle of a 40-day fast at our church.  We’ve got all kinds of different people doing all kinds of different fasts.  You don’t have to be well-versed in fasting to know the basics of what is going on—you give something up (usually food), and focus more on God.  In essence, you’re saying, “I’m giving this certain thing up and showing that You, God, are more important, and that You are worth it to me.”

Fasting is a spiritual discipline.  That means we should do it regularly.  Don’t believe me?  Check out Matthew Chapter 6.  In it, Jesus speaks about giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting.  Each time he begins speaking about the above topics, he says the word when:

”So when you give to the needy…” (Verse 2)

“And when you pray…” (Verse 5)

“When you fast…” (Verse 16)

By saying “when”, Jesus is making the assumption that his audience already does these things.  It does not say “if you fast”, but “when you fast”.  We should fast.  Enough said.

These past few weeks my mind has been rolling around another related thought:  there’s a verse in the Old Testament that says “obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).  My fasting definitely involves sacrifice.  So if obedience is greater than this, does it mean I should just become more obedient and do away with fasting?  Let’s look at another Jesus quote to gain some insight:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin.  But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness.  You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” (Matthew 23:23)

In the above verse Jesus addresses the fact that some of the religious leaders of the day were doing part of the law (giving a tenth of their increase—tithing), but not doing other parts (administering justice, showing mercy, and being faithful).  How does this tie together with what we’re talking about today?  Look at the last sentence of Matthew 23:23 again:  “You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”  Jesus admonishes them to do both—the greater and lesser things.

I think there’s a parallel to be drawn here.  Just because obedience is greater than sacrifice does not mean that I should neglect the one to do the other—I should do both.  This is the revelation!  Sacrifice does matter, and fasting should involve sacrifice on our part.  And while it’s true that God does desire our obedience more than sacrifice, He wants our sacrifice as well!  That’s good stuff right there!!!

*     *     *     *     *

Take a minute and examine yourself…are you neglecting part of God’s Word and making it ok in your mind by doing other parts of His Word well?  I know I am.  But the good news is that God gives us grace to do better!  Pray this prayer right now if you want the Lord to help you practice the greater things while not neglecting the lesser:

Lord God, help me to identity where I need help, and give me what I need to carry out the change.  I love You, God, and I thank You for Your kindness, mercy, and love.  In Jesus Christ’s Mighty Name, Amen.

Everybody's Hungry

When you’re hungry, everything starts to look good.  Things that you otherwise overlook begin to grab your attention.  I’ve caught myself thinking about how good bread would be with Mt. Dew on one such occasion…even the cans of soup that are pushed waaaaaay to the back of the cabinet start sounding good.

What is true of the body holds true in other parts of life.  If someone is hungry for love and does not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger elsewhere.  (Little girls giving themselves away to boys at a young age.)  If someone is hungry for attention and does not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger elsewhere.  (Kids bullying others to feel like they matter.)  If someone is hungry for identity and does not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger elsewhere.  (People falling into corrupt groups of friends, gangs, etc.)  You know all of this.  I don’t need to spell it out for you.

We know the problems and would probably agree on a lot of the root causes.  Undoubtedly THE root cause to these, and every problem, is people being void of a relationship with God. Many of you would call me crazy, or too simple-minded for thinking that, but that’s ok.  I’m not actually here to debate that today.

I want to look at one specific issue:  truth.  Just like anything else, people hunger for this.  Even if it is only on an unconscious level, every person alive in some way values truth and wants to reap the benefits thereof.  Let’s look at it from the other side:  if you say you don’t really care about truth, then that means you don’t care if you get ripped off at the supermarket, if the government does as it says it will, if the water company decides to not give you water, if serial murderers are allowed to walk the streets, if 2 + 2 = 4.  Underlying all of these things are principles of truth.  Without something being counted on as true, then all of the things built upon them crumble…food prices can outrageously shift overnight, the government does as it pleases, your water can cut off at any time, a serial murdered goes on killing people at will, mathematics and anything remotely involving numbers falls apart.

If any of these sound familiar it’s because underlying truths are being deteriorated.  At some point, at some level, truths started being exchanged for lies.  We may not agree on where it started, but we can agree this is the reality.

So let’s examine the exchange of truth for lies in one specific area:  spiritual truth.  Again, whether people explicitly express a hunger for this or not, they want it at some level.  People want things to make sense.  People want the comfort of knowing there is something underlying everyday life that is more important and bigger than what they may be experiencing.

Now, just like everything else, if people are hungry for spiritual truth and do not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger with whatever is presented to them.  Think again about your physical body.  Those things that don’t look appetizing at all, that may even repulse you, start to look good once you get hungry enough.  The same holds for spiritual truth.  When there is a lack of good stuff, people will take anything!!!

We Christians wonder why, or how, people could be led into thinking things that are so unconscionable to us.  Let me tell you:  because we are not presenting the truth.  When presented with the real truth, and presented with a shadow of the truth, real truth prevails!  Truth is heavy.  When you weigh truth alongside lies, truth wins.  Lies, perversions, manipulative teaching…they are all left wanting.

A major part of why so much of the world is disillusioned right now and has been tricked into thinking all sorts of lies is because The Church (i.e. the people) hasn’t been boldly and faithfully telling others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I’m not only referring to the story of Jesus, but also to the healing that is in His Name, the love that He has for us, the mercy that is there for us, the hope that we have found in Him, the peace that is ours for the taking.  We have been mediocre at doing what should come naturally:  telling people about what is good in our lives.  When we tell people the real truth of Jesus Christ, the relationship that we have with Him, and what He has done specifically for us, through us, and in us, then the Gospel is genuinely spread and things change!

All we can do is present the real truth.  If people reject it, then we pray for them and try again.  But I am convinced that nothing compares to the love of God through Christ Jesus.  All imposters, all fakes, and all lies cannot stand next to the absolute truth and be victorious—they will all be found wanting.

So let us no longer wonder why people are going after so many things that are impure shadows of the truth.  They are only doing what is natural to satisfy their cravings for spiritual truth.  If they know the Gospel and have rejected it, then we pray for their hearts to turn; however, if they have not been presented the truth, the REAL truth that is Jesus Christ, we must endeavor to serve up something that not only looks appealing to the eye, but satisfies once they taste it.  And, my friend, I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good!  Amen!!!

Eyes on the Prize

Our model is Jesus. So to be like Him in all things, in all actions, in all attitudes is what we as believers in Christ should be shooting for. Let me direct your attention to the 11^th chapter of the book of John; there is a very subtle, but profound, display of how we can pattern ourselves after Jesus.

To quickly sum up the setting of this passage, two women send a message to Jesus that their brother, Lazarus, is sick…presumably to hasten Jesus to come to where Lazarus is so that Jesus would heal him. Jesus has a close relationship with both the women and with Lazarus, but their location is a day’s journey away from where Jesus and his disciples currently are. This is Jesus’ reaction to that news in the 6^th verse of chapter 11: “Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.”

If you read the rest of the chapter, you see that Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days by the time Jesus arrives. The two sisters meet Jesus on his way into town and tell him how if only He had been there while Lazarus was sick that he would not have died. Jesus is deeply moved by their grief (and probably their faith as well), and proceeds to raise Lazarus from the dead.

Today, I don’t want to talk about the miracle. I want to focus on how Jesus reacted when he was confronted with the bad news messenger.

Again, verse 6 says, ”Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.” Although Jesus had a close relationship with Lazarus and his two sisters, he did not move at their request. I love how my NIV Study Bible puts it in the notes at the bottom of the page when commenting on this verse: “Jesus moved as the Father directed, not as people wished.”

I want to be like that! I want to move as the Father directs me; not necessarily how people direct me. I don’t wanna let every gripe, moan, complaint, or criticism direct and alter my path when I’m doing stuff for the Lord. Even in some situations that appear dire, if I know I’m acting upon the directing of the Lord, then men shouldn’t sway me.

You know by now that I’m all about having godly people in your life that you can trust for advice, having accountability present in your life, and having all of these types of things that are healthy…but I’m looking at what Jesus did here as a model for our behavior. Jesus ended up going to pray for Lazarus, but He did it in a way that didn’t compromise his mission. Sometimes the thing you have your eyes fixed on shouldn’t be put on the back burner when some other need arises. There is always gonna be something that could be done, something that needs attention, something that could pull your focus. You’ve gotta use wisdom, as Jesus did, and determine what is more important.

Lord, grant me the ability to know when to say ‘no’ or ‘maybe later’ when things come up. But also let me not neglect people, or their needs; let me prefer others to myself while walking in the wisdom that comes from You. In Jesus Christ’s Holy Name, Amen.

A Prophet Without Honor

Do you know who is sitting next to you? That’s a child of God with a unique manifestation of His character. That’s a vessel containing the power of the Holy Spirit if they choose to walk in it. That person sitting next to you could be the key to your breakthrough.

Have you neglected to notice who they are in Christ because you see them every day? Do you fail to acknowledge their anointing because you’ve seen them at their worst, or seen them grow up, or seen them fall a few times? Just because you know them as your friend, your mother, your son, or your colleague doesn’t negate the fact that they could be a live power line.

These people we know intimately are no different than the people we sometimes put on pedestals. We tend to clamor for these “big” people to speak to us or pray for us, but we look right past the people we see every day. These “big” people are really not that much different than you and I—they contain the same God that lives on the inside of every single person that is born again. And I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it, but these faith giants probably deal with the some of the same shortcomings, stumbling blocks, and perception problems that you and your friends and families face. After all, these giants of the faith are somebody’s friend, somebody’s mother, somebody’s son.

It is much easier for us to honor the people we view from afar because we probably don’t know their every weakness or know who they were before they became the person we see now. We can honor them (or their ministry) much easier because we usually only see the good stuff and hear about their best moments. But I submit to you that the very people that you do life with can hold the miracle in your life that you are looking for if you will choose to start honoring them for who they are in the Lord. And that means you honor them fully…let me explain what I mean:

Let’s say I get to see one of my uncles a few times a year at family gatherings. I’ve known him my entire life. He has watched football with me, taken me to amusement parks, and bought me gifts at Christmas. I know him pretty well and have been around long enough (and heard enough stories from the family) to know his interests, how he used to be, and what he is like now. Now let’s say this uncle is a preacher. He travels around and preaches the Gospel. He is a great family man and loves his wife. I have the opportunity to approach this man in a several different ways. I can honor him as 1) the guy who grew up with my mother and tormented her; 2) my uncle that I’ve always known; 3) a man who probably doesn’t care all that much for money; 4) a provider for his family who is faithful to his wife, 5) a man of God who has led countless people to the Lord; etc, etc, etc. The way in which I choose to honor him is equivalent to how much I can get from him.

Notice that in Matthew 10:41, Jesus says, “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.” Thus, by merely honoring a person according to their place in the Kingdom you can get everything that they have. In the case of my uncle, I can choose to honor as little or as much as I like, but whatever level I honor him that is how much I can receive. If I only look at him as ‘the guy who buys me presents at Christmas’ or ‘the funny uncle who makes fart jokes’ then I am missing something. If I don’t stop at the familiarity of knowing him and instead choose to honor him as a man of God who has spent his life to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ then I can receive so much more from him. The amount of respect and honor I give him is directly tied to how much I can receive from him.

It’s so much harder for us to see people that we know intimately as people who could be special…as people who could have a very unique place in the Kingdom. What if I said my uncle was Billy Graham? Would that change how you think I should view him? Guess what—Billy Graham IS somebody’s uncle. Somebody has the opportunity to only see him as their parent’s brother…only as a guy they see mostly at holidays. They get to choose if they will honor him as somebody they’ve always know intimately and heard crazy stories about his past, or honor him as being an evangelist to the nations.

You have the opportunity to look at the people around you differently than you have always done. These people aren’t only your friends and family; they are children of the Most High God. Choose to honor them fully and watch more life flow into your relationships.