Greed

That word has always defined for me what Wall Street traders display or the leaders of nations aim for in the quest for power.  It's that strange force that seems to move a person from giving into getting.  But over the years, I've watched its acceptance and even its promotion become more and more pronounced in our culture.  "Money, money, money!" the song goes!  

Oh, we say we don't want to be greedy, but when "push comes to shove," our culture does emphasize the "shove!"  And I am not immune to its charms.  I realize I have far more opportunities to be greedy than I'd care to admit.  

From the simple, "I'm craving the last pink animal cookie in the bag, and I'll do whatever it takes to keep you from eating it" to the more insidious, "I hunger for influence and prestige so people notice and pay attention to me" -- it's sway can permeate my thoughts.  If we are honest with ourselves,  greed affects all of us, even the most generous person is prone to the lure it dangles right before our noses.

This morning, my quiet time devotions in the book of Colossians, chapter three, in the Bible led me to the real danger in greed.  I've read this letter from Paul to the church at Colossae numerous times, but somehow I've glossed over this topic.  Is it because I thought I was somehow not a participant?  Maybe I just didn't think it was that significant an issue in my life.  

Whatever the case, the words in one simple sentence in the passage I was contemplating really caught me off guard...

"Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world." (Col. 3:5b NLT)

I abruptly stopped, as if I'd never read these words before!  "Idolater?  What's that mean?  Certainly not in my precious pink cookies, right?!"  Yet the clarification of that word describing someone who worships the "things of this world" brought this into focus for me, and the thought entered my mind...

"Possessions are an empty promise."  The world's system assures us that greed is good - that in its pursuit, we will always and completely be satisfied.  No... whatever the possession is: money, power, influence, or yes, even baked treats - all are unfulfilling both in promise and practice.

 Today, it may be a good exercise to search out: "Who or what in my life am I truly worshiping?"  I know with God's help and our sincere question put before Him, He will stay His anger at this sin (vs. 6) and guide us to get rid of it.  "In this new life [of ours in Jesus], it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free.  Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us." (Col. 3:11 NLT)

While greed tempts us constantly, we have the answer in Him!  Lord, help us move from getting into giving today and remind us that You alone satisfy.  You are the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn. 14:6), and we remember You gave Your life for us so we might gain it all in You! Amen and amen!

In Honor of Mother's Day 2023

Every year we get to honor the women that birthed us or fed us, changed our diapers, nurtured and loved us – or those who functioned in that role. While no mother is perfect, these women helped us get to this stage of life.  My Mom, Chris, has been enjoying heaven for nearly six years.  

This is my favorite picture of us, and it sits on my shelf in my office.  Every day, I am reminded of how much she invested in me – not just physically and emotionally but spiritually.  

Right after I was ordained at Valley Christian Church back in ’97, she told me she always knew I’d become a pastor.  She’d prayed for it!  Even when, in my late teens, I’d rebelled against everything religious and wandered far from God, she remained hopeful.  That desire to see me grow in Christ was backed up by living a life that demonstrated His goodness.  

At Mom’s celebration of life, I got to emphasize a few lessons she taught me about growing spiritually.  To begin with, she taught me patience.  I don’t know if it’s just a guy thing, but we men generally lack this quality.  Mom had a very long fuse that she kept hidden.  It took a lot to get her to explode.  However...!

My sister & I have a great relationship, but with 2 young kids on her small salary, we had to share a room, which led to tension!  “Mom, she started it!”  “No, he hit me first!”  And yet she could solve our problems, and we’d go back to playing.  

But, when we crossed the line, and there was one, we knew it!  She would raise her hands up in the air, shake them, and say at the top of her voice: “One of you just hurry up and kill the other one so I can have some peace and quiet!”  Yeah, that made us stop in a hurry!  Later on, we all laughed at it.  She said it was her tactic for us to get along.  

Mom couldn’t understand our quarreling slash loving relationship because she was an only child.  So, she taught us to love each other because we were all the siblings we’d get.  We needed that lesson because we endured many painful years of abuse from our stepfather and stepsiblings.  But Mom was our rock to see us through it, with God’s strength, teaching us to love without reservation when others in our lives didn’t do that for us.  

She didn’t know how God would intervene, but she knew He would.  Mom demonstrated a tough endurance that persevered!  She taught us what complete reliance upon the Lord looked like!  

But she was also humble.  When we were involved in a major auto accident, Mom never physically recovered from her injuries but never let others know the pain she endured.  Why?  Because to Mom, you were the most important person in the room, not her!  She had a selfless quality that I know Jesus honors.  She exemplified how to be an amazing mother, balancing work and caring for my aging grandmother.

Two days before she died, I asked her what she wanted people to remember about her.  She simply said: “That I once was Saul, but now I’m Paul.”  And I thought, wow, she’s teaching us even as she leaves this earth!  Her regrets of running from Jesus in her younger years had now been radically transformed into a witness of God’s grace to grow a person spiritually. 

And now, she is experiencing what Paul did.  2nd Timothy 4:6-8 says, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

May we keep learning the spiritual lessons Mom taught - over and over again, until we, too, receive that crown as we meet Jesus face to face!

Pandemic Panacea

During this pandemic, I've learned a new skill.

No, it's not becoming an expert at facilitating Zoom meetings - even though I've done my fair share!  It's not scoring the best deal on hard-to-find hygiene products - even though our store shelves are stocked full of TP again!  It's not even the creativity needed to balance a host of opinions about how to "do" church.

I've become adept at recognizing people from just half or a third of their face exposed!  Have you, like me, noticed your ability to identify your friends even though this vital part of their personality is hidden? 

The first place I generally look at someone is smack-dab in the eye, which according to most social experts is the place you want to make contact first.  However, my gaze goes to their face in general.

You can tell a lot about a person by what their face says.  Happy, sad, or mad, irritable or indifferent - facial expressions and cues are a window to the soul.  For me, it's the smile underneath the mask that I love "seeing" - and it's only through their eyes!  

I never realized how much my eyes reveal my smile!  And I love to experience this gift from someone, even though it's not visibly apparent.  We didn't ask for them to be masked, but we've voluntarily covered them in order to protect others either from disease or from fear.  And it has been a wonderful gift - to smile through the barrier.  This has been my pandemic panacea - to "see" these smiles.   

But even more has been the smile bestowed on me by the Lord!  We often don't think of God smiling since He is Spirit.  The Bible has a unique way of expressing it, though - as "making His face shine upon us."

Most notably, these words are found in the words God gave to Moses and Aaron to bless the people of Israel... Numbers 6:24–26 (NIV84) - "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Rick Warren, in his popular book, The Purpose Driven Life, mentions this and the five ways we can make Him smile:

∙ God smiles when I love Him supremely.
∙ God smiles when I trust Him completely.
∙ God smiles when I obey Him wholeheartedly.
∙ God smiles when I praise and thank Him continually.
∙ God smiles when I use my abilities.

He used a quote from one of my all-time favorite movies, Chariots of Fire.  Runner and missionary, Eric Liddell said, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel God’s pleasure.”  Everything we do can solicit the "smile" of God if we commit everything we are and do to His glory.  

And for me, that has been the cure for my pandemic blues!  How about for you?

A Prayer for the New Year

I thought I might offer you a snapshot of my prayer time with the Lord this morning. It isn’t profound or prolific. But I felt compelled to share it as we enter 2021 together.

The End. This year, Lord...one of the worst ever by some estimations, and yet it is not. All a matter of perspective. How will we choose to look at it? A divided country politically, one that’s been on fire, a bankrupt government morally, a country plagued by disease... OR, one in which we got to learn new ways of serving one another – tangible thoughts and deeds of love – and people who met You for the first time, the gift of eternity with You. How did we contribute to that?  

Lord, we can still count our blessings though we face loss and uncertainty. The one blessing I am so grateful for? You, Jesus… You were handed over to die because of my sin, our sins, and You rose from the dead to make me, us, right with God. (Rom. 4:25) No amount of turmoil or hardship or disappointment can change that, Lord! You still rule and reign, and we get to participate in that with You as co-heirs, both now and forever! Therefore, since by my faith I’ve been made right with You, I can have peace in my heart and life because of nothing I did, but what You did. You have brought me into the highest place of honor and privilege – I stand here now with you – confident, joyful at the glory awaiting. (Rom. 5:1-2)

Maybe, Lord, a bit of that is to come in this New Year. I believe it! And I’m counting on You, as You count on me! I will rejoice when I encounter difficulties since I know You’ve allowed them to teach me endurance and then strength of character which then makes me all the more sure of my salvation! (Rom. 5:3-4)

I am not at all disappointed in You as I am with the world. Its promises never satisfy me like Yours… The promise of security, a political hope, a cure…no, all these fade in comparison to just how much You love me – love us – because You’ve confirmed it! Thank You, Holy Spirit, for filling my heart today with Your love, ready to face the future and bless whomever you place in my path. (Rom. 5:5)

Lord, I give You 2021 as my offering. How can I please You better this year? How can I yield more of myself and my wants, and take delight in Your plans and purposes? Oh Lord, I can be hopeful and optimistic! You have given me everything I need – in abundance! May You be glorified in me this year. Thank you for this gift of life. I love You.

The prayers I write in my quiet time are my thoughts to the Lord. But maybe today, since I felt prompted to share this, how might you echo some of these words from Scripture, as well, as your own communication with Him?  

Friends, we face uncertainty as the calendar changes. But it can be met with extreme confidence in Christ! As you look forward, what do you have to be thankful for? What changes in your relationship with Him do you want to make? And how might I pray for you?

The Emoji

I just learned that my Google Messages app will now support iPhone like emojis.  Thrilling…  OK, not really!  Why, you may ask?  I think I have enough emojis already!  How many do I really need?  I’ll probably peruse the new collection, but I’ll stick with my favorites, I think, because people know what I mean by now. 

I have a collection of smiley faces, sad faces, angry faces, and even ones that evoke, shall we say, rather vivid, bodily functions!  Most convey a specific meaning… no surprises there.  But one emoji possesses great power and tremendous complexity – the simple ♥ heart.

When I use this symbol, I can emote love, or friendship, or even that I like a certain post!  So what is it about the heart that makes us believe its sincerity?  How do you know I really mean it?  Is my heart even trustworthy?

That’s what God addresses in this oft-quoted passage in Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  So, it would seem that my heart isn’t reliable, according to God’s Word.  But why do I think it is?  Does this admonition from the Lord apply to us as Christians?  Are our hearts deceitful?  Then how can we truly love?

To understand this better, we need some context.  I am very grateful to John Piper for his insights to a caller on his radio program a while back who helped me see this clearly.  In the first part of this chapter, God sounds the warning, yet again, to rebellious Judah.  Vs. 1 – “Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.”

Remember, they had exchanged worship of God for idolatry and pagan immorality.  God said it would be because of their sin that they would lose their inheritance of the Promised Land, their wealth, and be sent into captivity – because they trusted in others rather than Him, depending on their own strength rather than His!

In contrast, God says, vs. 7 – “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. ⁸  He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

So, why do we as God’s people exchange the certainty of blessing by trusting in Him with the futility of operating under our own power?  That’s when we get to vs. 9.  Our human hearts are sick…influenced by deceit.  That’s why we trust in self vs. trusting in God.

He alone, vs. 10, searches our hearts and examines our minds, to accurately and graciously bless us according to who we are and what we do in response to His free gift of grace.

So, is my heart deceitful?  Yes, absolutely.  All of us were born with this desire to satisfy self over and above God.  But, the Bible says that when we accept this gift found only in Jesus Christ, He changes our hearts within us completely!

In Acts 15:8-9, God now doesn’t distinguish between us.  “God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them (the Gentiles) by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹  He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.”  (Emphasis mine)

When we come to Jesus, we are a new creation, 2 Cor. 5:17, the old has gone, the new has come!  God gives us a new heart because of His Spirit that dwells in us!  Somebody say “amen!”  And we become more and more like Him.

The next time you use that heart emoji, recall to mind the heart of Jesus for you and how your heart has been changed by Him!

Uncle

Growing up, one of the most dreaded games you might have played on the playground was one of the most painful.  In a test of strength, you would interlock fingers with someone and attempt to bend them backwards.  The winner was the one who lasted the longest under that subtle form of torture.  You yielded by yelling out the code-word, which was the name of the game: "Uncle!"

I was usually the shortest kid in grade school, and this game was a favorite among the bigger kids to flaunt their power and stature.  Because my fingers were small, I was thought of as an easy target to beat.  However, I could last a fairly long time, due to the fact my bony knuckles would dig into my opponent’s fingers!

But, of course, the sheer strength of my opponent would win out, and inevitably, I would call, “Uncle” and give in.  But some of those immature bullies wouldn’t cease bending my fingers, necessitating my repeated cries of “Uncle” until finally I begged for mercy!

This childish game can readily depict what we think the concept of mercy is all about – a submissive person who is held captive by a harassing tyrant, then released – with both fingers and feelings left numb and bruised.

I hadn’t thought of this childish game in years until I came across a signature section in my Journey with Jeremiah.  The prophet seems to be the victim, as the Lord commanded him not to marry or have children (Jer. 16:1-2).  The Jewish culture viewed marriage and child-rearing as not only a blessing to be enjoyed but as obligatory.  It was your responsibility!  

Here, a dominating God seemingly prohibits Jeremiah from fulfilling his societal duty with His restrictive command.  Admittedly, the game of Uncle entered my brain upon reading this verse!  Why would God do this to poor Jeremiah, a man who desired nothing more than to serve and be compassionate to his people.

We often talk a lot about the grace of God in our Christian lives but not a lot about His mercy.  For me, I think it’s because I associate mercy with this schoolyard game.  But what is it?  Grace has often been defined as “getting something I don’t deserve” – like when I get a hug when I really deserve a rebuke.  But mercy is the opposite: “not getting what I truly deserve,” meaning I don’t receive punishment for a wrong I have done.

So, what’s the deal with God and Jeremiah?  Instead of playing the tyrant, here, the Lord reveals His perfect compassion.  With the coming judgment against the people of Judah for their willful disobedience and abandonment of a godly lifestyle, God actually spares Jeremiah from the heartache of loss that will come through captivity, disease, famine and destruction by their enemies!  As a tender-hearted man, I think Jeremiah would have been torn to pieces to watch his family be consumed like this.

Wow, Lord, what wonderful mercy You offered Your servant!  He and his people, sinful at birth, deserved punishment for sin.  And yet, You spared Jeremiah that grief and anguish.  I, too, have strayed from You more times than I can count in over 50 years of life.  I stand condemned in my willful disobedience, as well.  And yet, You show how much You love me by sparing me the consequences of my sin when I commit my life to You.

I’m reminded of 1 Peter 1:3-7 (NIV).  I praise God because, “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴  and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, ⁵  who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷  These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 

The thing about God’s mercy – I may not see it until after the fact.  I may not have a tangible experience with it right now, but I do have the knowledge of it.  Through Jesus, He offers me hope, one that I can know right now – even through my trials and what I may perceive as injustices – and look to experience in person with Him on that Day.

I am grateful God compassionately spared Jeremiah.  And I am grateful He spares me from the wrath I deserve.  “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV)

When have you cried “Uncle” in your life?   How did you experience God’s mercy?  Why did you receive it?  How will you share His mercy with others today?

Delight

In our trying experiences with this horrible coronavirus lately, many of us have been doing a lot of praying!  We’ve been interceding for the sick, our beloved friends in healthcare and our first-responders who are serving on the front lines and government officials as they lead.  In the height of this pandemic, we may wonder... “When will things end?  What will it look like in the future?  When will my happiness return?” 

In my journey with Jeremiah this week, I noticed his struggle, interceding on behalf of his sick nation – not with physical illness but the spiritual decay of sin.  The people of Israel and Judah continued to willfully dishonor God in their thoughts and deeds.  And, they did not appreciate Jeremiah’s constant pleading for them to turn from wickedness and embrace the Lord! 

In chapter 15, Jeremiah was on their hit list, and he called out to God for protection.  The Lord answered Jeremiah in vs. 11 – “All will be well with you, Jeremiah.”  (NLT)  He would deliver His prophet because the people were headed for exile.  In those simple words, Jeremiah understood something, and as I read the words he prayed, I came away renewed in two ways.   

First, in the middle of asking for deliverance, vs. 16, he said: “Your words are what sustain me.  They bring me great joy and are my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty.”   I love how Jeremiah hung on the Word of God, realizing how much God’s Word nurtured his soul!  The voice of God kept Him going – not just being confident God would do what He said, but in moment-by-moment joy!  Was his situation rough?  You bet!  I think today is difficult... but I can’t imagine the lonely trials he endured in a nation filled with sinful apostasy where everyone seemingly was out to get him!

Are we delighting in the Word today? ... In His voice that speaks through the pages of Scripture, illuminated by the Spirit?  Let that sustain you as you live for Him!

Second, God also called Jeremiah to be the bearer of His name – to represent Him to the people.  In fact, in the Hebrew, the name Almighty means God of Hosts, of Heaven’s Armies!  God called him to reflect the power of God in the middle of his circumstances!

But Jeremiah complained.  He kept asking why, vs. 18.  “Why is my wound so incurable? Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook...like a spring that has gone dry.”  “Why, Lord, why?!”  I know I am tempted to do the same.  God then replied, vs. 19 – “If you return to me, I will restore you so you can continue to serve me. If you speak words that are worthy, you will be my spokesman.  You are to influence them; do not let them influence you!”   Oh, how often I continue complaining when all I need to do is trust in God’s word to me!  He will provide for my needs!  “I will never leave you, nor forsake you!”  (Hebrews 13:5) 

Family, God says those of us called to Christ are bearers of His image – “conformed to the likeness of his Son,” Romans 8:29 – to speak worthy words...so that others are influenced for Christ!  In my time with the Lord, my prayer has been this: “Lord, how can I be the bearer of Light this week, so others see You in me?”  

Will that be your prayer, too?  Will you be an influencer for Christ, not complaining about life, as we can do when faced with difficulty?  Allow His Word to sustain you so you delight in bearing His name!