It's Not How You Start

"But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."

1 Corinthians 9:27

"But he who endures to the end shall be saved." Matthew 24:13 It's the end of the game that counts, not the beginning.


King Joash of Judah started out great. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord and rebuilt the temple according to all the specifications of the law of Moses. The kingdom was prosperous under him and the people followed God. Then Jehoida the priest died. All too soon Joash forgot the council of this godly man and turned instead to the advice of the elders of the land. The nation soon turned against the Lord and to the worship of idols. Joash's heart was so full of wickedness that he ended up murdering Jehoida's sons whom God sent to warn him to repent. Later on, Joash's own servants murdered him for the brutality he showed to the son's of Jehoida.

King Uzziah was another one who started out well. The Bible says that he sought the Lord and God made him proper in wealth and military strength, so much so that "his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped" until he became strong. When he became strong, his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God." (2 Chronicles 26:15-16) To make a long story short, he got a little too big for his britches. In his pride and delusional self-reliance, he entered the temple to burn incense and the Lord struck him with leprosy. He died a leper. And do you know that neither of these kings were buried in the tombs of the kings. It's not how you start, it's how you finish.

I am a notoriously bad finisher. It is the discipline that the Lord has convicted me of this week. At the beginning of a project, I'm gung-ho, all in, let's do it! But about 60% of the way through, I get distracted or amused with something else. I lost interest in what I started and no longer care about seeing it through to completion. Or I become compulsive about it and take it to an unhealthy level of obsession that occupies my mind constantly in disproportionate ratios to any other thought or consideration. Either way, it's a bad ending. And that is how I have functioned through most of my adult life. . .and not-so adult life.

This one discipline or lack thereof, bleeds into every aspect of my life. Diet, guitar, art, Scripture memory, reading, relationships, ministries. . .even as I put my degree program on hold for a year to come to Potter's Field, I half expected to quit not because God was calling me to leave it but because I'm bored of it.

But you know what I can imagine? In my mind's eye, I can imagine the absolute thrill and ecstasy it must be to hear the voice of Jesus say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest." I want to hear those words. I want to feel the smile of my Father. It will probably be the same scene as when a child presents a picture to their parent. They tried to color in the lines, but the crayons got unruly. The started using "real" colors, but there were so many pretty ones that they just had to use them all. No, I'll never master this thing they call life, but I want to finish it well. Maybe not in first, but I'm sure going to try.

Application: I will finish memorizing Acts 20:22-32

I Did It On Purpose

"Do you not know that those who run in a race all run but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may attain it."

1 Corinthians 9:24

This verse screams one word at me: Intentional. It means to be "done consciously," "fully considered," "not impulsive," "done or acting in a careful or unhurried way." For me, that carries a lot of weight with it, because, quite honestly, I am not a person of intention.

I'm from New York. New Yorkers are always going somewhere. We often don't know where we are going or why, but by Jove, we're going there! I guess if you look like you know what you're doing, nobody will question you. I know so many people back home who are constantly moving but never necessarily doing anything. They had no intent, no purpose. I was one of them. I allowed myself to become so caught up in the rat race that I lost my vision. Even though at the end of the day I was tired and worn out from the nonstop activity, I felt useless. What value was there in what I was doing? I could point to a number of noble causes that I was involved in and most people would have said that I was mature young person but the truth remained that there was no intent behind by motions. I was aimlessly living and allowing life to happen to me. Let me tell you, that will drain the life out of you. . .fast!

I think one of my main issues with being intentional is in the definition. In order to intentionally do something, one has to carefully and fully consider it and approach it in an unhurried way. That means that you know what you're getting into. You've weighed the cost and determined that it is worth it. Being intentional holds the implications of commitments. Jesus said that whoever puts his hand to the plow and turns back is not worthy of the kingdom of heaven. In Luke 14:28-32, He says,

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down and first count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it - lest after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build a tower and was not able to finish it.' Or what king, going to war with another king, does not sit down and first consider whether he is able to with 10,000 meet him who comes against him with 20,000? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation an asks for conditions of peace."

So should my life be, intentional and committed. No one wins a race on accident. I want to run this race of faith in such a way that I might attain the prize.

Not Worth It?

"I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be a partaker of it with you."

1 Corinthians 9:22b-23

While reading the Principles for Christian Service book a few weeks ago, a certain line struck me. The author first quotes 2 Corinthians 4:5 which says, "For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake." Then he makes this statment, "We serve God's people, not for our sake, or even for their sake, but for Jesus' sake." Wow, that's pretty incredible. I guess it links back to the "whatsoever you've done to the least of these, you've done it unto Me."



The Lord has been so gracious in dealing with me on this issue. My inclination is to not like people. It's not necessarily that I particularly dislike them, I just don't like them. I tend to think the worst and keep my expectations low. I've learned a lot about that in recent days but before I go there, what is God's summation of the humanity?

"The heart is decietful above all thins and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Genesis 6:5

Oh, but that's the God of the Old Testament. The Jesus of the New Testament would never say something like that! He just wants us all to get along. Really?

"Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Matthew 12:34

And you don't even want to know what He said to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, or how He cleansed the temple, or how the apostle Paul quoted the Old Testament, as well as said some of his own things about the wickedness of humanity. No, mankind is certainly basically bad. However, the reality of man's unworthiness does not effect God's response to us. In fact, it was the reality of our unworthiness that made Christ go to the cross. Had we been worthy, He wouldn't have needed to come.

"For when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. . .But God demonstrates His won love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans5:6,8

Jesus only ever did the things that please the Father. He spoke what the Father told Him to speak, He did what the Father wanted Him to do. Yes, Jesus loves us but He also set a precident for us in our attitude towards service. Ministry isn't about us or even about "them." It's all about Him.

Somedays, there are just some people who don't seem "worth it" to me. It is especially at those times that I need to remember to do all things as unto the Lord. After all, if Jesus died for me, the epitome of unworthiness, how much more should I be willing to die for others.

Application: Today, I will serve others even when I don't particularly want to or feel that they don't deserve it.

Whose Righteousness

And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith."

Philippians 3:9

I don't know, maybe I am one of those fanatic, right-wing extremists but I happen to believe in hard work and personal responsibility. I was raised in a home where that was valued and taught. Once upon a time, my family qualified for government assistence. Of course, we never accepted that because my parents believed in hard work and living within our means. We did without, we skimped and scraped. We always had food on our table and a roof over our heads. My dad worked as many hours as he had to to see to that. We were always provided for.


Now I continue to live that kind of life. I've worked in some capacity since I was able. Before coming to Potter's Field I worked a full time job on top of college course. I refused to incur student loans. I paid my tuition out of my own pocket. When I needed a car I bought it for cash with my money that I'd saved. It's nothing fancy, just a 2000 Daewoo station wagon. It's got its personality flaws but it's my car. I bought it. I pay my own insurance. It's mine. It belongs to me. I work hard for what I want/need and if I can't afford it, I do without until I can afford it. Simple as that.

It's that self-reliance, pull-myself-up-by-my-own-bootstraps mentality that makes this verse difficult to me. Why would I want righteousness from God when I can have my own righteousness? Well, there's a very big problem with my righteousness - it comes from the law, the law that I cannot keep.

"For as many are of theworks of the law are under the curse; for it is written, 'Cursed is everone who does not continue in all the things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.' But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for 'the just shall live by faith.' Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them."

Galations 3:10-12

The problem with my righteousness is that I am incapable of keeping the whole law 100% of the time. And in the sight of a holy God, anything less than perfection is filthy rags. Seems like a high standard? An unattainable objective? It is. Because the standard is not Joe Shoe sitting next to you; it's Jesus. As a perfect God, He cannot allow imperfection otherwise He ceases to be perfect.

But His mercy is so great, He does not leave me to my own filthy rags. He offers me His own righteousness. He fulfilled the whole of the law, thereby becoming the perfect sacrifice for my sins. So the choice is mine. I can either be found in my own filthy, stinky rags, like a ragged street urchin or I can be found in Christ, robed in His righteousness, clean and pure in the eyes of God, not of my own merit or effort but only because of what He's already done for me.

"For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according tot he flesh but according to the Spirit."

Romans 8:3-4

Application: Tonight before bed I will spend time meditating on Psalm 4, which speaks of the God of my righteousness.

Rubbish

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

Philippians 3:8

            I can remember when I was a little girl, staring up at a poster of names of Jesus. Not all His names, mind you, but a lot of them, at least, to a little girl they were a lot. In those younger, innocent days, I wanted to study every one of them. I wanted to know Jesus in every aspect of His name. Then I got older and distracted. The frame on the poster broke and it sat between the wall and the couch for who knows how long. I heaped up for myself work and school, this and that and eventually forgot about the names of Jesus. Now I’m in NoWhere, Montana with nothing to grab my focus except Christ. Actually, in one of our classes we are reading through the life of Christ and writing down the names/attributes of Jesus. Often times the whiteboard is completely filled. Funny how the past comes back to haunt you. J

            Derailing from that train of thought for a moment, it’s not that the things that distracted me were bad necessarily, although I certainly added plenty of “bad” to my list of things to do. Regardless, they were distractions, distractions from the best thing, distractions from Jesus. In the vast scheme of things, they were rubbish.

           

            “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of ME. And he who loves son or daughter more than ME is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” Matthew 10:37-38

            God doesn’t want us to not love people. On the contrary, He commands it! Not only are we called to love people but our enemies, no less. But if we love people more than we love God, um, that we’re going to have a problem. Counting those things as rubbish, we hold them loosely, not counting them worthy to get between us and the Lord.

            But when those things are laid down at the feet of Jesus, He blesses us more than we would ever imagine. He restored to Job wealth and family. He will restore to us in the ways we’d never suspect. But more than that, we gain Christ. He is the prize. He is the pearl of great price. He is the treasure that we seek. And as we gaze into His face, all the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Application: Today I will make a list of 3 things that I am holding onto and lay them down at the foot of the cross.

O Self Die

“So likewise you, when you have done all those things that were commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.”

Luke 17:10

            “O self, die!” That was Amy Carmichael’s fervent prayer throughout. From the perspective of the world, she lived a life of sacrifice, self-denial and charity. But she and God knew what went on in the confines of her heart and the secrecy of her mind, and until every fiber of  body, mind and spirit was dead indeed to sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus her Lord, she would continue to pray that prayer: O self, die.

            Amy saved nearly 1000 children from the Hindu temples where priests stole their innocence and abused their bodies. Many times, she took great risk in doing so, bringing not only opposition from the Indian government but also from the occupying British. Endangering herself and all those for whom she cared for and worked with, her faith seemed great in the eyes of the world, but I believe that at the end of the day she would have said of herself, I am nothing more than an unworthy servant, only doing what I have been told to do. O self, die!

            The great apostle Paul struggled with the same concept. Paul, who endured tribulations, needs, distress, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, sleeplessness, fastings and shipwrecks, battling with the self?? O yes!

           

            “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. . .For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice . . . For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my min, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:15, 17-20, 22-24)

Translation: O self, die!

            But is there never a time for a little self gratification? A little comfort, a little indulgence, a little pleasure? No. When I belong to Jesus my delight is in His Word, my feasting is on the goodness of my Lord and my comfort comes from the God of all comfort. Self gratification is put to death. There is no room for a double throne. This is not a democracy; it is a dictatorship, a benevolent dictatorship but a dictatorship nonetheless.

            But what glory lies at the end of the road when we follow in the steps of our Savior. His death transcend into life, and life more abundantly than anything we’ve ever known before.

            “Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

O Self, Die!!

Application: I will memorize Acts 20:22-32 over the next 10 days.

Two Great Examples

“But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink.”

Luke 17:8

            My dad is probably the hardest working man I’ve ever known. He works 60+ hours a week between 2 jobs, one of which is just to pay taxes! He has an endless number of projects going on around the house, from building a shed out of scrap wood and nails to finishing the basement. He makes time to have coffee with my mom everyday and is always available for his children, whether it’s talking, taking us turtle hunting or digging an underground bunker. As if that wasn’t enough, he is actively involved in street ministry and political activity. He is an active voice for the persecuted church and he fights the social ills of our community as a regular contributor to the editorial page of the paper. He is a busy man.

            Jesus was also a man pulled in a million different directions. One particular sequence of events takes place beginning in Matthew 14. Jesus gets news that his cousin John has been beheaded by King Herod. “When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him . . . and when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude, and He was moved with compassion for them. . .” He heals them, feeds them and sends them away and then goes up on a mountain to pray. What happens? The disciples are caught in a storm and He has to go rescue them. When they get to the other side of the lake, the mend recognize Him and bring out their sick. He heals them, has a confrontation with the Pharisees, an interaction with a Canaanite woman, the He departs, skirts the Sea of Galilee, goes up on a mountain and sits down. “Then a great multitude came to Him having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet.”

            At what point in time does Jesus get to say, “Alright. Enough is enough already!” How many times does He have to teach them, heal them, feed them, and touch them before He earns the right to rest and be alone? The fact is He always had that right. But He emptied Himself and took on the form of a bondservant.

            What a lesson for ministry. What a lesson for life! In John 13:16, Christ says, “Assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.” If Christ never put His own wants/desires before others, what makes me think that I have the right to do so? I am no longer my own.

            1 Corinthians 7”23 says, “You are bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 states, “For the love of Christ compels, because we judge thus; that if Christ died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” And of course, that epic verse in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

            It seems like the master in this verse is asking a lot out of his servant. But that is what a servant does: he works. As Monica pointed out yesterday, being a servant is not a 9-5 jig, 5 days a week. It’s all day everyday. But if the God of glory denied Himself, how much more must I? Just know this: to he who is diligent at the task set before him, God rewards. The faithful soldier gets the approval of the higher ups, the persistent athlete gets the crown and the hard-working farmer gets to eat dinner first.

            As my dad says, let’s get to heaven tired; we have all eternity to rest.

Application: To day I will write a note to my dad, thanking him for being such an amazing example of a true servant of God.

Where Do I Stand?

“And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?”

Luke 17:7

            Jesus has just finished telling His disciples that if they have faith the size of a mustard see, they can, in a sense, move mountains! Wow. Pretty heady stuff. But before the disciples get too puffed up, Jesus quickly deflates them, reminding them that they are only servants. It is their job to work the field, tend the sheep, fix the food and serve it. Regardless of how hard they work, their master will never serve them.

            We are living in a strange time. Christianity has become a mishmash of self help psychology and instant gratification. God has been displaced from His position of Almighty and morphed into some kind of grandfatherly Santa Claus look-alike, a genie in a bottle whose sole existence is to grant our wishes. The trendy theology in the church today is that if you, the Christian, has enough faith God is obligated to respond in such-and-such a given way. Whoa! Hold on one minute! God is obligated?? Really? Last time I checked, God was indebted to no one.

           

When Job demanded an explanation from the Almighty, He responded like this:

“Who is this who darkens council by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer Me . . . . Would you indeed annul My judgments? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty. Disperse the rage of your wrath; look on everyone who is proud and humble him; tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together; bind their faces in hidden darkness. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you.”

(Job 38:1-3, 40:7-14)

            Man, it’s time we remembered that God is God! He is an all consuming fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, beloved. Now that being said, He also is not a stingy God. He rewards the righteous and keeps His promises but it is merely because He says He will. He is obligated to no one but Himself.

            But you see that right there is what sets biblical Christianity so far apart from all other religions. Being God and obligated to no one, He willingly bestows His love on a rebellious creation, giving us all things freely to enjoy. He stoops to lift the lowly and gives grace to the humble. Never confuse His mercy as a sign of weakness. Never allow your opinion of yourself to become so high and mighty that you forget who He is.

Application: Today I will approach my On The Mount time with a healthy view of who God is.