Monthly Archives: September 2014

Faith, General

Pause for Peace

One of my worst habits is running ahead of God. I have been working on breaking it, but self-sufficiency will always be my greatest faith hurdle. I get an idea or find a solution or make a decision and I run with it. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.

The problem is not with how it turns out. The problem is that I am leaning on my own understanding. I’m relying upon myself. I’m only thinking about my own will.

Both in the Lord’s prayer and in his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed for God’s will to be done.

Are we praying for the same thing?

In Ephesians 5:15-17, Paul gives a strong caution against my worst habit: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

When Paul talks about our walk, he is referring to how we live. Look carefully at how you live. And live wisely. “Wise” in the Greek means wise in a practical sense. It refers to someone whose actions are governed by piety (reverence for God) and integrity.

When I look at my actions, I can say that I act with integrity and that I am rather practical about things. The problem is that the formula for real wisdom requires a reverence for God in all that I do. That would be the missing ingredient when I run ahead. Even if it works out well. Even if it works out great. It still isn’t wise because I wasn’t acting with Godly reverence. I wasn’t considering him. I wasn’t consulting him. I wasn’t respecting him.

Instead, I was being foolish – senseless, stupid, rash. The exact thing that Paul is telling us to avoid. Be careful! Don’t be foolish! Because being foolish is not the best use of our time. Such a limited resource like time needs to be used wisely. Acting without a thought for God would not be that. No, instead, we need to understand the will of God.

In my research, my favorite discovery was the meaning of the word “understand” in the Greek. It means to bring together your perception with the thing being perceived. If I am trying to perceive the will of God, then I need to bring my perception to his will (the thing being perceived).

That means that I need to adjust my thoughts, my understanding to the truth, to what is real, to the actual thing. Too many times, we try to shape the truth to fit our perception rather than shaping our perception to fit the truth.

If we are trying to perceive the will of God, we have to bring ourselves to it. That requires humility. That requires molding yourself to him.

It also requires that you stop trying to figure everything out on your own – including God’s will. God’s will belongs to him. We can’t figure it out, force it out, or logic it out. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So, we must remember…

His will is for him to reveal, not for us to discover.

We could easily treat God’s will like another piece to the puzzle we are trying to solve. We still try to do it in our own way and time and strength.

That is foolish.

It isn’t wise.

It isn’t understanding.

In order for God to reveal his will, we have to go to him. We have to be still, be quiet. We have to listen. That’s how I am working to break the habit of running ahead.

I build in a pause.

I pause to listen, to check in. If I don’t get an answer, I prolong the pause. I don’t unpause until I feel a sense of peace. Not peace about the situation, but a serenity in my next step. A peace that only comes from knowing the will of God.

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul shares a prayer for them from a fellow Colossian, saying: “that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God” (Col. 4:12).

Mature means complete, finished. It is living wisely.

Fully assured means totally convinced. It is understanding (molding your perception to the thing being perceived).

He prayed that we may be complete and completely convinced in God’s will.

That is how we should be. Complete and completely convinced in the will of God, not just your own.

Don’t act, don’t move until you are.

Instead, build in a pause for peace.

Faith, General

Take Cover

The oddest thing happened to me the other morning. I couldn’t get the image of an umbrella out of my head. I was pretty much forced to ponder it for far longer than I would have liked. But, the more I thought about it, the more that I realized how God is actually pretty similar to an umbrella.

Before you think me too crazy, consider the idea for a moment. Doesn’t God act like an umbrella for those who draw close enough to him to be covered by his protection?

Psalm 91:1-4 reads, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.”

The psalmist refers to God as a shelter, a refuge, a fortress, a cover, and a shield. I’m pretty sure that my umbrella idea falls in the same category – God promises to protect us.

He just doesn’t promise to protect us from everything. No, instead, he promises two things.

First is protection from the snares of the fowler and the deadly pestilence. Exciting stuff, huh?

Seriously though, I know that the metaphor is slightly lost on us because we don’t go around building snares for fowl (aka birds) and we don’t worry that much about some weird pestilence creeping in and wiping us out. But, back in the day of our psalmist, those images meant a great deal.

So, what then, do they mean to us? What is God promising to protect us from in 21st century?

Snares are traps and tricks designed to get you stuck. We all have plenty of those lying in wait. There are snares, traps, tricks, and all sorts of temptations out there ready to trip us up. The promise to protect us from this threat can be found in the New Testament too.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

This is the verse that many people misquote, claiming that God will not give you more than you can handle. That’s not what the Bible says. Of course God gives you more than you can handle. Because if you could handle everything on your own, then you wouldn’t need him!

No, the Bible promises that you will not be tempted beyond what you can handle and that God will always provide an escape from that temptation. He will protect you from being snared, as long as you are close to him and remain under his protection. If you choose to wander out from underneath his wing of protection, like those silly little chicks that wander off on their own and put themselves at risk for harm, then you will have a harder time of it.

Stay under the cover of God’s wing and you will be protected from the snares and traps of the Enemy.

You will also be protected from that deadly pestilence. Pestilence is plague and disease. In Scripture, those are often symbols for the spread of evil.

Ain’t that the truth of it?! Evil does spread like a disease. And God promises to protect you from being overcome by the pestilence that is evil.

In Romans 6, Paul talks about how we are no longer slaves to sin, but children of God. We are not bound by sin and evil anymore. We have been set free. That doesn’t mean we can’t continue to indulge in it. That doesn’t mean that we won’t be affected by it.

If we choose to stay close to God, tucked nicely under his wing, then we won’t be overcome by it. No matter what it tries to do, it will not win.

Again, God isn’t promising that nothing bad will happen. Evil will still hurt those we know and love. Consequences of the bad choices we and others make will still be there. But, evil will not win. It will not overtake us.

As long as we are under God’s wing. And that is the second part of the promise. We will always have a place under his wing.

In Matthew 23:37, Jesus used the imagery of a mother hen and her chicks, lamenting about how often he would gather us together like “a hen gathers her brood under her wings.”

We are like those silly chicks. We get curious. We get tempted to venture out on our own. We think we know better or know enough. So we wander away.

I hope that you have figured out that sticking close to God and remaining under his wing is a far better life than wandering on your own, but even if you are still figuring that out and experiencing the consequences of being out from under the cover of his protection, God is waiting with his arms open to you. He is waiting for your return. You have no idea how often he would gather you back up under his wing.

This is the reason that his faithfulness is called a shield and a buckler by our psalmist.

To be honest, I had to look up what a buckler was because I was pretty sure that the writer wasn’t describing someone who makes buckles. I found that a buckler is a large shield that curves so that it completely covers a person.

So, not only is God’s faithfulness a shield, but it is a shield big enough to cover us. Just like a wing. Just like an umbrella. He is the shield that protects us from the snares of the Enemy; from the spread of evil.

It is no wonder, then, that when Paul talked about the armor of God, he called our faithfulness in God a shield too. In fact, it is a shield that extinguishes the flaming darts of the evil one (Eph 6:16). Our faith in God draws us close to him, under the cover of his protection. So, in reality, the shield is his faithfulness to us. Our faith just puts us underneath it.

So, you have a choice. As ever. As always.

Do you choose option A – God, or option B – not God? That’s seriously what it comes down to.

Do you choose truth (aka God) or do you choose to wander away toward lies (aka not God)?

Do you choose faith or the trap of fear and doubt?

Do you choose love or the evil taint of hate and discord?

Do you choose humility or the pestilence that is pride?

Do you choose to take cover under the wing of God’s protection or… not?

Faith, General

Lost Life, Found Life

The other day, I read a passage of Scripture that held such a juxtaposition, I was totally intrigued and couldn’t seem to move past it until I pondered it for a few days.

That passage is Matthew 16:24-26:

“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?’”

The juxtaposition was the two distinct ideas of what it means to lose your life. Lose your life one way and have it saved. Lose your life another way and have it forfeited.

How do we know if we are losing it in the right way?

That is the thought that kept me hooked. How can I lose my life in the way that leads me to be saved? What does that mean? What would it look like?

I looked up the word “lose” in the ancient Greek and found that it is actually about destroying the connection that one thing has to another. Kind of like losing a call on your phone. It really isn’t lost. The connection was destroyed.

I then looked up the word “life” and found the Greek word “psyche.” After reading through its definition I realized that it correlates in a really profound way with how the soul is understood in ancient Hebrew.

You see, in Hebrew, there are three words for soul. Each word correlates to a different aspect of our soul; a different layer.

“Nephesh” is our life force. It is the part that is connected to our life on earth. It is being physically alive.

“Ruach” is our personality, our will, our thoughts and feelings. It is our heart. It is what makes us each unique and special.

“Neshama” is the part that was made in the image of God. It is the part that we think about when we consider dying and going to Heaven. It is the part that communicates with the Holy Spirit. It is the aspect of our soul that longs for the immaterial, the spiritual, and eternity.

Going back to the Greek word, “psyche,” it encompasses both Ruach and Neshama. It is the seat of our feelings and the essence that differs from the body, continuing after death. It is our heart and soul.

So, when Jesus is talking about losing your life, he is saying that you need to destroy the connection that your heart and soul has to…

That’s the next question. Destroy the connection to what?

He says that we need to lose our life for his sake. I believe that means we have to destroy our connection to anything that isn’t him. Destroy the connection your heart and soul has to anything else for his sake. That means, destroy the connection to anything that is not of God; to anything ungodly; to anything worldly.

Why?

So you can find it.

Jesus said that if you lose your life for his sake, then you will find it. You will actually find your true heart and soul when you disconnect from the world.

You see, we are only made whole in our connection to Christ. It is the only way to find your true self. But, you have to disconnect from the world before you can fully connect to Jesus. He wants all of you. There is no middle ground. He won’t share.

Just check out these two verses:

James 4:4, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world, makes himself an enemy of God.”

1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

This is talking about being in the world, but not of the world. These apostles are telling you to maintain a separation from the world in order to be fully connected to Jesus. The alternative is to remain connected to the world, but an enemy of God. What good is that? What good comes from that?

I think that is why the next thing Jesus says is, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”

Stay connected to the world, and you get to gain the world and all it has to offer. You get to have the world, but not God. The word translated to “soul” in this verse is still the Greek word “psyche.” So, you end up forfeiting your heart and soul to the world.

The word “forfeit” means to sustain damage or injury; to suffer loss. Remember that we are only made whole, made right in Christ. We only find our true self in connection with Jesus.

By rejecting that connection, instead choosing to remain connected to the world, you damage and injure yourself because you don’t get to be made whole. Instead, you continue to be fractured and broken. You don’t get to find your true self. Instead, you remain a false self.

So, there you have it. The juxtaposition turns out to be a choice. You can gain the world and lose your soul or you can lose the world and save your soul.

You really can lose your life in the right way, in the way that leads it to be saved. You just have to lose it in Christ. You have to destroy the connection you have to this world and connect with Jesus instead.

What it all boils down to is this: A lost life is a found life.

But only if you do it all for Jesus’ sake and no one and nothing else’s.